New Delhi: Indian-origin Nithya Raman is one of the prominent contenders in the race for Los Angeles mayor. She is building her campaign around the everyday concerns of residents, from broken infrastructure and public safety to jobs and the environment.
“LA has spent four years asking: Where is our mayor? When I’m mayor, you won’t have to ask,” is one of the campaign promises of Raman, a Los Angeles City Council member who is challenging incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.
Often compared with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Raman has maintained a visible presence on the campaign trail, addressing crowds, displaying campaign posters and sharing her plans online to connect with voters and build support for her mayoral bid.
“Look around,” Raman said at a recent campaign event. “This is the coalition that is going to take us to the mayor’s seat.”
The crowd responded with cheers, waving yellow and blue campaign signs, The New York Times reported.
From broken streetlights to extreme heat
In a campaign post focusing on the environment, Raman drew attention to the growing problem of extreme heat in Los Angeles.
“LA is HOT. But does it have to be this hot?” she wrote on X, pointing out that the shade provided by a single tree can reduce temperatures by 20 degrees or more.
She said working-class neighbourhoods such as South LA, East LA and the Valley have less tree cover and face a greater burden from extreme heat.
Raman has also highlighted the city’s thousands of broken streetlights, promising to fix them and bring light back to its streets.
“LA deserves a city that shows up for us. A Los Angeles that loves us back. Let’s go get it,” she wrote in another campaign post on X.
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Not a new face in local politics
Raman is not a newcomer who has suddenly appeared on the political scene ahead of the mayoral election.
In 2020, she entered local politics as a relatively unknown candidate and defeated an incumbent member of the Los Angeles City Council, David Ryu. It was the first time in more than a decade that a sitting council member had lost a re-election bid.
Four years later, she won another term despite facing a well-funded challenger, Ethan Weaver.
From urban planning to politics
Born in Kerala, Raman grew up near Boston and studied at Harvard University before earning a master’s degree in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She moved to Los Angeles with her husband in 2013, and the couple has twin children, according to reports.
Raman has worked with several non-profit organisations in India and Hollywood, including serving as executive director of Time’s Up, a group supporting women in the entertainment industry. She also co-founded an organisation to help homeless people in her neighbourhood.
In 2020, concerns over the lack of action on housing and homeless shelters prompted her to run for the City Council. Amid nationwide protests against racism following George Floyd’s killing, Raman gained attention as a young mother with a background in urban planning.
She was subsequently featured in Vogue and compared with US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who also rose to prominence as a progressive political figure.
Raman has continued to criticise Bass over her record in office.
In a post on X, she wrote: “Mayor Bass has no answers for her failed record, so she resorts to baseless, personal attacks. Angelenos deserve a mayor who spends more time fixing problems than trying to change the subject”.
Democratic socialist candidates have been gaining ground in several American cities, reflecting growing frustration among voters with established Democratic leaders.
Raman’s campaign is drawing on a similar mood of dissatisfaction with the political establishment.
(Edited by Maryam Hassan)