LOS ANGELES, California, August 18, 2026 — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass found herself trailing early in a challenging reelection bid, remaining below a 50% threshold in the June 2 primary.
Progressive City Council member Nithya Raman poses a serious threat to her. Bass has faced disastrous wildfires in her first term, a widening municipal budget deficit, and public clashes with erstwhile political allies. Bass says her experience is crucial to leading the city, while Raman says City Hall needs new voices and clearer direction.
Shattered Coalitions and Aggressive Campaigning
The matchup is personal. Raman backed Bass in her successful 2022 campaign, and Bass backed Raman’s 2024 council reelection. That alliance, however, fell apart as soon as Raman announced her mayoral primary campaign, arguing the local administration had been too slow to take action on city issues.
Official candidate returns released by the Los Angeles City Clerk Election Division Bass finished atop the primary with approximately a third of the vote, while Raman narrowly defeated reality television personality Spencer Pratt for second. Soon after the runoff was set, Bass’s campaign unleashed attacks against Raman, claiming she opposed police hiring and allowed homeless encampments near public schools. In return, Raman’s camp painted Bass as detached from renters struggling to get by during the region’s deep housing affordability crisis.
Wildfire Debates, Polling Issues, and Staff Changes
Bass’s time of service continues to be overshadowed by the Palisades fire in January 2025, which burned thousands of homes while Bass was in Ghana on an official trip. Neither has the general instability of campaigns internally. The chief strategist, Douglas Herman, fell out over strategy and quit, and his communications director Kolby Lee followed suit soon after. In an oddly political twist, the race took a bizarre turn when polling firm Median Strategies published data claiming Bass was ahead 12 points, and then later admitted that the poll was a false “experiment.”
Other opponents were not pleased, either — Bass also came under fire for controversial comments about homeless drug use and political opponents jumped on that. It might also help explain why no Los Angeles mayor has successfully unseated an incumbent in a century. Yet with registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans four-to-one, each campaign faces ten brutal weeks to energize their base before mail-in ballots land in the mailboxes of most voters in November.
