Copyright The Boston Globe
“People in progressive spaces here are paying attention. It’s giving people a lot of hope,” said Meghan Choi, executive director of Ground Game LA, a progressive community organizing group. What’s more, she said, Mamdani’s success has whipped up interest in city government. “I’ve seen it all over, people who don’t normally pay attention to local politics bringing up Mamdani and saying, what does that look like for LA? Where is our Los Angeles Mamdani?” Sorry to be a buzzkill, but if Los Angeles does find its version of Mamdani, I don’t think it will be in 2026. It’s true that Angelenos and New Yorkers struggle with similar issues. The cities are too expensive for working people, it’s difficult for anyone to find safe and affordable housing, and the traffic is soul-killing. But the political dynamics are not the same. At least as important in Angelenos’ minds are crime and homelessness. Just last year Angelenos, frustrated by a spate of outrageous smash-and-grab thefts and rampant property crimes, ousted a progressive district attorney and replaced him with a law-and-order former federal prosecutor who had previously run for state attorney general as a Republican. And while Mayor Karen Bass is vulnerable to challenge next year, she is no Eric Adams, New York’s current mayor, or Andrew Cuomo, New York’s former governor and Mamdani’s chief opponent in the mayoral race. Bass’s biggest political stumble was flying off to Ghana as part of a diplomatic delegation despite the warnings of a potentially catastrophic wind storm in January. Her absence was evident when the Palisades fire broke out. She returned on her back foot and never quite recovered, and has since become a target for those looking to lay blame for the devastation from the fire and the pace of rebuilding. But the former member of the US Congress and speaker of the state Legislature is still a formidable figure — even if she faces a challenge from the political left. “A progressive challenge to Mayor Bass is complicated in Los Angeles,” said Mike Bonin, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs and a former council member. That’s in part due to her deep support in the Black community and her track record of service. “It’s hard to imagine a winning progressive coalition in Los Angeles without strong support in the Black community.” Then there’s the backlash to be expected if Mamdani wins, from conservatives to be sure, but also from Democratic Party traditionalists afraid of the growing progressive movement in its ranks. There is some excitement among LA progressives for a recent entrant to the mayor’s race: the Rev. Rae Chen Huang, an organizer for Housing Now! CA, a statewide housing justice coalition. But with 11 candidates so far filing paperwork to challenge Bass, it will be difficult for her to break through in June, let alone compete with a sitting mayor backed by a strong coalition. At this point, the real threat to Bass isn’t from the left edge of her party, it is from a former ally. Austin Beutner, a philanthropist and former superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District, jumped into the race in October, saying the city needs a change in leadership. Beutner is not a Mamdani-style progressive. He is a former investment banker who changed career paths after a life-threatening bike accident and joined the Cabinet of then-mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as a deputy mayor — paid just $1 a year — in charge of making the city more business friendly. But he is leaning into the same message Mamdani has delivered about lack of affordability, and he thinks the desire for new leadership is the same in both cities. “It’s a change election,” he told me, adding, “I think many voters in New York are expressing desire for change, and I think many voters in Los Angeles feel the need for change.” LA may not elect a democratic socialist mayor in 2026, but the city’s progressive movement may well make inroads in City Hall. At least two council races will include DSA-aligned candidates, and there’s a progressive challenger to the incumbent city attorney. If that happens, the 2030 mayoral election could be one for the nation to watch.
