Nithya Raman, born in Kerala, defeats Karen Bass to become Mayor of Los Angeles

5 November 2026

Nithya Raman, who was born in Kerala, has been elected Mayor of Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the U.S. after New York. She defeated the incumbent Mayor, Karen Bass, the first time since 2005 that a sitting mayor there has lost to a challenger. Her early childhood was spent between Thiruvananthapuram, her father's hometown, and Thrissur, where her mother comes from; the family moved to the U.S. when she was six. She studied at Harvard University and earned a master's in urban planning from MIT. In India she led Transparent Chennai, a data-driven sanitation project for slum areas. She entered the Los Angeles City Council in 2020, campaigning on homelessness and housing.