The Los Angeles mayor's race is shaping up to be a doozy, with the late announcement by City Councilmember Nithya Raman that she’ll challenge her longtime ally incumbent Karen Bass.
The next mayor will face enormous challenges, including the continuing rebuilding efforts from the Palisades Fire, the ongoing homelessness crisis and preparations for the 2028 Olympics.
There are 40 candidates in all. The list does not include former L.A. schools superintendent and businessman Austin Beutner, who dropped out at the last minute because of the unexpected death of his 22-year-old daughter.
Nor does it include billionaire developer Rick Caruso, who declined to stage a rematch against Bass. He lost to her in 2022, despite spending more than $100 million of his own money.
And L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath opted not to run at the Friday night before the Saturday deadline for filing.
The primary election is in June. If nobody gets a majority of the vote, the top two finishers will face off in a November runoff.
Here is the list of candidates:
Karen Bass, incumbent mayor
Karen Bass, 72, is the incumbent. She’s a native of South L.A. who previously served in the state Legislature as speaker of the Assembly and as a member of Congress.
She has several early endorsements and a campaign war chest topping $2.4 million raised so far. None of the other candidates are listed in the latest Ethics Commission report as having raised any money.
Nine members of the 15-member City Council back Bass, as do a number of labor unions and business groups.
She touts a drop in homelessness and the lowest crime rate in 60 years as among her accomplishments. But she’s been criticized for her handling of the Palisades Fire. Bass was out of town when it broke out and there have been reports that she urged the city Fire Department to water down a report assessing the agency’s response to the fire.
For more information her campaign, go to: karenbass.com
Nithya Raman, LA council member
Nithya Raman, 44, is in her second term on the L.A. City Council, representing District 4, which stretches from Silver Lake to Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley She was born in India and moved to the U.S. with her family when she was 6 years old.
She was the first person in nearly two decades to oust an incumbent council member when she was first elected in 2020. Raman, an urban planner, was also the first in a wave of progressives elected to the council with the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America. She is also aligned with YIMBY groups that want more housing density in the city.
Housing is a top issue for Raman, who has helped lead the fight for stricter rent control measures. She founded a nonprofit in L.A. called SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition that provided direct aid like meals and showers as well as case management.
It does not appear that there is a website for Raman's mayoral campaign. Her page on the city website can be found here.
Adam Miller, tech entrepreneur
Adam Miller, 56, is a tech entrepreneur from West Los Angeles who co-founded Better Angels, a nonprofit focused on preventing homelessness and building affordable housing. He made his fortune developing education software.
Miller’s company was called Cornerstone OnDemand. The publicly traded company was sold in 2021 to a private equity firm for $5.2 billion, according to the Los Angeles Times. According to his website, Miller grew up in New Jersey and went to graduate school at UCLA.
He said L.A. is not short on resources, compassion or talent but on leadership — and that he can provide that leadership. He has said he’ll spend some of his own money on his campaign but that he’ll also raise money from contributors.
For more information on Miller's campaign go to: votemiller.com/
Spencer Pratt, reality TV star and influencer
Spencer Pratt, 42, is a former star of the MTV reality series The Hills, which aired from 2006 to 2010 and The Hills: New Beginnings, which ran from 2019 to 2021. He is a social media influencer with more than one million followers on Instagram. He grew up in L.A. and earned a political science degree from USC.
Pratt lost his home in the Palisades Fire and has been an outspoken critic of Bass’ handling of the fire. He told NBC News his house was “stolen by criminal negligence.”
Pratt has said he would direct the Police Department to cooperate with federal immigration authorities to catch criminal unauthorized immigrants. He is endorsed by Richard Grenell, the former director of national intelligence in the Trump Administration.
For more information on Pratt's campaign go to: mayorpratt.com
Rae Huang, minister and organizer
The Rev. Rae Huang, 43, is a Presbyterian minister and community organizer who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She is the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants and grew up on the East Coast.
As deputy director of Housing Now! California, Huang directed statewide campaigns to make housing affordable and end the displacement of working class communities, according to her website. She is also an organizer with Clergy for Black Lives, a collective of Southern California faith leaders who advocate for racial justice, police accountability and support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
She touts how she led efforts to expand tenant protections under SB 567, which closed loopholes in “no-fault” just cause evictions and imposed stricter penalties on landlords for violations. Huang also points out that she supported the passage of a social housing study bill SB 555, which requires the state to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the opportunities for the creation of social housing.
Huang has said she wants to expand public housing in the city of L.A., provide free bus service and reduce spending on the Police Department investing instead in more unarmed crisis responders.
For more information on Huang's campaign, go to: www.raeforla.com/
Other candidates
These are the other candidates for mayor, as they are listed on the City Clerk’s website.
Misael Ortega, painting contractor
Cassandra Faye Floyd, minister
Jeffrey Carmichael, software systems architect
Tish Hyman, musician/entrepreneur
Juanita Lopez, political scientist
Stevie Maceo Milan, sales representative
Asaad Alnajjar, engineering manager, City of Los Angeles
Griselda Diaz, administrative manager/activist
Keeldar Shawn Hamilton, transportation coordinator
Nick Harron, writer
Alyxandria-Jamil Carter, professional artist
Robert “Goody” Goodman, entrepreneur/financial advisor
Joseph Garcia, gardener/advocate/naturalist
Andrew K. Kim, attorney-at-law
Franziska Von Fischer, real estate investor
Vincent Wali, nurse
Nelson Cheng, streamer/behavioral interventionist
Andreja A. Selivra, enterprise technical architect
Bryant Acosta, chief creative officer
Suzy Kim, mental health professional
Jeanne Moller Fontana, mental health activist
Preston James Miller
Ernesto G. Castelli, writer
Caremenlina Minasova, human rights activist
Jerry R. Tyler, businessman
Katya Forsyth, compost industry professional
Erik Daniel Garcia, entrepreneur
Alyssa Ball, science education advocate
Laura Garza, union rail worker
Victor Montes, community services professional
Douglas Nichols, chief executive officer
Debra “Jerri” Duggan, housing developer
Benji Guerrero, artist/health educator
Eoin Richard Connolly, journalist
John Logsdon, neighborhood council board member
