It’s happy hour on Friday night at the Distrito Catorras bar in Boyle Heights, and regulars notice there are a few more unfamiliar faces than usual in the crowd listening to Spanish-language jams.
The reason becomes immediately clear, as Los Angeles City Council member Nitya Raman arrives Hora Feliz Con Nithya, Sipping a Tajín-rimmed drink and making the rounds to run her campaign for mayor.
Albert Orozco, 24, said he appreciated her efforts to reach out to Latino voters, including an ad in which Ramon speaks Spanish.
“We need a mayor who can communicate directly with the Spanish-speaking community,” Orozco said. He said he voted for Karen Bass four years ago but is considering voting for Raman in the June 2 primary election.
Latinos make up about 37% of L.A. voters, making their vote crucial for anyone with mayoral ambitions. This includes campaigns placing advertisements and social media posts in Spanish, canvassing in majority Latino neighborhoods, and rallying key support.
“Whoever wins the Latino vote will win the election,” said Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University.
Currently, it appears the current mayor is Bass, making it an uphill climb for Raman and other candidates.
A poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Government Studies, co-sponsored by The Times, found that Bass leads with the support of 29% of Latino voters; Former TV reality star Spencer Pratt was followed at 16%, community organizer Rae Huang at 14% and Raman at 9%. Tech entrepreneur Adam Miller received 3% support.
In April, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs Poll Bass also got a massive boost.
“I think he has an opportunity to consolidate the Latino vote with a strong primary performance,” said Matt Barreto, a professor of political science and Chicana/o studies at UCLA. “This is for the taking.”
But there is plenty of room for any candidate to make headway: Both surveys found that a large share of Latino voters were undecided, giving the contenders a chance to win them over in the coming weeks. And as the final round of primaries approaches, the campaign is moving into full swing.
Ruben Jr., of East Los Angeles, no last name given, holds a photo of his father Ruben Sr. during mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt’s community meet-and-greet outside a home for sale in Sherman Oaks on Saturday.
(Etienne Laurent/For The Times)
In general, turnout in primary elections in L.A. is quite low, Barreto said, especially in Latino communities, so candidates competing for their votes need continued outreach to Latino neighborhoods.
In the last mayoral election in 2022, voter turnout increased across all demographic groups, but the share of Latino voters remained the same. This has been attributed in part to Latinos’ young demographics, immigration status, and lack of voter history in the U.S. That year, Latinos made up 35% of the electorate but less than a quarter of the vote.
Guerra said there’s often an assumption that Latinos won’t turn out in as many numbers as other groups, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. A successful campaign could break that cycle, he said.
Those efforts could be bolstered by the governor’s race, which features prominent Latino candidates, including former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
“The energy in that race could be because of the historic presence of Latinos in L.A.,” said Michael Trujillo, a Democratic strategist who is supporting Villaraigosa. “So the question for the candidates running for mayor is: Who is best positioned to ride that historic wave?”
A pinata rests against a tree at the Evans Democratic Club’s Politics and Tacos event at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park in Los Angeles on Saturday.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
In March, Bass launched Latino con Bass in Lincoln Park. The event included State Senator Maria Elena Durazo, Angelica Salas, President of the Californians for the Humane Immigrant Leadership Action Fund or CHIRLA Action Fund, and Nilja Serrano, President of the Evans Democratic Club.
In meetings with Latino leaders and in her TV campaign ads, Bass has emphasized the stance she took against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids launched by the Trump administration in Los Angeles last year.
Salas said of Bass, “She stood here in the city of Los Angeles in some of the darkest, toughest moments when ICE and Border Patrol were on our streets.” His organization is the political advocacy arm of CHIRLA, which helps families affected by immigration raids. “She fought to keep our families together.”
Serrano said Bass earned Evans’ endorsement this year after a rocky relationship after the group endorsed Rick Caruso for mayor in 2022. Bass suggested that Caruso had bought support but later apologized.
