‘City of immigrants’: Who is Nithya Raman, the Los Angeles mayor-elect?

“The idea that Angelenos voted for an immigrant to be their next mayor at this moment in American history is so deeply moving to me,” the 45-year-old said. Raman’s victory means that three of the world’s most influential cities – New York, Los Angeles and London – will now be led by individuals of South Asian descent.

A democratic socialist, she also gives the progressive movement another leader in a major US city, after New York and Washington, DC. The result came amid a dominant showing by Democrats in US midterm elections , in which the party wrested control of both chambers of Congress and scored its biggest landslide victory in half a century.

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which backed Raman’s campaign, also claimed an impressive series of wins , with 105 of its endorsed candidates on track to secure elected office, according to the group. For Raman, the victory provides a bigger platform to address central planks of her political vision for the US’s second-largest city, including tackling its longstanding homelessness crisis and expanding affordable housing.