Nithya Raman Continues to Demonstrate She’s Unfit for Office

Los Angeles voters managed the impossible in the 2026 primaries: They voted for the one candidate who would be worse than Karen Bass

At this point, many Angelenos are wondering whether Nithya Raman is fit to be a member of the Los Angeles city council, much less to serve as the city’s next mayor. The Democratic Socialist (a contradiction in terms if ever there was one) has been all over the map in terms of her political positions. She consistently fails to answer the simplest, most direct questions. Most politicians bloviate and obfuscate; Raman has elevated it to a new level.

She claims to be an outsider who will bring change to the city. She’s nothing of the sort. She’s been on city council for six (thoroughly unremarkable) years. Before that she served in various roles with various nonprofits. In other words, she’s been part of the ecosystem of benefactors and beneficiaries that are running the city into the ground. The only change she’d likely bring would be to accelerate, not reverse, the decline.

A prime example of her inability to answer the most basic of questions came after the debate with Karen Bass on Tuesday night in Universal City. As she stepped off the dais, NBC4 reporter Robert Kovacik asked her what she thought her strongest and weakest moments were up on the dais. She responded, “Oh, you know, to be honest with you, I’m so sorry, but I was in a fugue state, and I don’t remember very much of it at all.”

Bizarre doesn’t begin to describe her answer. Kovacik asked the most basic question possible, and Raman deflected. It was the political equivalent of asking her to recite her ABC’s, and she flubbed it. Also, you know a politician is about to lie when he or she says “to be honest with you.”

The Harvard and MIT graduate even managed to get the term wrong. A fugue state isn’t just synonymous with temporary amnesia (which would be strange and deeply troubling enough). It describes a person wandering or traveling to an unfamiliar place. The word “fugue” is derived from the Latin word fuge, which means “fleeing or running away.”

To see a politician truly appear to be in a fugue state, revisit the video of Bass staring blankly and silently into space after a Sky News reporter confronted her about her absence from the city and country during the first day and a half of the Palisades Fire.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 2026 candidates for Los Angeles Mayor. Now please give me a moment as I silently bang my head on my desk.

Thank you.

Someone must have subsequently jogged Raman’s memory. An hour after the debate her campaign released an Instagram video of the candidate at Lawless Brewing in North Hollywood boasting about her debate performance. And yesterday she released a video attacking Bass for “twisting” her words during the debate about the Los Angeles Police Department’s relationship with ICE.

Even by the standards of modern politics the Los Angeles mayor’s race has been shockingly devoid of substance. With the city mired in myriad crises including homelessness, affordability, the ongoing collapse of Hollywood, a catastrophically underfunded fire department, crime and mobility, the race has devolved into two grown women sniping at each other like eighth grade mean girls. It’s pathetic.

Neither deserves the office, but Raman is the worst of the two. Last week she delivered a pair of doozies. First, she appeared in an Instagram media with a left wing troll in which she declared “only you can stop fascist liars” as images of Bass and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell appeared on screen with red X’s across their faces. Lest anyone still be in doubt, Choi wore a t-shirt with the same caption, and his first question to Raman was “What is your plan to de-fascisize this city?”

That’s a new one, “de-fascisize.”

Karen Bass is a lot of things, but the former member of the Cuban Revolution Venceremos Brigade and lifelong Fidel Castro superfan is not a fascist. In the face of intense blowback, Raman’s campaign quickly deleted the video and issued a ham-fisted excuse about editing. She didn’t apologize, which, of course, would have been the right thing to do.

Also in the space of a week, Raman took almost every possible position on whether she would fire McDonnell. On Saturday, she told ABC7’s Marc Brown that she would look to replace him when his term ends in 2030. On the same day, when the California Post’s Jamie Paige sought clarification, Raman said, “Chief McDonnell is Mayor Bass’s police chief…. [His] term ends in 2030 and I would expect to replace him prior to that.” Then, on Wednesday, she told NBC4 that she would seek to replace him before the 2028 Olympics.

Everyone got it?

Raman is incapable of answering direct questions directly. Every answer is a muddled mess of double speak and political balderdash. Her debate performances have been meandering messes. The only time she appears polished is in scripted, pre-recorded social media posts.

Sometimes a politician simply doesn’t pass the eye test. Raman is one of them. The final nail is her stormy romance with the Democratic Socialists of America. She cannot even answer the direct question of whether she considers herself a capitalist. When asked during a July appearance on CNN, she replied, ““We are in a capitalist system. It’s the city government. The role is the mayor of Los Angeles. You operate within this context. And I’ll do whatever it takes in order to deliver for my residents.”

So that clears that right up.

With less than two and a half weeks to go before Election Day, it’s clear that Nithya Raman would be a disaster for Los Angeles. In that way, she’d be on brand for the city. In the 21st Century each L.A. mayor has been worse than the last.

For now, Angeleno voters need to hold their noses and vote for Bass. Then the city has four years to find someone who can finally start to right the ship. Let’s just hope that’s still possible.

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