Nithya Raman narrowly leads Spencer Pratt in race for second spot in Los Angeles mayoral race
By Ethan Cohen, Jennifer Agiesta, CNN
(CNN) — Nithya Raman pulled ahead of former reality TV star Spencer Pratt in the race for the second spot in the November election for Los Angeles mayor after a vote update Sunday evening.
Raman, a city councilmember, won about 40% of the nearly 48,000 votes Los Angeles County reported Sunday, winning 10,000 votes more than Pratt and leaving her about 3,000 votes ahead.
Given the narrow margin and the votes still to be counted, CNN is not projecting which of the two will join Mayor Karen Bass in the November election.
Raman overtaking Pratt was becoming increasingly likely in recent days.
Across all votes reported in the June 2 primary since the close of election night counting, Raman has outperformed both Bass and Pratt, gaining 43,000 votes on Pratt and increasing her overall share of the vote by about 5 points.
Reports this weekend were her strongest of the contest, with Raman winning about 40% of each batch and Pratt around 18%.
California elections often take several days to resolve, a function of the nation’s most populous state running a largely mail-in election in which properly postmarked ballots received up to seven days after Election Day can be counted.
Votes reported after election night in California tend to shift toward Democrats, as they typically include mail ballots that were cast closer to Election Day itself.
While the race is officially nonpartisan, Pratt is a registered Republican while Raman has campaigned as a progressive.
Bass issued a statement Sunday signaling the lines of attack she would take against Raman in a potential November matchup, suggesting Raman “was MIA on saving Hollywood jobs and fighting back when ICE invades LA.”
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