Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman declared victory Monday evening after expanding her lead over former reality star Spencer Pratt in the race for a spot in the runoff against Mayor Karen Bass.
“I’m incredibly honored that voters have given us the opportunity to advance to the general election for Mayor of Los Angeles,” Raman said in a statement.
The progressive Democrat made the announcement after the latest vote count showed Pratt, who is a Republican, continuing to lose ground.
Related: Newsom Launches Task Force to ‘Dismantle Homeless Encampments’ in 10 California Cities
The latest figures from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk showed Raman with 229,576 votes, or 28.5%. Pratt followed with 207,757 votes, or 25.8%. Bass maintained her lead with 275,992 votes, or 34.3%.
The top two candidates, who are both Democrats, now advance to the general election in November.
Raman vowed in her statement to fight for working-class Angelenos.
“Now our fight for a healthier, safer, more affordable, and more joyful Los Angeles continues,” her statement read. “For too long, City Hall has prioritized giving political advantage to powerful interests that fund elections. Meanwhile, working people pay the price in higher rents, depleted services, and a city that has stopped working for them.”
The Associated Press called the race for Raman at 4:55 p.m. PT/7:55 p.m. ET. The news agency described Los Angeles as a “struggling city of nearly 4 million,” citing homelessness, mangled streets and sidewalks, and climbing home prices.
According to figures released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) in November 2025, there were 43,695 unhoused individuals within the city limits during the last homeless count.
Bass was elected in 2022 amid a racism scandal at City Hall and a spiraling homelessness crisis. On the day she was sworn into office, Bass said: “I will start my first day as mayor at the city’s emergency operation centers, where my first act as mayor will be to declare a state of emergency on homelessness.”
The number of homeless individuals within the city has actually increased since she made that statement. LAHSA’s 2022 homeless count showed there were 41,980 people experiencing homelessness in the city at the time.
Raman has come under fire for her own homelessness policies and slow responses to constituent complaints about encampments near schools. “I don’t think a kid’s gonna be safer if [encampments] are 10 feet or 500 feet away from a school,” she previously said, as reported by The California Post.
The Bass campaign referenced the comment in a statement released earlier today.
“We look forward to winning a contest against an opponent who allows [homeless] encampments near schools and fights against hiring more cops, yet is MIA on saving Hollywood jobs and fighting back when ICE invades L.A.,” the statement read.
Pratt led Raman in the days after last week’s primary, but as more mail-in ballots arrived over the weekend, the councilwoman surged ahead in the count. On Monday morning, Pratt told his supporters the fight was not yet over, with thousands more votes left to be counted.
“Folks, we’re dealing with a fraction of a percentage point difference,” Pratt wrote on social media. “There’s still hundreds of thousands of votes outstanding, and LA officials have given us the next three weeks to count! Let’s git-r-dun!”
According to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, all counties are required to report their final results to the state by July 2. The secretary of state will certify the primary results on July 10.
Every registered voter in the state is sent a mail-in ballot. Last year, a record 89% of all votes in statewide elections were from mail-in ballots, as previously reported.
CNN reported Monday that late-arriving ballots returned by mail have historically favored Democrats, citing the impact of President Trump’s criticism of voting by mail.
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