Nithya Raman wept as she fell into third place Tuesday night behind Spencer Pratt and Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral race.
The socialist’s face scrunched and her eyes watered as the results poured in and she spoke to her children about how she had hoped to build a city “that is worthy of you.”
“I hope you know that everything, every person in this room is fighting for in this campaign has been about building a city that’s worthy of you, and every child in this city,” she choked out between tears.
Raman trailed Pratt by about 8 points with 63.1% of the vote on Wednesday morning, 22.3% to 30.4%, according to the Associated Press. Bass is leading with 34.8% of the vote, with the last update around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The total count as of that time has Bass with 172,720 votes, Pratt with 151,149 and Raman on 110,848.
As vote totals stand, with Bass leading, the incumbent and Pratt would advance to the November general election. Raman’s campaign would be done.
The city councilwoman stunned LA political observers in February when she declared her campaign for mayor after backing Bass.
She ran a campaign aligned with leftists dissatisfied with Bass’s leadership and called for a renewed homelessness plan along with increased housing production.
But she also faced criticism for her own handling of the homeless crisis as head of the city council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee. The criticism culminated in a homeless encampment stunt outside her home.
Raman faced slight headwinds in her campaign with competing candidate Rae Huang, who also drew favor from the Democratic Socialists of America and may have prevented the councilwoman from drawing their endorsement outright. Huang drew about 3% of the vote.
The DSA is known for motivating its volunteers towards robust get-out-the-vote initiatives that carried socialist Zohran Mamdani to the mayor’s office in New York City after they backed him. Some hoped Raman would follow in his footsteps.
At one time, Raman led polls in the race.
But a disastrous debate performance weighed down her campaign, and her message appeared to falter over Pratt’s if voters are to be believed.
Pratt had been successful in the waning weeks of the campaign, producing viral social media videos pointing towards his Palisades fire activism and blaming Raman and Bass for the city’s problems.
Raman has yet to concede as election analysts project the race could get closer as late blue ballots roll in.
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