Raman, a City Council member, is set to meet Mayor Karen Bass in the sole live televised debate of the mayoral contest, carrying an eleven-point polling advantage into that forum while roughly one-third of the electorate has yet to settle on a preference.
Mail-in ballots are already in the hands of voters, with polling day set to fall on 3 November. Coverage from one news outlet identified housing costs, homelessness, public safety, economic growth, and the city's readiness for the 2028 Olympics as subjects likely to arise during the discussions.
Surveying likely voters, the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies — with the Los Angeles Times as co-sponsor — placed Raman at 39 per cent support, eleven points ahead of Bass at 28 per cent. One in three likely voters had yet to make up their mind, according to the survey.
Fielded across five days in mid-September — from the 15th through the 20th — the web-based poll drew responses from 2,150 residents expected to cast ballots in the city, carrying a sampling margin of roughly three percentage points in either direction. Ballots had not yet been distributed when the survey was conducted.
Polling of probable Latino voters placed Raman at 45 per cent against Bass at 21 per cent, with the remaining 34 per cent yet to commit to either candidate. Broadcasting coverage noted that Bass took issue with the poll's findings, disputing any characterisation of Raman as the leading candidate in the race.
The pair of contenders share a Democratic Party affiliation. The partnership stayed intact right up to the point Raman entered the race by submitting paperwork on the February filing deadline.
Having backed Bass at the start of the year, Raman later put her own name forward for the race, telling reporters that residents had not been receiving adequate basic services from the city, a broadcast news outlet reported. A runner-up finish went to her in the June primary contest, with Bass taking first place and Spencer Pratt — who had appeared on reality television — landing further down the ballot.
A large portion of those backing Pratt have yet to settle on a runoff preference, leaving the pool of undecided voters notably wide. Disagreements over the municipal police department have grown pointed as the race has progressed.
A victory for Raman, who is 45, would place her in the mayor's office as the first person of Indian-American heritage to hold that position in Los Angeles, a city that ranks second in population across the United States. Born in India, she relocated to the United States during her childhood and went on to secure a seat on the City Council for the first time in 2020.
Raman's candidacy sits alongside a number of other Indian-American campaigns in the 3 November contests, each representing a potential first for that community. Candidate races for mayor of Los Angeles operate outside the formal party-affiliation system. Absent an outright majority in the June primary, the two candidates with the highest vote totals move forward to face each other in the November runoff.
