Los Angeles mayoral candidates Nitya Raman and Spencer Pratt.
Gina Ferrazzi Ronaldo Bolaños | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Days after California’s primary election, Nisya Raman and Spencer Pratt are still waiting to see who will take on incumbent Karen Bass in November’s Los Angeles mayoral runoff.
It was still too early to decide the race on Sunday, as vote tallies showed Raman in second place behind Basu for the first time since voting closed and counting began Tuesday. That gives Raman, a progressive City Council member, an edge over Pratt, a former reality TV personality.
Raman was running for third place, but since Tuesday, she has received more votes than Pratt every time Los Angeles election officials have provided an update.
Vote counting in California is a notoriously slow process, with state law effectively requiring lengthy counting. Ballots will be mailed to all voters and will be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at the election office within seven days.
Los Angeles, like other California counties, processes and counts mail-in ballots in roughly the order in which they are received, so the last ballots returned are the last to be counted.
The city of Los Angeles released the results of early returned and processed mail-in ballots and those cast that day Tuesday night after polls closed. Since then, the county has been processing and releasing the results of mail-in ballots that arrived later.
Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra speaks at an election night watch party for the 2026 California gubernatorial primary on June 2, 2026 in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Aud Gerucci | Reuters
Election data shows that a large number of Democrats retained their mail-in ballots and returned them by the final day of the campaign, which helps explain why Mr. Bass and Mr. Raman have performed better than Mr. Platt in vote counting since primary day.
The mayor’s race is nonpartisan, so no candidates listed their political party next to their name on the ballot. Mr. Raman and Mr. Bass are both Democrats, while Mr. Pratt is a Republican.
On election night, Bass held a 4.4-point lead over Pratt, who held an 8.1-point lead over Raman. Since then, the gap between Bass and Pratt has widened to nearly eight points, with Raman now leading Pratt by about 0.4 points (3,100 votes). The Associated Press estimates there are just under 150,000 ballots left to be counted.
Delays in the count led some Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to allege fraud without providing evidence and say the Justice Department would investigate.
The president suggested that the state’s Democratic Party had committed some kind of fraud that would result in the two candidates he supported in the gubernatorial race, Pratt and Republican Steve Hilton, being removed from the top two spots and ineligible for the general election in November. Democrat Xavier Becerra has advanced to the general election in the gubernatorial race, but the AP has yet to decide on the second spot. Hilton has a 4.3 point lead over Democrat Tom Steyer in the race to advance to the general election as the second-place candidate, but that lead has shrunk by nearly half since election night.
Mayor Karen Bass speaks during a social gathering at a private residence in Venice, California, Sunday, May 31, 2026. Mr. Bass is running for re-election in the 2026 Los Angeles mayoral election to be held on June 2, 2026.
Kayla Bartkowski | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
The Los Angeles election is likely to be a referendum on Bass’s leadership, regardless of whether he runs against Raman or Pratt. However, the two will approach the election campaign from completely different directions.
Mr. Pratt, a conservative, will likely mount a more aggressive challenge to liberal governance in the Democratic-majority city. He has made reducing homelessness a key part of his campaign and harshly criticized Bass’ leadership during the January 2025 wildfires that destroyed his home and thousands of other homes in the Pacific Palisades. His candidacy has attracted a lot of attention because of his celebrity, but it is unclear whether the topic will garner enough votes to advance to a runoff.
Meanwhile, Raman intercepts the bus from the left. She promised to accelerate housing construction, bring back entertainment industry jobs and improve services in a city known for its dirty roads and crooked pavements. She was elected to the City Council with support from the Democratic Socialists of America, but the group did not officially endorse her in the mayoral race. Her last-minute candidacy came as a surprise, as she had previously supported Bass’ re-election bid.
