{"id":146285,"date":"2026-05-19T11:43:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/city-council-progressives-snub-raman-endorse-bass-in-la-mayors-race\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T11:46:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:46:04","slug":"city-council-progressives-snub-raman-endorse-bass-in-la-mayors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/city-council-progressives-snub-raman-endorse-bass-in-la-mayors-race\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council progressives snub Raman, endorse Bass in LA mayor’s race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Three members of the Los Angeles City Council’s progressive caucus are throwing their support behind Mayor Karen Bass’s re-election bid, dealing a blow to challenger Nithya Raman, her progressive colleague on the council. <\/p>\n

The council members supporting Bass \u2013 Eunice Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto-Martinez \u2013 are all members of the Democratic Socialists of America, as is Ramon. The four regularly expressed disagreement over increased police spending and the creation of new anti-cantonment zones in the city. <\/p>\n

Hernandez and Jurado plan to announce their endorsements of Bass on Tuesday, with each citing his handling of the Trump administration’s immigration raids over the summer and his work to reduce homelessness as important reasons for supporting the mayor.<\/p>\n

“When immigrant communities across our city were under attack, Karen Bass stood up and spoke out. She showed real leadership and conviction,” Hernandez, who represents a district that runs from Pico-Union to Highland Park, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Soto-Martinez, who endorsed Bass earlier this year, joined his DSA colleagues in a statement in which he said he was surprised by Raman’s surprise decision to challenge Bass, which he announced just before the filing period ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when we disagree, I have never doubted Mayor Bass and his long-term commitment to the community,\u201d Soto-Martinez said. <\/p>\n

Raman himself endorsed the mayor’s re-election bid two weeks before jumping into the race. Raman later said that his endorsement for mayor actually came months before it was officially announced.<\/p>\n

Despite being part of the progressive faction, Raman has taken a more centrist stance when running for citywide office. She now says that the LAPD should maintain its current sworn officer power, and said that if elected mayor she would not stop council members from creating anti-encampment zones in their districts. Raman had previously occasionally voted against hiring officers and even posted “Defund the Police” on Instagram during his first council run.<\/p>\n

He has repeatedly voted against imposing anti-encampment zones during his tenure on the council, saying it diverts the problem elsewhere.<\/p>\n

But he has also promised reforms that are often considered progressive, such as allowing denser buildings in single-family neighborhoods, releasing a stronger climate plan, and calling for the removal of Bass’s police chief, Jim McDonnell, in favor of a chief committed to protecting immigrants, according to his website. <\/p>\n

Analysts said Tuesday’s planned endorsement was intended to weaken Raman’s appeal to progressives. <\/p>\n

“This is a huge blow to Councilwoman Nithya Raman,” said Mike Trujillo, a Democratic consultant in Los Angeles. “If people sitting a few inches away from him are rejecting his candidacy, then that should be communicated to every other voter in the city.” <\/p>\n

Polls show Bass leading all candidates in the June 2 primary election, but without majority support he won outright. That would set up a possible showdown on November 3 against Raman or former reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, who is gunning for second place. <\/p>\n

Raman did not respond to a request for comment on the endorsement. <\/p>\n

Raman suggested that Bass may want to oust him in the primary because the mayor would prefer to face Pratt in a possible November 3 contest. Although the race is non-partisan, Pratt is a Republican in a city where GOP registration is less than 15%.<\/p>\n

Bass has denied that she would rather face Pratt than Raman.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think he’s any better as a competitor. I don’t want any competitors, how about this?” the mayor said during a one-on-one debate with Raman at the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association. <\/p>\n

The mayor’s endorsement of the progressive faction highlighted the fragmented nature of the city’s left-leaning electorate this cycle.<\/p>\n

Despite endorsing six in other local races, the DSA declined to endorse in the mayor’s race, in which two candidates \u2013 Raman and community organizer Rai Huang \u2013 are both dues-paying members of the leftist group. Instead the DSA said it “recommended” voting for Raman, falling short of a formal endorsement.<\/p>\n

\u201cProgressive voters are still dancing between Raman and Rai,\u201d said former progressive L.A. City Council member Mike Bonin, who now leads the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA.<\/p>\n

Bonin said Bass’s announcement of the endorsement is “an attempt to deceive Nithya”, although he also said that an endorsement is not extremely significant for someone with Bass’s level of name recognition, as voters are already very familiar with him.<\/p>\n

Zev Yaroslavsky, another former L.A. Council member who now leads the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said the support may have less to do with political ideology and more to do with council members wanting to maintain a working relationship with the mayor, who is voting ahead of Raman.<\/p>\n

“These are people who have worked with Bass and achieved things from the mayor’s administration and want to continue that,” Yaroslavsky said.<\/p>\n

Still, the council could benefit from support from progressive members on Election Day, Yaroslavsky said. <\/p>\n

“These endorsements give Bass some credibility among a segment of voters that might not necessarily have been there for him,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three members of the Los Angeles City Council’s progressive caucus are throwing their support behind Mayor Karen Bass’s re-election bid, dealing a blow to challenger Nithya Raman, her progressive colleague on the council. The council members supporting Bass \u2013 Eunice Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto-Martinez \u2013 are all members of the Democratic Socialists of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[7129,1315,189,6551,4140,22710,1197,13080,14321],"class_list":["post-146285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bible-verse","tag-bass","tag-city","tag-council","tag-endorse","tag-mayors","tag-progressives","tag-race","tag-raman","tag-snub"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146289,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146285\/revisions\/146289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}