Mayor Karen Bass is in the toughest reelection fight of her career. She says she intends to win it

Karen Bass promised bold action on homelessness when she took office in 2022, declaring a local emergency with allies. Her reelection campaign now faces a tougher environment as many voters associate her leadership with the 2025 Palisades fire and judge the response as inadequate. Multiple challengers have emerged, including City Councilmember Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt, who is running an insurgent campaign that frames homeless residents as a threat. Bass’s campaign does not expect a majority in the June 2 primary, but Bass says she will win the Nov. 3 runoff by pointing to progress on clearing encampments, fast-tracking affordable housing, and reducing homicides, which are at their lowest since 1966.

"On her first day in office in 2022, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass promised voters bold action, standing with her allies as she declared a local emergency on homelessness. That moment of political stagecraft, meant to herald a new era of confident leadership, seems like a political lifetime ago. Bass, running in the June 2 primary for a second and final term, faces the toughest reelection fight of her political career. Many voters now associate her with an entirely different emergency - the devastating 2025 Palisades fire - and view the response under her leadership as a failure."

""I think the city turned on her after the fires," said Michael Trujillo, a Democratic political strategist not involved in the mayor's race. "We saw an office and an administration that was not well equipped for a crisis." City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who applauded the mayor at her emergency declaration event, is now looking to unseat her. Reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, whose home was destroyed in the Palisades fire, is waging his own insurgent campaign, portraying homeless residents as a danger to stroller-pushing moms."

"Bass' campaign has acknowledged that it doesn't expect her to get a majority vote in Tuesday's election. Even so, Bass said she fully intends to win the Nov. 3 runoff by showing voters progress she has made in clearing homeless encampments, fast-tracking affordable housing and reducing homicides, which are at their lowest since 1966. "I have been fighting for change from Day One," she said in an interview. "That's very disruptive and can get people pissed off. But I'm going to do what needs to be done to address these problems.""

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