The race for LA mayor is too close to call; both candidates give positive speech

The City of Los Angeles woke up Wednesday morning with the latest election results; candidate for mayor Nythia Raman showed a slight lead over incumbent Karen Bass. As of 8 a.m., the Los Angeles County Registrar reported Raman with 51.12% (377,458) and Bass at 48.88% (360,864).

On Tuesday night, both candidates said to be very positive about the results and while Bass spoke for about nine minutes, Raman’s speech was almost 30 minutes long. 

A Bass watch party took place at the Loews Hotel in Hollywood. The crowd was relatively small and a good number were members of the media. At about 9:40 p.m., she appeared before the crowd, surrounded by her family.

After thanking all her supporters, she said she was hopeful to get four more years to continue her work which includes tackling homelessness and the lack of affordable housing. 

“Thank you to everyone who believed in this campaign from day one, who gave their time, their energy and their hearts to the future of our great city,” she said. “As we are waiting for the votes to be counted, there is one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty: I have never been more proud of our city, more grateful for its people, more hopeful about what we can accomplish together.”

Bass especially thanked the L.A. County Democratic Party and the labor unions that supported her. 

“I love Los Angeles. I believe in the city and I will always fight for the city that we deserve,” she said.

Hopeful to become the new mayor

Meanwhile, Raman’s watch party at the Greek Theater drew hundreds of people. She spoke closer to 11 p.m. and while she seemed nervous and in disbelief at first, she then got comfortable and spoke about the much-needed change the city needs. 

Without mentioning Bass’ name, Raman said the City of Los Angeles became a place where people became used to a “no” answer. 

“The result: L.A. stopped being a place where we could build things, where we could open things, where we could film things, where we could create things,” she said. “That's the cynicism that started to take over this city, that started to make us believe that L.A.'s problems weren't just bad, that they were permanent.”

Raman said that while Angelenos were getting used to thinking of the good days as a thing from the past she knew there was a lot of work to do and that’s why she joined the mayoral race last minute.  

“Hopelessness can be fatal for a city, but this campaign refused to accept that,” she said. “When I entered this race on the very last day of filing, the incumbent mayor had spent years preparing for re-election. She was backed by almost every politician in the city, a deep bench of donors, millions in support from powerful interests. They threw everything they had at us and they had a lot. But we fought back. Not with fear or with division, but with hope and with community.” 

Ballots are still being counted and, according to the Associated Press, about 63% of votes had been counted as of Wednesday morning, with about 440,000 votes still needing to be processed.