‘Mamdani of the West’ democratic socialist Nitiya Raman elected mayor of Los Angeles

Following New York, Seattle, and Washington DC, LA will also be led by ‘DSA young blood’

(Los Angeles = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Kyung-yoon = Democratic socialist candidate Nitya Rahman (45), nicknamed 'Mamdani of the West', was elected mayor of Los Angeles (LA), the second largest city in the United States.

The Associated Press reported that Candidate Rahman was confirmed to be elected as mayor of LA with 52.1% of the votes, with a 76% counting rate as of noon (Western time) on the 5th.

The vote gap with Karen Bass (73), the incumbent and the first black female mayor of LA, is about 35,000 votes. It is the first time in about 20 years that an incumbent mayor of LA has failed to be re-elected.

In a video statement, Rahman expressed his feelings about being elected, saying, “It is an honor to become the next mayor of the citizens of Los Angeles,” and “I also want to express my respect to Mayor Bath for his decades of dedication.”

Rahman, a young Indian-American who has served as a member of the LA City Council, attracted attention by suddenly voting for the LA mayoral election just before the nomination deadline last February.

Raman was born in Kerala, southern India, moved to Louisiana, USA at the age of six, and graduated from Harvard University.

In 2020, he was elected to the LA City Council, defeating Korean-American politician David Ryu, and was re-elected in 2024.

The process of becoming mayor was not smooth. At the time of this summer's primary, Mayor Bath came in first with 34% of the vote, and Rahman narrowly defeated Republican Spencer Pratt and advanced to the finals with 29% of the vote.

Since Rahman has recently claimed to be a member of the Democratic Socialists (DSA), which is emerging within the Democratic Party, he has been compared to New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani (35), who has a similar background.

DSA has been considered a non-mainstream force within the Democratic Party due to its radical leftist tendencies, but it has recently shown great influence in elections in large cities in the United States.

Last November, Mayor Mamdani was elected as mayor of New York, the largest city in the U.S., and Katie Wilson (44), a political newcomer who calls herself a democratic socialist, was elected mayor of Seattle, the largest city in the northwest.

Also, in this midterm election, Janice Louise George (38), a democratic socialist who strongly defends the rights of workers and tenants, became the mayor of Washington DC with an overwhelming margin of votes.

In addition, with Rahman confirming his election as mayor of LA, it is noteworthy that DSA graduates in their 30s and 40s, who are considered 'young blood', have become heads of major cities in the United States.

However, it is known that Rahman has expressed somewhat moderate opinions to be classified as a democratic socialist.

In particular, it has taken a different route from the existing DSA on each issue, such as supporting the film and television tax credit, which the democratic socialist camp has criticized as a pro-business benefit.