A Socialist Just Ousted Karen Bass. Now Socialists Run New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Los Angeles fired its mayor and hired a socialist. At 4:49 p.m. Wednesday, Decision Desk HQ projected that City Councilmember Nithya Raman beat Mayor Karen Bass, the first time an incumbent LA mayor has lost in 21 years. Raman is a member of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the same group behind New York’s Zohran Mamdani.

That makes it three for three. A year ago New York elected Mamdani. Tuesday night, Washington, D.C., elected Janeese Lewis George, a self-described democratic socialist, with 84.3% of the vote. Wednesday, Los Angeles followed. America’s two largest cities and its capital will all be run by socialists.

The count

The race isn’t certified yet. The county posts its next counts Thursday and Friday. Bass had not publicly conceded by Wednesday evening, and her campaign declined to comment to NBC Los Angeles. Raman had not posted a victory statement.

The race isn’t certified yet. The county posts new counts Thursday and Friday and plans to certify by Nov. 27. Bass had not conceded as of Wednesday night, and her campaign declined to comment to NBC Los Angeles. Raman had not posted a victory statement.

Old allies, sudden rivals

This was a Democrat-on-Democrat fight, and a personal one. Bass and Raman were allies; Raman had even backed Bass for a second term before jumping into the race at the last minute under the slogan “a city that works.” The two advanced from the June 2 nonpartisan primary, knocking out reality-TV star Spencer Pratt.

Bass never recovered from January 2025, when the Palisades fire broke out while she was on a trip to Ghana. Raman ran against the city’s decline: homelessness, potholes, broken streetlights. On election night at the Greek Theatre, she told supporters, “For too long our broken and unjust status quo has convinced Angelenos that this is the best that we can do,” LAist reported. Her plan promises to cut the number of people living in tents by at least half by 2028.

‘Prepare for Armageddon’

The people who patrol LA aren’t celebrating. Jamie McBride, a director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the LAPD officers’ union, told NBC Los Angeles on Wednesday: “If Nithya Raman becomes the mayor, the city needs to prepare for Armageddon.” The department is already short of officers ahead of the 2028 Olympics. “She won’t have to defund the police,” McBride said. “Police officers will just leave the department.”

Think of a team that’s already short on players hiring a coach the players don’t trust. That’s the worry, two years before the world shows up for the Games.

The capital’s new mayor

In Washington, there wasn’t much of a race. No Republican was on the ballot. Lewis George, the Ward 4 councilmember, took 151,539 votes, according to the D.C. Board of Elections, to 18,073 for independent Rhonda Hamilton. She replaces Muriel Bowser, who didn’t run after three terms. By Wednesday morning she had posted a video inviting residents to apply for jobs in her government and promising “universal access to child care” and a fight with “the utility companies.”

What it means

A year ago, Mamdani’s win looked like a New York quirk. It isn’t one anymore. The movement that started with campus organizers and council seats now holds the keys to the country’s media capital, its entertainment capital and its political capital, the three cities that set the tone for everybody else.

Now they have to run them. Raman takes office in December with a police force already bracing for her, a homeless crisis she promised to cut in half and an Olympics on the calendar. Voters who wanted change got it. The next two years will show what it costs.