NE FOREIGN NEWS BUREAU
WASHINGTON, NOV 7
From studying the struggles of India’s urban poor to challenging homelessness in Los Angeles, Nithya Raman’s political journey has come full circle with an extraordinary electoral triumph. A Kerala-born immigrant, Harvard and MIT-educated urban planner who once worked with slum communities in Delhi and launched a civic-data initiative in Chennai, Raman has now defeated incumbent Karen Bass to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, America’s second-largest city. Her victory is not merely an immigrant success story; it marks the arrival of an urban-governance activist at the helm of a metropolis grappling with housing insecurity, homelessness and widening inequalities.
- An immigrant scripts an American political milestone: Kerala-born Nithya Raman defeats incumbent Karen Bass to become Los Angeles’s first Asian-American mayor and the first challenger in more than two decades to unseat a sitting mayor.
- A victory beyond electoral arithmetic: Raman secures 52.1% of the votes against Bass’s 47.9%, with the incumbent conceding as the Indian-origin urban planner prepares to lead America’s second-largest city.
- India’s urban inequalities shaped her politics: From working with slum communities in Delhi to challenging evictions and examining access to basic services, her Indian experiences shaped her commitment to housing justice.
- Harvard and MIT provide the intellectual foundation: Her academic journey and civic-data initiative Transparent Chennai strengthened her understanding of urban governance, public accountability and inclusive development.
- Housing and homelessness define her political identity: From founding the SELAH Neighbourhood Homeless Coalition to championing tenant protections and rent stabilisation, Raman has made housing affordability a central priority.
- The real test begins at City Hall: With homelessness, public safety, housing shortages and preparations for the 2028 Olympics demanding attention, the mayor-elect faces the challenge of translating ambitious promises into measurable results.
Raman, 45, secured 52.1% of the votes against Bass’s 47.9% in the latest tally reported on Thursday, November 5. Bass conceded defeat and congratulated her challenger, pledging a smooth transfer of power. The results remain subject to official certification.
“I have called Councilmember Nithya Raman to congratulate her on her victory, and I have committed to ensuring a smooth and seamless transition,” Bass said in a statement.
Raman will become Los Angeles’s first Asian-American mayor and the first challenger in more than two decades to defeat a sitting mayor. Her victory also makes her one of the most prominent Indian-origin women to enter the political leadership of a major American metropolis.
Addressing supporters at the Original Farmers Market on election night, Raman connected her triumph to the immigrant experience that has shaped her life.
“And the idea that Angelenos voted for an immigrant to be their next mayor at this moment in American history is so deeply moving to me,” she said.
Thrissur to Harvard: The making of an urban reformer
Born in 1981 in Thrissur, Kerala, Raman spent part of her early childhood in Thiruvananthapuram, where her father, Venkitaraman, worked at KELTRON and her mother, Sudha Kechery, was employed in banking. The family moved to the United States when she was about six. She became a naturalised American citizen at 22 after taking her citizenship oath in Boston.
At Harvard University, where she studied Social Studies, Raman developed an early interest in the vulnerabilities of urban communities. She participated in a programme that provided interest-free loans to tenants facing eviction.
Her freshman-year roommate, Stephanie Stallings, recalled Raman sleeping outdoors in freezing weather to draw attention to homelessness.
“The Housing Opportunities Programme was a big influence for me in thinking about insecurity for people, and what can we do to help stabilise people during difficult moments in their lives,” Raman told The Harvard Crimson.
Her undergraduate research also exposed her to the complexities of India’s administrative machinery. During a visit to a rural government office in Tamil Nadu, an official reportedly told her: “You must leave your shoes and your politics at the door.”
Raman refused to remove her shoes and walked out. The official subsequently offered to open his office to answer her questions. The encounter became part of her senior thesis, reflecting her early interest in institutional accountability.
India, however, was not merely an academic subject for Raman. It became the testing ground for her understanding of urban inequality.
India’s slums, Chennai’s civic data and a global vision
After completing her undergraduate education, Raman pursued graduate studies in urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Her decision to enter the field was deeply influenced by her engagement with organisations working among slum communities in Delhi, particularly those resisting evictions and demanding access to basic services.
“Seeing how the government decisions negatively impacted the lives and livelihoods of so many made me realise how important urban governance was. That pushed me to study urban planning,” she said in a 2020 interview with an Indian newspaper.
After MIT, Raman returned to India and established Transparent Chennai, a civic-data initiative aimed at making urban governance more accountable through information and research.
