Re-Elect Councilmember Nithya Raman!

In 2020, during a historic campaign, we promised Angelenos that we could fundamentally shift our approach to this city’s most pressing needs — and that we could achieve real results.

I am so, so proud of what we’ve accomplished together since then.

When I ran, I promised to address homelessness with urgency and compassion. In just two years, my team pioneered a new, person-centered approach in our district that reduced the number of people on our district’s streets after five consecutive years of increases. 

I promised to support tenants in a city where they had been long ignored. My office led the passage of the largest expansion of tenant protections in Los Angeles in 40 years. 

I promised to do everything this city could do to fight climate change. I introduced and passed legislation to make LA the largest city in America to pass a ban on gas hookups in all new construction, built our district’s first protected bike lanes, and created LA’s first car-free street in more than a decade.

Now we’re on the verge of long-sought transformative wins — a tenants’ right to counsel, long overdue lobbying and governance reforms, and new bike and pedestrian infrastructure that will bridge disconnected parts of LA.

I first ran for this seat on the belief that a fully unbought Council office – beholden to no one but the people of this district and this city – could change the way we do things in LA. That belief has turned out to be true.

We’ve done it all together — and as I embark on another campaign, I’m struck by how much the realm of the possible has expanded. We can do even more.

Just like last time, this campaign does not accept money from any special interest — zero corporate donors, no developer money, no oil and gas money. Because of that, every contribution means a lot. With a wide network of grassroots donors, my team and I can win this election, tackle even more of the city’s biggest challenges, and continue the hard work we’ve been putting in over these last two years.

Let’s continue to expand what’s possible in LA.

From the bottom of my heart: thank you.

Nithya Raman

About Nithya:

Nithya Raman is a working mother, a community organizer, and Los Angeles City Councilmember.

Nithya was born in Kerala, India, and moved to America when she was six. After graduating from Harvard and receiving a Master’s in urban planning from MIT, she worked on urban poverty issues in India, advocating for access to water and basic sanitation in slums. She moved to Los Angeles and started a family. When she saw an increase in tents, she co-founded a volunteer group, the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, to provide services and outreach to people living on the street. As SELAH grew, she increasingly sensed a gap between the urgency she and her fellow volunteers felt and the urgency with which local government acted. She ran for City Council, and after receiving the most votes for a Los Angeles City Councilmember ever, became the city’s first Asian woman and first South Asian ever elected to city government, and her district’s first female Councilmember.  

In office, she has prioritized responsiveness and effectiveness within her district while stewarding groundbreaking citywide legislation. She has established a homelessness team that has housed hundreds, and a field staff that works diligently and effectively to meet residents’ needs and assist district businesses. Her legislation has resulted in a citywide commitment to carbon-free construction, and the strongest suite protections for LA tenants in nearly 40 years. She is now leading governance and ethics reform legislation that would expand LA’s City Council for the first time since 1925.

Nithya lives in Silverlake, with her husband Vali and two adorable twins, Karna and Kaveri.