// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Democratic socialist defeats incumbent Karen Bass in Los Angeles mayor's race
Nithya Raman, once seen as a long-shot candidate, will be LA's new mayor
Democratic socialist Nithya Raman has toppled incumbent Karen Bass in the race for mayor of Los Angeles.
Raman's win stunned political watchers in California after she entered the race as a long-shot candidate against Bass, a political heavyweight who previously served in Congress and had never lost a race for political office.
Raman has frequently been compared to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Both are democratic socialists and ran on progressive platforms.
Her win solidifies that America's two biggest cities will now be led by democratic socialists, which include some of the most high-profile politicians in the US, such as Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Los Angeles was always likely to have a Democratic mayor but the question in the city - the second most populous city in the US - was just how left voters would be willing to go.
Bass, also Democrat, announced that she had called and conceded to Raman in a post on social media on Thursday, writing "while this is not the outcome we hoped for, the people of Los Angeles have spoken."
"Moving this city forward is what Los Angeles needs from all of us," Bass wrote. "I love Los Angeles. I believe in Los Angeles. And I will continue to ensure the promise of a better life belongs to all of us."
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