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Raman heads to runoff
Progressive city council member Nithya Raman advanced to a November runoff against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass after Spencer Pratt failed to qualify, with the AP projection placing Raman in the second spot and Bass already advancing.
“00:55 03:06 24:32 Jérôme Diesnis Published June 9, 2026 at 1:50 PM • Updated June 9, 2026 at 1:50 PM In February, barely a few weeks after officially backing the outgoing Democratic mayor Karen Bass, Nithya Raman, herself a Democrat, announced her surprise candidacy for the Los Angeles mayor's office”
The Los Angeles mayoral race was technically nonpartisan, and the top two vote-getters advanced because no candidate received more than 50% of the vote, leaving the contest to be decided again in the fall.
Raman’s path to the runoff came as ballots continued to be counted, with NBC News projecting that she surged past Pratt after more than 92% of the votes were counted.
In the California governor’s race, Democrat Xavier Becerra won one of the top two spots in the June 2 primary, while it was still unclear whether he would face Republican Steve Hilton or fellow Democrat Tom Steyer.
Election watchers said it could still be a few more days before tight races were called, as California’s slow vote count faced changes tied to a U.S. Supreme Court decision on late ballots.
Claims, reactions, and timing
Raman’s supporters and opponents framed the late vote shift differently, with a Bass campaign strategist saying, "A campaign against Nithya Raman, who allows encampments near schools and cuts the police force, is one Mayor Bass looks forward to winning."
Raman, in contrast, said in a statement, "I’m incredibly honored that voters have given us the opportunity to advance to the general election for Mayor of Los Angeles," as the runoff matchup took shape.
President Donald Trump, who endorsed Pratt, questioned the validity of the outcome in a post on Truth Social, while election officials pushed back by noting that every mail-in ballot is individually examined and verified before it is counted.
Dr. Raphe Sonenshein of the Haynes Foundation said, "I’ve been watching these enough that none of this surprises me," describing the pattern as not a two-part election.
The process of counting mail ballots was described as slow and sequential, with ballots counted if they were postmarked by Election Day and arrived at an election office within seven days.
What’s at stake next
The runoff sets up a five-month campaign between two Democrats, with the AP describing it as an unexpected matchup between two Democrats and former political allies to run the struggling city of nearly 4 million.
“LOS ANGELES -- He wrote a memoir called "The Guy You Loved to Hate”
Raman’s campaign positioned the race as a test of whether voters want to move further to the political left, while Bass’s standing was described as vulnerable, with incomplete returns receiving under 35% of the vote.
In the governor’s race, the Los Angeles Times reported that Steve Hilton had not been officially declared as Xavier Becerra’s opponent, even as Hilton appeared on the cusp of clinching the pivotal second spot.
First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said he expects his office to file election fraud charges within a couple of months as it continues to investigate allegations that California Democrats cheated in the state’s primary election.
The Los Angeles Times also said the U.S. Supreme Court was preparing to rule on whether mail ballots must be received by election day to count, a decision that could force changes before November’s midterm elections.
