Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass will face City Council member Nithya Raman in a November runoff after votes were counted in the Los Angeles mayoral primary. Raman overtook initial second-place contender Spencer Pratt due to mail-in ballots counted later in the process.
The nonpartisan primary saw Bass and Raman advance as the top two candidates. Pratt, a registered Republican endorsed by President Trump, led early tallies but fell behind by nearly 22,000 votes once mail ballots postmarked by Election Day were processed within the seven-day window allowed by state law.
Raman, in an interview, expressed frustration with Bass over housing affordability and homelessness. She cited the absence of a deputy mayor of housing for two years and called for greater density near transit zones, including some single-family neighborhoods, to address the cost-of-living crisis.
Trump posted claims of cheating by Democrats two days after the primary, prompting the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California to announce multiple election fraud investigations. Legal experts described the move as performative, noting no evidence of widespread fraud and highlighting California's standard vote-by-mail procedures.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development separately announced it would halt federal funds to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority pending an investigation, citing long-standing accountability issues at the agency.
