Nithya Raman, a Los Angeles City Council member, says she’s running for mayor because she believes the city is headed in the wrong direction. Her campaign pairs a reform-heavy agenda—renter protections, housing expansion, and changes to homelessness and public
When Nithya Raman paused during a mayoral debate in Sherman Oaks, the moderator asked her what she needs to work on as a politician.
Her answer landed like a glimpse into the temperament of someone planning to lead a city where relationships are often the real currency. “What I know I need to keep working on is that in order to make sure that your ideas aren’t stopped. you have to invite people in before you try and put them forward. ” she said.
Raman’s bid for Los Angeles mayor is rooted in that same kind of conviction—and urgency. She entered the June 2 mayoral primary race right before the filing deadline. weeks after her endorsement for Mayor Karen Bass had been announced. In a statement. Raman said she knew the “last-minute entry into the race ruffled some feathers in City Hall. ” including among people she respects. Still. she said. she felt frustrated by the direction of the city and “don’t think it’s OK to wait four years to change course.”.
Her campaign now faces a tight political reality: Raman hasn’t won support from any of the 15 council members in the primary. where polls show she and former reality TV star Spencer Pratt are close for second place ahead of an expected runoff with Bass. All the other DSA-backed council members—Hugo Soto-Martínez, Ysabel Jurado and Eunisses Hernandez—have endorsed Bass.
Raman said she understands that her candidacy has come without the comfort of the usual power brokers. “I was an outsider when I first ran and I think I’ll be an outsider in this race and I’m OK with that,” she said after she announced her candidacy in February.
Her critics, though, say the outsider stance isn’t just branding. They point to a record of strained alliances and moments where her approach to politics has left people feeling unheard—while supporters argue she’s simply refusing to let strategy hollow out principle.
Renter protections and a sharper housing pitch
Raman is widely regarded as one of the smartest figures in City Hall, with a legislative résumé that includes work that reaches well beyond campaign slogans.
She helped initiate the city’s Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance in 2021 and led a push last year to update the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance, lowering the annual maximum allowable rent increases.
In her statement about why she ran. she also cited other accomplishments: passing “the strongest renter protections in America. ” lowering rent increases for the first time in 40 years. enacting a Sanctuary City ordinance to protect immigrants. creating a homelessness oversight bureau. and establishing independent redistricting to reform City Hall.
Yet on the campaign trail, Raman’s record is tangled with the way people describe her politics—especially the question her debate performance put plainly: whether she invites others in before she tries to move the city.
Her mayoral platform includes criticizing Bass’ Inside Safe program to address homelessness as too costly, while promising a data-driven approach for homelessness and other issues. She has also pointed to everyday problems like streetlights that are out and pothole-riddled roads.
On housing, she has promised to dramatically expand the creation of new housing, reduce red tape for developers, and introduce “gentle density” into single-family zoned neighborhoods.
She also says she wants to bring Hollywood jobs back to the city by lowering fees and streamlining permitting.
Before joining the council, Raman started a nonprofit called SELAH, which works to address the needs of homeless Angelenos in Silver Lake, Echo Park and Hollywood. Before that, she interned for the city, working to track how much Los Angeles was spending on its homelessness response.
A nonprofit founder, a late primary entry, and uneasy allies
Raman has drawn support from some progressive circles, and she has carried the backing of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America in past council elections. But her relationship with the DSA has been complicated.
She won her two elections to the council with the support of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Still, Leslie Chang, the co-chair of the DSA’s L.A. chapter, said Raman didn’t reach out to the group’s leaders for support until after she declared her candidacy. Chang said. “DSA sees politics as a collective. ” and that it should “never be about an individual doing something on their own.” Chang said she is backing Raman. but the DSA opted against an endorsement and simply recommended Raman to its members.
Raman declined to be interviewed for this story.
Within the council’s ecosystem, her candidacy has also collided with longstanding questions about whether she can work through conflict.
Those questions come through not as abstract critiques, but as specific memories from people who say they have watched her style sharpen over time.
