It's a Friday night happy hour at the Distrito Fourteen bar in Boyle Heights, and regulars notice that the crowd listening to Spanish songs has some more unfamiliar faces than usual.
The reason quickly becomes clear when Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman arrives for a visit. happy hour with Nithya, sipping a Tajín-rimmed drink and making the rounds to pitch his mayoral campaign.
Albert Orozco, 24, said he appreciated her efforts to reach Latino voters, including an ad in which Raman speaks Spanish.
“We need a mayor who can communicate directly with the Spanish-speaking community,” Orozco said. He said he voted for Karen Bass four years ago, but is considering voting for Raman in the June 2 primary.
Latinos make up nearly 37% of the Los Angeles electorate, making their votes crucial for anyone with mayoral ambitions. This involves campaigns running ads and social media posts in Spanish, reaching out to majority-Latino neighborhoods, and soliciting key endorsements.
“Whoever wins the Latino vote will win the elections,” said Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University.
Right now it appears to be the incumbent Mayor Bass, which makes it an uphill climb for Raman and other candidates.
A poll by UC Berkeley's Institute of Government Studies, co-sponsored by The Times, found Bass leading with 29% support from Latino voters; Former reality star Spencer Pratt followed with 16%, community organizer Rae Huang with 14% and Raman with 9%. Tech entrepreneur Adam Miller received 3% support.
In April, a poll from UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs also found Bass with a wide lead.
“I think he has an opportunity to solidify the Latino vote with a strong performance in the primary,” said Matt Barreto, a professor of political science and Chicano studies at UCLA. “This is yours for the taking.”
But there's plenty of room to grow, for either candidate: Both polls found that a large share of Latino voters were undecided, giving contenders a chance to win them over in the coming weeks. And as the final stretch of the primaries approaches, the campaigns are accelerating.
Ruben Jr., no last name, of East Los Angeles, takes a photo of his father, Ruben Sr., during mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt's town hall meeting from a home for sale in Sherman Oaks on Saturday.
(Étienne Laurent / For The Times)
In general, turnout in Los Angeles tends to be quite low in primary elections, especially in Latino communities, Barreto said, so candidates competing for your vote need sustained reach in Latino neighborhoods.
In the last mayoral election in 2022, voter turnout increased across all demographic groups, but the share of Latino voters remained the same. Part of this has been attributed to Latinos being a younger demographic, their immigration status, and a lack of voting history in the U.S. That year, Latinos made up 35% of the electorate, but less than a quarter of the turnout.
Guerra said there is often an assumption that Latinos won't participate as much as other groups, and that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. A successful campaign can break that cycle, he said.
Those efforts could be bolstered by the gubernatorial race, which features prominent Latino candidates, including former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
“We could have a historic Latino turnout … in Los Angeles because of the energy in that race,” said Michael Trujillo, a Democratic strategist who supports Villaraigosa. “So the question for mayoral candidates is: Who is best positioned to ride that historic wave?”
A piñata rests against a tree at the Avance Democratic Club's tacos and politics event at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park in Los Angeles on Saturday.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
In March, Bass released Latinos with Bass in Lincoln Park. The event featured state Senator María Elena Durazo, Angélica Salas, president of the California Humane Immigrant Leadership Action Fund, or CHIRLA Action Fund, and Nilza Serrano, president of the Avance Democratic Club.
In meetings with Latino leaders and in his television campaign ads, Bass has emphasized the stance he took against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids launched by the Trump administration in Los Angeles last year.
“She was in some of the most difficult times here in the city of Los Angeles, when ICE and Border Patrol were on our streets,” Salas said of Bass. Her organization is the political advocacy arm of CHIRLA, which helps families affected by immigration raids. “She fought to keep our families together.”
Serrano said Bass earned Avance's support this year, following a rocky relationship after the group endorsed Rick Caruso for mayor in 2022. Bass suggested Caruso had bought the endorsement, but later apologized.