Serrano said, “We had a very frank, very honest conversation about some of the things that the Latino community is missing under his administration, and he didn’t shy away from it, which was quite impressive.” “She said ‘Help me get better.'”
Bass credits her support to years of grassroots support from Latinos.
“We organized together in the living room in the 1980s,” he said in a statement. “We have fought together since then for our schools, our streets, and our families. … This is not something you build in a campaign – it is earned day after day.”
He also won over Council Member Monica Rodriguez, who said she was voting for Bass.
“Obviously I’ve been a vocal critic and he and I have had disagreements on policies,” Rodriguez said in an interview. But, he said, Bass is exceptional for his leadership, such as his involvement in averting a strike by LA Unified School District employees. “It’s very practical about how I can make sure I can best protect the city.”
Council member and mayoral candidate Nitya Raman speaks to the crowd at a “Families for Nitya” event in the West Adams community of South Los Angeles on Saturday.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Raman says Latino voters “are a central part of our growing coalition.”
“We’ve held campaign events to meet the Latino community, we’ve been attending major cultural events and our volunteers of all backgrounds are knocking on doors across the city,” he said in a statement.
Polls show Pratt, a former reality TV star whose home burned in the Palisades fire, is second only to Bass for the Latino vote. His campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
The account Latinos por Prats is not affiliated with his campaign, but supports his run for mayor.
Adrian E. Alvarez, who runs the group’s website, created a song titled “Spencer, Saca La Bastura”, a reference to the prat adjective for mayor from the Spanish word for trash. Pratt recently posted a five-minute video in which he condemned Bass’s past trips to Cuba and claimed that “the thing the Hispanic community hates more than disgusting politicians…is communists.”
“Our Latino brothers and sisters have seen the evils of communism, and they have been overcome by it,” Pratt says in the video.
Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt speaks to supporters on camera during an event in Sherman Oaks on Saturday.
(Etienne Laurent/For The Times)
Claudia Agraz, a board member of the Los Angeles Hispanic Republican Club, said she plans to vote for Pratt because she feels that under Bass, the city has not provided adequate funding for the fire and police departments.
Agraz said, “What we have right now is not working for us, and it would be good to see a change for better outcomes for the city of Los Angeles.”
Some conservative Latinos are reluctant to support Pratt. Hispanic Republican Club President David Hernandez said he was a fan of Pratt because he rallied for victims of the Palisades fire, but the candidate lacks the executive experience to run a city.
“You can’t be a head chef in the kitchen without a little knowledge of how chorizo is made,” Hernandez said.
Pratt’s support in L.A. will be extreme, UCLA’s Barreto said, noting that the candidate has not taken as tough a stance against ICE raids as other candidates. During a televised mayoral debate this month, Pratt was asked to clarify his position on working with ICE.
“Whether they’re legal or illegal, if they’re a threat – I want them off our streets, that’s what I said,” Pratt said during the May 6 debate. “ICE won’t come here because … whoever they’re looking for will be in jail when I’m mayor.”
Two others in the race — Huang, a community activist, and Miller, a tech entrepreneur — are lagging far behind in the polls, but are also vying for a share of the Latino vote.
Huang makes efforts every day to meet people in every corner of the community, said Amy Quichiz, Huang’s co-campaign manager, who is of Colombian and Peruvian descent.
“As Latinos we know we don’t trust politicians,” he said. “So if you know Rae like, ‘Oh, she’s your contractor’s friend,’ ‘Rae is our granny’s friend’… she’s your verifier, and they’ll trust her.”
Miller spent years working on the Eastside to address the homelessness crisis, through her nonprofit Better Angels. In late April, he spent an afternoon in Boyle Heights and met with 50 business owners and residents who shared concerns about public safety and infrastructure.
Miller said, “It’s true that Karen Bass has support – mostly Latinas – and she will maintain that support, so it’s off the table for challengers.” But he added: “The people who haven’t decided have already decided they’re not supporting Bass, so they just have to decide who they’re supporting against Bass. And that’s why it’s a wide-open race right now.”
