Nithya Raman unseats Karen Bass in Los Angeles: 52.1% to 47.9%, a 34,654-vote lead

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has lost her re-election bid to City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a democratic socialist, and conceded on Thursday, Nov. 5, two days after the Nov. 3 vote. The latest unofficial figures from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, relayed by FOX 11 Los Angeles and ABC7, show Raman with 429,450 votes (52.1%) to Bass's 394,796 (47.9%).

The numbers, and what they are

The margin is simple subtraction of the two published totals. The two totals together are 824,246 votes, and Raman's share of that is 52.1%, matching the published percentage. These are unofficial returns. The county results page at results.lavote.gov loads its contest data with scripts, so we could not read the portal directly; the figures above come from two Los Angeles outlets that cite the registrar's updated count, and they agree with each other to the vote.

Who called it, and who has conceded

Bass said in her statement that she had called Raman to congratulate her and promised "a smooth and seamless transition," per FOX 11. NBC News projected Raman the winner on Thursday, and ABC7 reports the Associated Press made its call shortly before noon that day. NBC describes the contest as a runoff: Bass and Raman were the top two finishers in the June 2 primary.

A concession and a media projection are not a certification. Only the county registrar's canvass, followed by the formal certification of results, makes the outcome official.

What is still uncounted

Outlets disagree on how much of the vote was in. FOX 11 says 76% was tallied per the registrar; an early NBC tally cited 76.3% of the expected vote; Deadline reported 72%. We have not found an official count of the ballots still outstanding, and the registrar does not break city ballots out until they have been processed.

Treat the following as our own illustration, not a registrar figure. If 824,246 votes are 76% of the expected total, about 1.08 million votes will be cast in all and roughly 260,000 remain. For Bass to erase a 34,654-vote deficit from that pool she would need about 56.7% of the remaining votes, a swing of nearly nine points from her current share. With the race already called and conceded, that is why both campaigns and the networks treat the result as settled. Late-counted ballots in California can lean differently from early ones, which is why the final margin may move, but the 34,654 lead is large against that.

What it means for the city and its businesses

Raman joins New York's Zohran Mamdani as a democratic socialist leading one of the country's two largest cities, as NBC News and ABC7 note. ABC7 reports she takes office in mid-December. FOX 11 notes she won her District 4 council seat in 2020 by beating an incumbent, the first challenger to do so in 17 years.

We have not seen a published transition plan or budget proposal from the incoming administration, so there is nothing yet to say about how city policy toward employers, permits, wages or the budget will change. Owners in Los Angeles should watch for the first appointments and the mayor's budget message rather than campaign rhetoric. We will report those when they exist.

For wider context on the same election, see our coverage of the midterm results in Congress.

What to watch next

• Further registrar count updates, which will show whether the 52.1% share holds.
• The county's canvass and certification of the results.
• Raman's mid-December swearing-in and first cabinet and budget moves.

Sources: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (results.lavote.gov), FOX 11 Los Angeles, ABC7 Los Angeles, NBC News, Deadline, NewsNation. Figures are unofficial and may change. This is news reporting, not investment advice.