“We had a very candid and honest conversation about some of the things that the Latino community is missing under her administration, and she didn't shy away from it, which was pretty impressive,” Serrano said. “She said 'help me be better.'”
Bass attributes Latino support to years of grassroots collaboration.
“We organized together in living rooms in the 1980s,” he said in a statement. “We have fought together for our schools, our streets and our families since then… That is not something that is built in a campaign: it is won day by day.”
He also won over Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who said she will vote for Bass.
“Obviously I have been an outspoken critic and she and I have differed on policies,” Rodríguez said in an interview. But Bass, he said, stands out for his leadership, such as his involvement in preventing a strike by Los Angeles Unified School District employees. “There's a lot of pragmatism about how I can make sure we better protect the city.”
Councilman and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman speaks to a crowd at the “Families for Nithya” event in the West Adams community in South Los Angeles on Saturday.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Raman says Latino voters “are a central part of our growing coalition.”
“We have hosted campaign events to meet the Latino community, participated in prominent cultural events, and our volunteers of all backgrounds are knocking on doors throughout the city,” he said in a statement.
Polls show Pratt, the former reality TV star whose home burned in the Palisades fire, is second to Bass in the Latino vote. His campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
An account called Latinos Por Pratt is not affiliated with his campaign but supports his mayoral bid.
Adrián E. Álvarez, who runs the group's website, created a song titled “Spencer, Saca La Bassura,” a reference to Pratt's epithet for mayor from the Spanish word for trash. Pratt recently posted a five-minute video in which he condemned Bass's past visits to Cuba and stated that “the only thing the Hispanic community hates more than slimy politicians… are COMMUNISTS.”
“Our Latino brothers and sisters have seen the evils of communism and they are done with it,” Pratt says in the video.
Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, with his back to the camera, speaks to supporters during an event in Sherman Oaks on Saturday.
(Étienne Laurent / For The Times)
Claudia Agraz, a board member of the Hispanic Republican Club of Los Angeles, said she plans to vote for Pratt because she feels that under Bass, the city has not provided enough money for the fire and police departments.
“What we have now is not working for us and it would be nice to see a change to get better results for the city of Los Angeles,” Agraz said.
Some conservative Latinos are reluctant to support Pratt. David Hernandez, president of the Hispanic Republican Club, said he was a fan of Pratt while speaking out for victims of the Palisades fire, but that the candidate lacks the executive experience to lead the city.
“Without having a little bit of knowledge about how chorizo is made, you can't be the head chef,” Hernandez said.
Pratt's support in Los Angeles will hit a ceiling, UCLA's Barreto said, noting that the candidate has not taken the same hard line against ICE raids as other candidates. During the televised mayoral debate this month, Pratt was asked to clarify his position on working with ICE.
“Whether they're legal or illegal, if they're a danger, I want them off our streets, that's what I said,” Pratt said during the May 6 debate. “ICE won't come here because… everyone they're supposedly looking for will be in jail when I'm mayor.”
Two others in the race – Huang, the community activist, and Miller, the tech entrepreneur – have fallen far behind in the polls, but are also vying for a share of the Latino vote.
Huang makes an effort every day to meet with people in every corner of the community, said Amy Quichiz, Huang's co-campaign manager, who is of Colombian and Peruvian descent.
“We, as Latinos, know that we don't trust politicians,” he said. “So if you get to know Rae like 'oh, she's friends with your contractor,' 'Rae is friends with our nanny'… that's your validator, and they'll trust him.”
Miller, through her nonprofit organization Better Angels, spent years working on the Eastside to address the homelessness crisis. In late April, he spent an afternoon in Boyle Heights, meeting with 50 business owners and residents who shared concerns about public safety and infrastructure.
“It is true that Karen Bass receives support, mostly Latina, and will maintain that support, so that is off the table for the contenders,” Miller said. But he added: “Those undecideds have already decided they won't support Bass, so they just have to decide who they support against Bass. And that's why the race is wide open right now.”
