Los Angeles Mayor: How Far Left Will LA (and America) Go?

The LA mayoral race between establishment Democrat Karen Bass and Democratic Socialist Nithya Raman embodies the 2026 Midterm Elections. Their housing platforms reflect the tale of the tape.

The mayoral race in Los Angeles asks the quintessential question of the 2026 elections: how far left will America take it?

The airtight race comes to a close today. Results could take longer. If we dare to be reductive, Los Angeles has a fairly clear choice: moderate Democrat versus progressive socialist.

Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass has been in the game for decades. She’s a former California Assembly Speaker and six-term member of Congress.

The main challenger, Nithya Raman, is a democratic socialist and urban planner representing next-gen liberal politics in Los Angeles. Bass embodies the city's Democratic establishment, and Raman is coming at her from the left.

It’s hard to find a more poignant issue in LA than affordable housing and homelessness. The fact that just 3% of all rental units built in LA County between 2018 and 2023 were affordable to poor residents encapsulates LA’s rental market well; It is an expensive disaster.

To deal with LA’s housing problem, LA’s mayoral candidates offer different solutions. Bass offers the familiar path; Raman offers the radical one.

Bass has pursued significant affordable-housing reforms herself, most notably streamlining the approval process for affordable housing unit construction. But the approvals haven't translated perfectly into permitting and construction.

Perhaps affordable housing's biggest hurdle is homeowner resistance in fear of the effects of low-income units on safety and property values. Zoning laws often prevent high-density housing from being built in affluent, single-family neighborhoods.

Raman wants big-time zoning and permitting changes to pave the way for construction of lower-cost housing. Her plan would allow denser housing in single-family neighborhoods near transit hubs, which would fundamentally and permanently change the character of those neighborhoods. Make no mistake: Raman’s solution isn't establishment policy.

As for homelessness, Bass's marquee move was the 2022 Inside Safe program, which focused on getting people off the streets and into temporary accommodations, including shelters and motels. Look at the streets. Did it work? She says Inside Safe is already showing results.

Raman says it costs far more than it delivers. LA has spent over $300,000,000 on Inside Safe. Raman wants to put the money into cheaper options, including short-term rental vouchers and shared housing.

Major government intervention in certain essential goods and services, like housing, food, fuel, and healthcare, is textbook democratic socialist policy. Critics of socialism worry that expanding government doesn't stop at housing, healthcare, or economic policy; that it can extend into personal freedoms, privacy, and the boundaries of state power.

The race for LA mayor was tied in the last big poll before Election Day, but the national weather is looking socialist.

DSA success goes well beyond Los Angeles. Here’s our coverage of races involving socialist candidates.