Nithya Raman leads the Los Angeles mayoral vote in Koreatown, receiving more support from neighborhood voters than Mayor Karen Bass and Republican candidate Spencer Pratt.
As ballot counting continues in the Los Angeles mayoral primary, Koreatown voters appear to have favored Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman more than any other leading candidate.
According to a precinct-level analysis by the Los Angeles Times, 9,017 votes were counted in the mayoral race across Koreatown.
Of those votes, 6,822 went to Bass, Raman or Pratt.
Raman received the largest share, finishing first with 2,611 votes. Bass followed with 2,337 votes, while Pratt received 1,874.
As of June 8, Bass remained in first place citywide with 93% of ballots counted. In Koreatown, however, Raman held the lead.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder divided Koreatown into 18 precincts for the election count.
Raman finished first in 11 of those precincts. Bass led in three precincts—9001541C, 9001815A and 9002065A—while Pratt led in one, precinct 9000884B.
Bass and Raman were tied in the remaining three precincts.
During the early stages of the count, Bass and Pratt occupied the top two positions, leaving Raman with what appeared to be a limited chance of advancing to the runoff.
The race shifted as later-counted ballots, including mail-in votes, were added.
With 93% of ballots counted as of June 8, Raman had received 229,576 votes, moving ahead of Pratt, who had 207,757. Bass remained comfortably in first place with 275,992 votes.
Raman is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America and has focused her campaign on housing, homelessness and the expansion of public services.
She has been nicknamed the “Mamdani of the West,” a reference to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is also identified with democratic socialist politics.
Pratt wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on June 8 that the candidates were separated by less than one percentage point, that hundreds of thousands of ballots remained and that Los Angeles election officials expected counting to continue for three more weeks.
The changing results also prompted allegations and questions about the election process from prominent conservative figures.
President Donald Trump questioned how Pratt could lose his apparent path to the runoff after holding a substantial lead earlier in the count. In a Truth Social post, Trump characterized the election as manipulated and compared the process to voting in a developing country.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also shared a post questioning California’s election administration and expressed skepticism about Raman’s rise in the vote count.
Election officials had not completed the count, and the final runoff candidates were expected to be determined after the remaining ballots were processed.