In one story from the early days of her council career. Monica Rodriguez—who has endorsed Bass and is a frequent critic of Raman—took Raman out to dinner with their husbands at Momed in Atwater Village. Rodriguez said that even after Raman unseated her ally. David Ryu. in Council District 4—described as the first time a council candidate ousted an incumbent in 17 years—Rodriguez wanted to build a relationship.
But Rodriguez said she was taken aback by Raman’s attitude at their dinner. Rodriguez recalled Raman saying: “The only problem with this council is there needs to be 14 more just like me.” Raman does not remember saying that. and a spokesperson for Raman said it does not sound like something she would say.
Rodriguez’s account sets a tone that later echoes in other descriptions: that Raman can be persuasive and determined, but may not always soften her edges when she needs to win people over.
The hostile council moment that changed the air
Her reputation inside City Hall has also been shaped by the fallout from a major scandal during her first term: the release of a secretly recorded audiotape.
In that tape, three Latino members of the City Council—including the council president—could be heard making racist comments, including slurs against Blacks, Jews and Armenians. The members also discussed putting Raman’s district “in the blender” to make it harder for her to win reelection.
A former staffer for Raman, who asked for confidentiality to discuss dynamics on the council, said Raman “walked into such a hostile environment,” and added, “I don’t think it was any secret other council members had a high distaste for her the moment she walked in.”
The former staffer said that episode affected how Raman worked with other council members. They described Raman as having a sense of being bullied. perceiving opposition as bullying. and swinging between that interpretation and an opposite certainty they described as “extreme ego. ” where she would see herself as the only one right while others “can’t see it.”.
For opponents, that framing is simply another reason to doubt her ability to build alliances. For supporters, it’s part of the larger story of someone learning how to govern in a political environment they never fully trusted.
Debates with neighborhood groups, not just opponents
Beyond council politics, Raman has struggled to gain support from some neighborhood groups in her district.
Debra Matlock. who runs the Los Feliz Improvement Assn. said Raman’s office responds quickly to problems. but lacks the “warm bedside manner” that politicians use to endear themselves with constituents. Matlock contrasted Raman with the late Tom LaBonge, who represented the district from 2001 to 2015. Matlock said LaBonge knew people’s names, attended every improvement association meeting, and was always present.
Matlock said Raman usually sends a deputy. “I think there’s this long shadow of feeling like you were seen by LaBonge,” she said. “That is hard to get out from under.”
In the San Fernando Valley, a different version of the same complaint surfaced with the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. Board president Matt Epstein said the group was accustomed to regular meetings with the district council member, but that Raman had met with the board just twice in six years.
Raman and the homeowners group have also been at odds on housing policy. Raman believes the city must increase density in single-family neighborhoods, while the homeowners group would prefer to limit that kind of development to commercial corridors.
Epstein said the two sides have collided over homelessness too. He said Raman drew boos from the group in 2024 when she asserted that it wouldn’t make a difference for student safety if a homeless camp was located five feet or 500 feet from a school. Epstein said Raman rolled her eyes at the response when she was running for reelection at the time.
A spokesperson for Raman did not provide a response to the account.
Amos Marvel, the vice president of the Reseda Neighborhood Council, offered a counterpoint. Marvel said Raman has shown genuine concern about homelessness and housing issues in the district, and that her office was responsive during immigration raids over the summer.
“She’s smart as a whip and she’s listening and trying to work on things that are pragmatic and having real impact on people in our community,” Marvel said.
Inside the same debate over housing and homelessness, the conflict is about methods: whether responsiveness comes with credibility, and whether governing requires consensus as much as urgency.
“Not built consensus,” critics say, while allies defend her
Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. president Epstein criticized Raman directly. “It’s not about political differences,” he said. “A true leader is someone who leads. You need to build consensus and this person has not built any consensus.”
Bass brought that critique into the open during a Politico event last week. saying Raman “doesn’t know how to build relationships with her colleagues on council. ” which is why she “doesn’t have any support.” Bass added: “And if you want to be the mayor and you can’t get along with people who are your colleagues on council. I don’t know how you’re supposed to govern at all.”.
