Kerala-born urban planner and city councilmember Nithya Raman has won the race for mayor of Los Angeles, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday, making her the first South Asian to lead the city.
Photo credit: Nithya Raman / Los Angeles City Council office (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
Who is Nithya Raman?
Raman was born in Kerala in 1981 to Tamil parents, according to profiles published earlier this year. She trained as an urban planner, and in 2020 she became the first South Asian woman elected to the Los Angeles City Council, defeating an incumbent.
How the race unfolded
In the June primary, Raman finished ahead of reality-TV personality Spencer Pratt, with 28.5 per cent of the vote against Pratt’s 25.8 per cent. That result sent her into the 3 November runoff against Mayor Karen Bass, who was the first Black woman to hold the office.
Why it matters
Her win is a milestone for the South Asian community in American politics and for Indian-origin leaders abroad. It also puts a progressive urban planner in charge of one of the largest city governments in the United States.
What we do not know yet
The reports we reviewed did not confirm the final vote margin or her swearing-in date. We will update this story when official figures are published.
Sources: Al Jazeera (5 November 2026), Gulf News, Open Magazine and WION profiles of Nithya Raman. This article was written by The Popular Story desk from published reports.
