Voters in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., will decide Nov. 3 whether to elect mayors backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
In Los Angeles, City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a DSA member, faces incumbent Karen Bass, a Democrat, in a runoff.
Bass finished first in the June 2 primary with about 34 percent of the vote, while Raman received about 29 percent, edging out Republican Spencer Pratt for the runoff spot.
Bass is backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and nearly every member of the city council, including several aligned with democratic socialists. Raman, who endorsed Bass before deciding to run against her, has support from groups including the Sierra Club and Our Revolution, which Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) founded.
The two have clashed over public safety. Bass, backed by the police union, has pushed to hire more officers and has called Raman’s positions on police hiring extreme. Raman has said she would replace the city’s police chief and keep the police department’s staffing at its current level.
At a recent debate, Raman said the city could not afford “another four years of decline,” and Bass told her she was “not ready for prime time.”
DSA’s Los Angeles chapter censured Raman, whom it described as a chapter member, in 2024 for seeking and accepting an endorsement from Democrats for Israel-Los Angeles. It kept its support for her reelection to the council.
DSA, DSA-LA, the Raman campaign, and Bass’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.
In Washington, Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, a self-described democratic socialist and the Democratic nominee, is running to replace Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is retiring after three terms.
The District has elected Democrats by large margins in the last three mayoral elections. Bowser won reelection in 2018 with 76.4 percent of the vote, and in 2022, she won reelection with 74.6 percent to Republican Stacia Hall’s 5.8 percent and Independent Rodney Grant’s 14.9 percent.
Lewis George won the June 16 Democratic primary, the city’s first using ranked-choice voting, and her top rival, Kenyan McDuffie, conceded. She faces D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate Robert Gross and Independent Rhonda Hamilton in the general election. No Republican is on the ballot.
Lewis George has campaigned on housing and childcare costs. Trump called her a communist in a post on Truth Social, and threatened during a press conference to invoke the Home Rule Act if she wins. Lewis George has said threatening the District’s home rule over how residents vote is an attack on democracy. The act would allow the president to take over D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department for up to 30 days in specific circumstances.
Lewis George’s campaign and Metro DC DSA did not respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times prior to publication.
The Epoch Times contacted the Republican National Committee about the possibility of Raman and Lewis George winning their races.
“Elections have consequences, and if Democrats want to continue paying sky high taxes to live in crime-ridden, feces-covered cities where politicians rip off residents to pad their own pockets, then they’re getting exactly what they bargained for by electing socialist candidates,” RNC National Press Secretary Natalie Baldassarre said in an emailed statement.
The Los Angeles and Washington votes come one year after two other major cities elected democratic-socialist mayors.
New York City elected Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, in November 2025. Days later, Katie Wilson, also a self-described democratic socialist, defeated Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. Wilson said at the time that she did not shy away from the socialist label but did not run on it, telling CNN after the race was called that voters care more about results than labels.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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