Raman’s supporters say the criticism misses what they see as her real strength.
Jesse Zwick, a Santa Monica City Council member and Raman’s former communications director, acknowledged her shortcomings in retail politics. Still, he said her decisions show courage: “She has the courage to do what she thinks is right and not just consider the political dynamics.”
But other details show how those choices have consequences for a city that runs on alliances.
From shifting public safety to the prison of labels
Raman’s positions on public safety have evolved over time, and that volatility has drawn frustration from more radical allies and also from the police officers’ union.
When she first ran for council, Raman called for transforming the LAPD into a “much smaller, specialized armed force.” She posted “defund the police” on Twitter in 2020, but she has since sometimes voted in favor of budgets that increase the department’s budget.
She has said the LAPD should not shrink any further, and said its size of about 8,600 officers is right. Still, she voted in January against hiring an additional 170 cops, citing budgetary concerns.
Raman opposed Bass’ 2023 contract for the police union, saying it would “bankrupt” the city, and she has cited the union deal often for budgetary issues.
The flip-flop label has also become part of the attacks. The Los Angeles Police Protective League released anti-Raman ads on social media calling her “Flip Floppin’ Raman.”
Supporters say her stance changes are about thinking through each issue on its own. But critics—including those on her left—say those changes don’t go far enough.
She has also shifted on no-camping zones. As a council member, she voted against dozens of zones, but during the mayoral debate with Bass, she said she would not stand in the way of council members approving them if she were elected mayor.
Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, said the changes amounted to “waffling.” She said the group wants to hold Raman to her word and that “Right now we haven’t been able to.”
Mike Bonin, a progressive former council member, described a different interpretation. “She looks at every issue independently,” he said. “She really needs to think through things. That’s completely reasonable and responsible.”
The politics of the moment, but also of procedure
Raman’s relationships with allies have been tested not only by broad ideological shifts, but by whether she brought people in before she pushed a decision forward.
In January, she introduced a council motion calling for reforms to Measure ULA, also known as the mansion tax. The tax applies to property transfers of more than $5.3 million and is intended to raise money for affordable housing production and homelessness prevention initiatives.
Raman supported ULA when it first passed, but later argued it was stopping needed development in the city because it applies not only to mansions, but apartment buildings as well. She said sellers of newer apartment buildings should be spared from the tax.
Some who worked on ULA said Raman didn’t consult them first. Cynthia Strathmann. executive director of Strategic Actions for a Just Economy. said she understood Raman would reach back out for more discussion before the motion went forward. and that “I was not happy it went forward in the way it did.”.
Still, Strathmann said Raman takes principled stances even when she disagrees or doesn’t consult the group. Strathmann said. “She very much takes positions based on what she thinks is the right thing. ” adding that on the positive side it doesn’t seem “very Machiavellian. ” but on the negative side “she doesn’t always stop to get input even from allies.” Strathmann said that has caused “hard feelings.”.
On Raman’s side of the issue, Azeen Khanmalek, who runs Abundant Housing LA and is a Raman supporter, said it was important that Raman put the motion forward. “Someone had to force the conversation,” Khanmalek said.
The council declined to take up Raman’s motion and instead sent it to committee, but later the council created another panel to study the tax and whether it needs to be reformed.
Where the race stands now
Raman, a graduate of Harvard and MIT, started her adult life as a child immigrant from India to the United States. Her education in urban planning followed. Her campaign has drawn interest quickly, and she was considered a top contender from the moment she entered the race.
But the current polling picture shows her hovering around second or third place as she battles with Pratt for an expected Nov. 3 runoff against front-runner Bass.
As she tries to move from policy to persuasion. the question her debate answer brought into view keeps returning in different forms: whether her ideas can survive long enough inside a political system built on relationships—and whether the outsider pitch can overcome the charge that. for years. she hasn’t invited enough people in before trying to move them.
Times staff writers Melissa Gomez and David Zahniser contributed to this report.
Nithya Raman Karen Bass Los Angeles mayoral primary Sherman Oaks homelessness LAPD rent stabilization Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance DSA Measure ULA housing policy