A New Generation Has Arrived in LA Politics. Is Nithya Raman Ready to Lead It?

**Michelle Obama** (0:00)
As Americans, we're constantly grappling with a fundamental question. Do we settle for the world as it is?
Or do we strive to create the world as it should be? Our answers tend to ebb and flow through the decades. But once, just after a war that nearly tore us apart, we came as close as we've come to answering it. And it's a story worth a closer look. I'm Michelle Obama, and I'm proud to announce Higher Ground's new podcast, Reconstruction, The Unfinished Promise.
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**Nithya Raman** (1:00)
There was always a vague sense of, okay, let's figure out how to fix the problems. Let's figure out how to make things better for everyone.
Let's improve this.

**Sam Fragoso** (1:10)
You have a problem-solving instinct.

**Nithya Raman** (1:12)
I believe, yes.

**Sam Fragoso** (1:13)
And where do you think that comes from?

**Nithya Raman** (1:14)
I don't know. I really don't.

**Sam Fragoso** (1:16)
You must have asked your therapist this.

**Nithya Raman** (1:17)
We focused on other stuff.

**Sam Fragoso** (1:21)
That's not making the short list?
What's the top five? You go in there, what are the top things, besides Spencer Pratt?
This is Talk Easy. I'm Sam Fragoso. Welcome to the show.
Today, Los Angeles City Council member and mayoral candidate, Nithya Raman. Six years ago, she was a political newcomer, an urban planner, a housing activist, mother of two, an immigrant and naturalized citizen who had never held elected office before deciding to challenge a sitting member of the Los Angeles City Council. She won, positioning herself as both the performer and pragmatist. However, the political backdrop to her 2020 victory, and also her re-election in 2024, has been marked by various overlapping crises. Rising housing costs, increased homelessness, spikes in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, a Hollywood and freefall, and a sense that the city and its elected officials were not fit to meet the moment. Los Angeles is at a breaking point, Raman has repeatedly claimed, and is for that very reason that she decided to throw her hat in the ring at the 11th hour, to become the city's next mayor. And so today, in her first long form interview since edging out Spencer Pratt in the June 2nd primary, we discussed why she decided to take on incumbent Karen Bass, the daylight between their respective platforms, and why she believes she has the answers to many of the city's innumerable problems. This is Nithya Raman. Nithya, welcome to the show.

**Nithya Raman** (3:09)
Thank you for having me.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:10)
How are you doing?

**Nithya Raman** (3:12)
I'm doing well.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:13)
You've been busy?

**Nithya Raman** (3:14)
A little bit. A little bit. Yeah. It's been really interesting to be able to run for the seat. So much of it is unexpected. I didn't think about it for weeks and do polls and things like that, and so I jumped into it not quite knowing what I would get into.
The word endurance, I think, is really important because the race is enormous. It's a big city, you have to do so much, and I had to do it in a much shorter time period than most candidates who run for mayor of Los Angeles.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:47)
So can we talk about this timeline? Because you recently advanced to the November runoff for LA mayor edging out former reality star Spencer Pratt. You're going up against incumbent Karen Bass, who you yourself had endorsed back in 2025
Between your endorsement of her and then your decision to get into the race, I think just hours before the filing deadline on February 7th, what happened between that period?

**Nithya Raman** (4:17)
When you're an incumbent in city hall and the mayor asks for your endorsement, you have to fight for your residence.
I gave my endorsement to this mayor, not seeing anyone else getting into the race, and thinking about what I would need to do in order to be able to serve my constituents as their council member. How do I make sure that I get everything that they deserve from the city? The mayor is a key piece of that. But as the end of the filing deadline came closer, I expected that more people would get into the race. This was a period last year was a profoundly challenging year for the city of Los Angeles between the fires and the ice raids and economic instability in the city. And I felt like many Angelenos that there's just this profound feeling of rudderlessness, of a directionless-ness in the city.