LA Mayoral Race Second Place Separated by One Point With 78% Counted
The Los Angeles mayoral primary illustrates how ranked-preference dynamics and late ballot drops can reshape municipal outcomes with direct implications for federal urban-policy grant recipients.
With approximately 78 percent of ballots counted as of June 6, 2026, the Los Angeles mayoral primary shows incumbent Mayor Karen Bass leading with 34.8 percent of the vote, according to Los Angeles County election results reported by the New York Post and the Los Angeles Times. The contest for the second runoff slot — which determines who will face Bass in a November general election — has narrowed to a margin of roughly one percentage point between City Council member Nithya Raman at 26.2 percent and candidate Spencer Pratt, per the same ballot count data.
The significance of the second-place finish extends beyond city limits. Los Angeles is the recipient of multiple federal grants administered through the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, including recovery funds tied to the January 2026 wildfires. The mayoral office holds authority over how those federal allocations are prioritized and contracted, making the race directly relevant to federal spending oversight. USASpending.gov records show the City of Los Angeles received more than $1.2 billion in federal awards in fiscal year 2025 across multiple agencies.
Prediction market Polymarket was cited by the New York Post as projecting Raman would advance to the runoff based on the trajectory of late-arriving ballots, though prediction markets are not official vote tallies and carry no binding electoral authority. California election law requires county registrars to count all ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within 30 days, meaning the final certified result may differ from the current tally. The Los Angeles County Registrar has not yet issued a certified count as of the date of this report.
The race does not map cleanly onto national party lines — both Raman and Bass are Democrats, and the Los Angeles mayoral race is officially nonpartisan under the City Charter. However, the outcome carries policy consequences for federally funded programs including Section 8 housing vouchers administered through the Los Angeles Housing Authority and infrastructure grants under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (P.L. 117-58), signed in November 2021.
What remains unknown is the final certified vote share for each candidate. The Los Angeles County Registrar's official canvass, which is the public record that would settle the second-place question, is expected to be completed within 30 days of the election under California Elections Code Section 15372. That document, once published, will be the definitive source for any final reporting on this race.