PIO Nithya Raman surges into LA Mayoral runoff spot, triggering Trump fury over another 'stolen' election

TOI correspondent from Washington: Five days after polls closed in Los Angeles, Indian-American progressive Nithya Raman has staged a late surge to overtake Republican-backed celebrity candidate Spencer Pratt and move into second place in the race for mayor of America's second-largest city, setting up what increasingly looks like a November runoff against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, and triggering another Trump tantrum.

The slow-moving vote count has reignited one of President Donald Trump's favourite political themes: that elections his side appears to be losing are somehow "rigged" or "stolen." As late-counted mail-in ballots steadily chipped away at Pratt's election-night lead, Trump took to social media to denounce the California process, writing, "No way this could have happened. Rigged Election!"

In another post on Truth Social, he wrote: "Has anybody been watching the CROOKED Election going on in California. Two great Republican Candidates are being cheated, and so is America." He added that if Democrats succeeded, "great trouble and consternation will follow."

For Trump and his MAGA faithful, some of whom falsely claimed that Raman had actually conceded the race, the turnaround is a Democratic scam. For election administrators and voting experts, it is entirely predictable.

California mails ballots to all registered voters and accepts ballots postmarked by Election Day. Every signature must be verified, and voters are given opportunities to correct mismatches and clerical errors. The result is a system designed to maximise participation and accuracy, but one that often takes days or even weeks to produce final results.

The phenomenon is so common that election analysts have a name for it: the "red mirage." Republicans often appear stronger on election night in many parts of the country because many Democratic-leaning mail ballots from urban areas are counted later. California officials say the pattern visible in Los Angeles this week is neither unusual nor evidence of fraud.

In this instance, Pratt appeared comfortably ahead of Raman on election night in the battle for the second runoff slot. But every subsequent batch of mail ballots has broken heavily in Raman's favour. By Sunday evening she had moved ahead by roughly 3,000 votes, according to the latest tallies, with many ballots still left to process.

This led to a mighty meltdown from Trump, who has spent much of the past decade insisting that elections he loses – or appears likely to lose – are compromised. He made similar claims after the 2020 presidential election, repeatedly alleged fraud in subsequent contests, and has continued to portray mail-in voting as inherently suspect despite the absence of evidence for widespread fraud and failing to prove it in court.

The issue became so contentious that he abruptly terminated an interview with NBC's Kristen Welker on Friday after she challenged his assertions, telling her that she was either "crooked" or "stupid" for not accepting his claims. He then raged at the liberal media, accused it of dishonesty, removed his microphone and stormed out of the interview.

Ironically, Trump's criticism frequently invokes comparisons with "Third World countries," arguing that America should be able to count votes more quickly. Yet many developing democracies -- including India -- conduct election far more efficiently than the US. Election Commission routinely manages hundreds of millions of voters across a vast nation and typically completes counting within a day. California's more decentralised and litigation-conscious process prioritises ballot verification and voter protections over speed, creating delays that regularly become fodder for partisan disputes.

Caught in the middle of the controversy is Raman herself, whose personal story spans India and America. Born into a Tamil family in Kerala, Raman moved to Louisiana as a child, studied political theory at Harvard University and urban planning at MIT, and later returned to India, where she founded Transparent Chennai, a civic research initiative focused on sanitation and urban governance. She became a naturalised American citizen at age 22 before eventually settling in Los Angeles, where she built a reputation as a housing advocate. She later won a seat on the Los Angeles City Council and emerged as one of the city's leading progressive voices.

Should Raman ultimately defeat Pratt and then overcome Bass in November, she would become the first Indian-American mayor of Los Angeles, America’s second largest city. The prospect is particularly striking because it comes amid a broader rise in Indian-origin politicians in American urban politics, including Zohran Mamdani’s election as Mayor of NYC, the largest U.S city. Incidentally, Kamala Harris, who remains the highest-ranking elected official of Indian heritage in American history, has endorsed Raman’s rival Karen Bass, a long-time associate.

For now, though, the race remains officially too close to call. What is clear is that Raman's late surge has transformed a local Los Angeles contest into a national political drama – one involving mail ballots, conspiracy theories, presidential outrage and the possibility that another politician with roots in India could soon lead one of America's most influential cities.