City of Los Angeles · Statewide General Election
Mayor of Los Angeles
Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.
On the ballot
- Karen Ruth Bass
- Nithya Raman
This person is the city's chief executive: the budget, LAPD and LAFD leadership, housing and homelessness policy.
For the first time in a generation, an incumbent LA mayor has been forced into a runoff. Karen Bass (34.3%) faces Councilmember Nithya Raman (29%) on November 3 — after Raman overtook Spencer Pratt's celebrity campaign (25.5%) in the late count. The Palisades fire, and who answered for it, hangs over everything.
Whoever wins takes office in December for a four-year term — one that will carry Palisades rebuilding, the 2028 Olympics, and every city budget in between. The job is powerful but not solitary: budgets and ordinances need the 15-member City Council, homelessness work is shared with LA County, and top appointments — including any new police chief — require council confirmation.
This runoff is a management referendum: Bass argues her labor-backed coalition and experience steer recovery best; Raman argues the machine itself is failing and points to her council district as proof of a different approach. Both are Democrats — the choice is about competence, accountability, and theory of change, not party.
Karen Ruth Bass
Mayor since 2022, former Congresswoman, born and raised in LA. Her Inside Safe program moved thousands indoors and all of organized labor is behind her. The Palisades fire — she was abroad when it broke out — is the wound this campaign is about.
Strengths
A coalition-builder with deep federal relationships for recovery money and the full weight of LA labor behind her.
Trade-offs
A Berkeley IGS poll found 40% rated her fire response 'poor or very poor,' and rivals cite data that 40% of Inside Safe participants returned to the streets.
Keep in mind
She denies reporting that she directed a 'watering down' of the fire department's after-action report — that dispute, and the recall energy it fed, is why an incumbent is in a runoff at all.
Nithya Raman
Two-term councilmember for CD4 and an urban planner by training. Her district homelessness team is credited with real reductions, and she's released a detailed rival homelessness plan. Her case: the city's machine needs a manager, not a coalition.
Strengths
A working district-level model on homelessness, an efficiency-and-transparency platform, and strength with younger voters and policy-minded ones.
Trade-offs
Running a council district is not running a city of four million — her executive record is necessarily smaller than the job she's asking for.
Keep in mind
Opponents tie her to her early DSA backing; her recent record reads more pragmatic-progressive. Read her actual plan and judge the distance yourself.
What happened to Spencer Pratt?
The reality-TV figure — whose Palisades home burned — turned grief into a genuinely potent outsider campaign: he led fundraising for months, drew tech-billionaire donors, and made copper-stripped streetlights and MacArthur Park his stump. He finished third by about 3.5 points after late ballots broke for Raman. His voters are November's real prize, and both campaigns know it.
Financial info
- Small donors
- Individuals
- PACs & committees
- Businesses & other orgs
- Self-funding
- Public matching funds
Karen Ruth Bass
$5,028,106 raised
- Small donors$26,1821%
- Individuals$3,298,67966%
- PACs & committees$106,1502%
- Businesses & other orgs$320,0956%
- Self-funding$20,000<1%
- Public matching funds$1,257,00025%
Nithya Raman
$2,443,196 raised
- Small donors$63,6403%
- Individuals$1,040,05643%
- PACs & committees$2,800<1%
- Businesses & other orgs$6,100<1%
- Self-funding$73,6003%
- Public matching funds$1,257,00051%
Spencer Pratt
$3,996,187 raised
- Small donors$970,01224%
- Individuals$2,955,21674%
- PACs & committees$5,400<1%
- Businesses & other orgs$65,5592%
Adam Miller
$4,285,242 raised
- Small donors$3,696<1%
- Individuals$279,9467%
- Businesses & other orgs$1,600<1%
- Self-funding$4,000,00093%
1Pratt's biggest checks came from entertainment and tech figures at the $1,800 city limit — Brian Grazer, Sergey Brin, and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss among them — while roughly a quarter of his total arrived as small unitemized donations.
2Miller's fourth-place run was almost entirely self-financed: $4,000,000 of his $4,285,242 total was his own money. His filings list him as chairman of Instil, his social-impact software company for nonprofits.
3Public matching funds are city money earned through small-donor support. Figures are CA Form 460 filings through June 30, 2026. Per Los Angeles City Ethics Commission campaign-finance data, retrieved 2026-08-03.
June 2 primary — how they advanced
Source review: Very strong (94/100) · 8 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.
- results.lavote.gov (opens in a new tab)LA County RR/CC — Certified results, June 2, 2026 primary (certified 2026-06-26)
- content.lavote.gov (opens in a new tab)LA County RR/CC — Offices Scheduled for Election, November 3, 2026 (6/26/26)
- governing.com (opens in a new tab)Governing — the 2026 LA mayor's race
- laist.com (opens in a new tab)LAist — June 2026 primary voter guides
- nbclosangeles.com (opens in a new tab)NBC Los Angeles — June 2026 primary results coverage
- westsidecurrent.com (opens in a new tab)Westside Current — 2026 LA elections coverage
- data.lacity.org (opens in a new tab)Los Angeles City Ethics Commission — campaign finance filings (City Campaign Contributions dataset)
- data.lacity.org (opens in a new tab)LA City Ethics Commission — City campaign contributions (Form 460 filings)
Last updated August 7, 2026.