Decision Desk HQ projects Nithya Raman will unseat Karen Bass as Los Angeles mayor

The Los Angeles mayoral race took a decisive turn on November 4: election forecaster Decision Desk HQ projected at about 4:49 p.m. Pacific time that Councilmember Nithya Raman will defeat incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, who was seeking re-election, to become the city's next mayor.

The count so far

In the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's 4:28 p.m. update, 784,262 votes had been counted: Raman had 405,193 votes (51.67%) and Bass had 379,069 (48.33%), a lead of 26,124 votes for Raman. NBC Los Angeles and The Basin estimated that about 67% of the expected city vote had been counted at that point. The Associated Press and NBC News have not called the race, and the results remain preliminary and uncertified.

Ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within seven days will still be counted. The Registrar's next update is set for 9 to 10 a.m. on Thursday, November 5, and the results are scheduled to be certified on November 27. Raman was first elected to the council in 2020 and represents the 4th Council District, which includes Los Feliz, Silver Lake, the Hollywood Hills, Sherman Oaks, Studio City and Encino. Bass was sworn in as the city's 43rd mayor in December 2022, the first woman to hold the job.

What faces the next mayor

The next mayor will preside over preparations for the 2028 Olympic Games, guiding the allocation of city resources to accommodate up to 15 million visitors. Other preliminary results from the same day: Sheriff Robert Luna led challenger Alex Villanueva with about 68.95% of the vote, and in the city attorney's race Marissa Roy led John McKinney with about 66.53%.

Photo: file photo of Los Angeles City Hall.