Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass now finds herself trailing challenger Nithya Raman in a new poll, according to NBC Los Angeles, as the two head toward a November 3 runoff that will decide who leads the city for the next term.
The new numbers mark a shift in a race that has been unsettled since the June primary. Neither Bass nor Raman crossed the 50% threshold needed to win outright in the June 2 primary, which sent the contest to a nonpartisan general election, according to Ballotpedia. NBC Los Angeles reported a fresh poll showing Raman ahead of the incumbent mayor.
How Raman Climbed Into Contention
Raman's path to a potential runoff win traces back to the June primary, where she finished second behind Bass and ahead of Pratt.
Ballotpedia's tally of the June primary results, drawn from official returns, showed Bass with 34% of the vote, followed by Raman with 29% and Pratt with 26%. NBC News had projected on election night that Bass would advance to November, but at the time had not projected which challenger would join her on the ballot, the same account noted.
Ballot Counting Dragged On For Weeks
The race stayed unresolved for days after polls closed because Los Angeles County was still working through hundreds of thousands of ballots. A Sunday update from the county registrar added 122,807 ballots to the count, pushing the total processed to 1,897,653, with more than 368,000 ballots still uncounted at that point, according to the same NBC Los Angeles report.
Why The General Election Could Favor Raman
Ballotpedia, citing The New York Times, reported that political experts expect the general-election electorate to be larger and more progressive than the one that turned out for the June primary, a dynamic that could work in Raman's favor as she looks to close the gap with the incumbent mayor. That expectation has loomed over the race since summer. NBC Los Angeles reported a poll showing Raman ahead of Bass.
Bass was elected mayor in 2022. Whether Bass can repeat that outcome this fall now looks less certain, with voters set to render their verdict on November 3.
