Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is seeking a second term in the June 2, 2026 nonpartisan primary, citing progress on homelessness, crime reduction, and housing development. Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman are among the leading candidates in the race, according to May 2026 polling and media coverage.
“In just three years, we’ve created change and turned things around. Street homelessness is down for the first time in modern memory. Crime has fallen, with homicide levels lower than they've been since the 1960s. We’re accelerating nearly 40,000 units of housing after decades of under-building. And we’ve launched LA’s first-ever infrastructure plan to fix the sidewalks, streets, and streetlights that were neglected for far too long.”
Bass added that she is running for a second term because the foundation is laid, and now the city can build a future where children no longer dodge tents on their walk to school, hardworking people can afford to live, and neighborhoods reflect the culture and spirit of Los Angeles.
Raman has challenged Bass’s record, focusing on housing shortages, fiscal management, and transportation. “Los Angeles has a cost crisis, and there's no way around the core problem: we haven't built enough housing.” She called for dramatically increasing housing production at all income levels, especially near transit and jobs, while protecting renters from displacement and creating pathways to affordable homeownership.
On homelessness, Raman proposed a new approach that includes investing in prevention, expanding mental health and medical care, creating faster pathways into lower-cost housing, better coordination across agencies, and clear metrics so public dollars are actually tied to outcomes. She also criticized the city’s fiscal condition, saying, “City Hall has been forced to cut services to the bone due to fiscal mismanagement and politically-motivated budget decisions that have bankrupted the city. As mayor, I’ll work to restore services and rebuild our infrastructure.”
Raman noted that half of all trips in Los Angeles are under three miles but unsafe for walking or biking due to inadequate infrastructure. She pledged to build out transit and street safety improvements, citing that buses remain slow because they share congested roads with cars.