LA Mayors Race: The Democratic Group Chat Is About to Get Messy

The Runoff That Will Define Democratic Los Angeles

Now that it’s official and Los Angeles Councilwoman Nithya Raman has secured the second spot in the mayoral runoff against Mayor Karen Bass, we can stop speculating about what could have happened and start talking about what is about to happen.

And what is going to happen is a very different election than the one many people expected.

For weeks, there was a real possibility that November would be a contest between Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt. Had that happened, the election would have quickly become a Democrat-versus-MAGA fight, regardless of the fact that Los Angeles mayoral elections are technically nonpartisan.

Let’s be honest. Nobody was going to spend the fall debating whether Spencer Pratt had a better homelessness plan than Karen Bass. The race would have become a broader ideological battle over the direction of the city and, in many ways, a proxy fight over national politics. President Trump would have made sure of that.

In that scenario, much of the Democratic coalition would have reunited behind Bass.

Progressives who may have disagreements with her.
Moderates who think she’s doing fine.
Labor.
Communities of color.
Voters who may not love every decision she’s made but had no interest in handing City Hall over to a MAGA-adjacent candidate.

Some would have supported her enthusiastically.
Others would’ve done it reluctantly.
Some would’ve held their noses while filling out their ballots.

But most would’ve come home.

That’s not the election Los Angeles is getting.
Because Nithya Raman made the runoff.
And that changes the conversation entirely.

This election is still a referendum on Karen Bass. Incumbent elections almost always are. Voters will ultimately decide whether they believe the mayor deserves another term.

But now they’re being asked a different question.

Not whether they support Democrats or Republicans.
Not whether they support Democrats or MAGA.
But what kind of Democratic leadership they want for Los Angeles.

That’s a much more complicated conversation.

Because despite what some folks on social media seem to believe, “Democrat” is not a personality trait. It’s a coalition.

And coalitions have disagreements.
A lot of them.

The Democratic Party in Los Angeles is made up of labor Democrats, business Democrats, housing advocates, environmentalists, criminal justice reformers, neighborhood activists, moderates, progressives, renters, homeowners, and plenty of people who don’t fit neatly into any category at all.

They often agree on goals.
They often disagree on how to get there.
And now those disagreements are moving to center stage.

One of the most interesting parts of this runoff will be watching the debate over who gets to define the word “progressive.”

Because everybody likes claiming that label.
Far fewer people agree on what it means.

Progressive means different things depending on who you’re talking to.

A renter in Koreatown may define it one way.
A homeowner in the Valley may define it another.
A union member in South Los Angeles may define it differently than a housing activist in Hollywood.
A Black family in Leimert Park may have a different set of priorities than a voter on the Westside.

Everybody says they’re progressive.

The disagreement starts when you ask, “Progressive for whom and on what?”

That’s part of what makes this race so fascinating.

Karen Bass enters this election as the incumbent mayor who has already assembled a winning citywide coalition. She has governed through crises, victories, setbacks, and the daily realities of running one of the largest cities in America.

Nithya Raman enters as the challenger arguing that Los Angeles needs a different direction, a different urgency, or a different set of priorities.

Those are legitimate arguments for voters to evaluate.
But they are very different political positions.

And that’s why this race may actually prove more challenging for Bass than a race against Spencer Pratt would’ve been.

Not because Raman is stronger than the entire anti-Bass coalition.

But because the voters Bass would’ve likely inherited in a Bass-Pratt matchup now have somewhere else to go.

A voter frustrated with Bass but unwilling to support a MAGA-aligned candidate likely would’ve come home in November.

A voter frustrated with Bass who sees Raman as a viable Democratic alternative doesn’t have to come home at all.

They can stay exactly where they are.
That’s the political reality of this runoff.
The easy partisan cues are gone.
The anti-MAGA coalition is no longer the defining issue.

Now voters must make a choice between two Democrats who share many values but may offer different approaches, different priorities, and different visions for what governing Los Angeles should look like.

And that’s healthy.

Because the question facing Los Angeles is no longer whether it is a Democratic city.
That question was answered long ago.
The question now is what kind of Democratic city it wants to be.

And over the next several months, voters are going to have that conversation in public.

The runoff is set.
Now the real Democratic debate begins.

Jasmyne Cannick is a delegate in the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, and a political and communications strategist who writes about politics, power, and the people affected by both. She believes context matters, receipts are essential, and nonsense should be challenged. She lives in Los Angeles, where the rent is disrespectful and every election has at least one candidate headed back to LinkedIn. More at iamjasmyne.com.