One of its concerns was the mismatch between public infrastructure and the actual needs of marginalised communities.
“We also found that the location of the toilets had very little relationship to slums in the area, residents of which would be most likely to use them,” she told the newspaper.
Her MIT thesis adviser, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, described her subsequent political trajectory as following a “straight line”, rooted in housing concerns and the lives of marginalised communities.
Raman moved to Los Angeles in 2013. Her husband, Vali Chandrasekaran, whom she met at Harvard, is a television writer whose credits include Modern Family and 30 Rock. The couple have twins.
Homelessness becomes her political calling card
In Los Angeles, Raman examined the city’s homelessness expenditure while working in the City Administrative Officer’s office. She questioned how public money was being deployed, arguing that substantial expenditure was going towards arrests rather than housing, outreach and essential services.
In 2017, she co-founded the SELAH Neighbourhood Homeless Coalition, an organisation working with people experiencing homelessness.
She subsequently led Time’s Up Entertainment, extending her engagement with institutional reform and social issues.
Her entry into electoral politics came in 2020 when she challenged incumbent Councilman David Ryu. Her victory made her the first challenger in 17 years to unseat a sitting Los Angeles City Council incumbent.
On the council, Raman championed stronger protections for tenants, including legislation extending protections against eviction without specified cause to approximately 400,000 additional rental units.
In November 2025, the council approved her proposal to reduce annual rent-increase limits for rent-stabilised apartments from 3–8% to 1–4%, depending on inflation.
“The city has not done enough to protect renters,” she said before the vote.
Her political identity, however, has not been without contradictions. While repeatedly endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, she has also associated herself with the pro-housing ‘Yes in My Backyard’ movement, advocating greater housing construction.
“But I feel like I have demonstrated over and over again that my decision-making has been independent,” she told the Los Angeles Times in February.
A bruising campaign, a historic verdict
Raman’s mayoral campaign began with an unexpected political reversal. Having initially endorsed Bass, she decided to challenge the incumbent on the eve of the February 7 filing deadline.
Nine of her City Council colleagues reaffirmed their support for Bass, while several prominent Democratic leaders also backed the incumbent.
Raman finished second in the June primary, earning a place in the November runoff.
Her record on homelessness became a major point of contention. In August, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, a Bass supporter, divided the housing and homelessness committee Raman had chaired since 2023.
“The committee is behind in excess of more than 100 issues,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
Raman defended her scrutiny of municipal programmes as “oversight and accountability”.
Her own record also faced questions over implementation. A rental-voucher programme intended to house 600 households by July 1 had relocated only three households by that date, increasing to 54 by August 13, according to the Times.
She also cited a 49% decline in street homelessness in her council district, while Bass attributed the improvement to her administration’s Inside Safe programme.
The campaign became increasingly combative. The Los Angeles police union reportedly spent more than $5 million opposing Raman, according to The 19th, citing campaign-finance records.
Yet her candidacy attracted younger voters and supporters who viewed her as a generational alternative.
“This is not a geographic coalition or racial coalition; this is a when-you-were-born coalition,” Democratic consultant Mike Trujillo, who backed Bass, told the Los Angeles Times.
From campaign promises to the challenge of governing
At her election-night gathering at the Greek Theatre plaza, Raman brought her parents, brother, husband and 10-year-old twins on stage, making the occasion a deeply personal family milestone.
“Hopelessness can be fatal for a city, but this campaign refused to accept that,” she said, according to The 19th.
Her victory now brings an enormous governing responsibility. Los Angeles faces persistent homelessness, an acute housing-affordability challenge, public-safety concerns and the need to strengthen municipal services ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Her supporters will expect her to translate promises of affordable housing, stronger tenant protection and more accountable public spending into tangible outcomes. Her critics will closely scrutinise the implementation of her programmes, particularly on homelessness and public safety.
Raman has also acknowledged the unusually compressed transition period confronting her.
“One of the shortest transitions across the country — for a city of 4 million people where the challenges are absolutely immense,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
For a little girl who left Kerala at the age of six, the journey to the mayor’s office of one of America’s most influential cities is remarkable. But her larger legacy will depend not on the symbolism of her immigrant identity or the historic nature of her victory, but on whether she can make Los Angeles more affordable, inclusive and responsive to the needs of its residents.
Her journey began with a question about how cities treat their most vulnerable. Her mayoralty will be judged by the answers she delivers.