Nithya Raman addresses supporters in heated LA mayoral race

So beautiful. Los Angeles is absolutely stunning tonight. A question for everyone who is here. Do you love Los Angeles? Wow. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. Thank you to Akash, who may be a foot taller than me, but who will always be my baby brother. And thank you to every single one of you for believing in the promise of this beautiful, weird, magical place that we get to call home. There are still a lot of ballots to count, and we're gonna let that count finish. I'm hopeful, I'm hopeful, I'm very hopeful. Also really superstitious, so we're all just gonna be cool, okay? Very cool. And when I'm done talking, and I have a lot of thank yous, so please bear with me. This has been the craziest few months of my life. When I'm done talking, I have a question and a favor to ask all of you. Will you all get on the dance floor with me? Okay. I will dance. Yes, we will dance. We will dance. Today, across America, all across America, voters demanded change. They are. I'm angry about a broken status quo and the politicians who failed them over and over again. But change feels good, doesn't it? And I'm so happy to hear about all these races across the entire country. Unbelievable. We have so much to celebrate tonight. Here in Los Angeles, this election is about change too. A city that was engineered over the last few decades to resist change. And the people right here who said enough is enough. Because for too long, our broken and unjust status quo has convinced Angelenos that this is the best that we can do. Our city hall became a place where we became so used to saying no, we forgot how to say yes. The result, LA stopped being a place where we could build things, where we could open things, where we could film things, where we could create things. We stopped asking when the sidewalk would be fixed and started planning our commute around it. We stopped asking why the permit took two years to get approved and started assuming that's just how it works here. We watched friend after friend, family after family leave because they couldn't afford to stay here anymore. And we all talked about it as if these things were completely out of City Hall's control. That's the cynicism that started to take over this city that started to make us believe that LA's problems weren't just bad, but they were permanent. That LA's best days were behind us. This city's government has made solving problems look impossible for so long that I heard from people across this city who started to believe that it was impossible. Hopelessness can be fatal for a city. But this campaign refused to accept that to accept that you saw hopelessness and you chose hope because you know that Los Angeles is a city with hope in its soil, a city, a city built on dreams and ambition and a refusal to accept the status quo. This city is the most incredible place in the world. It's a city where black southerners fleeing Jim Crow sought a home that welcomed them. Where Salvadorans escaping civil war, Iranians escaping political unrest, Armenians carrying generations of displacement came to build that's right here. Where Jews fled. Rising anti-Semitism across Europe, where Mexican, Korean, Filipino, and Guatemalan families helped build that we call home. Veterans returning from World War II came here because this place is paradise. This is a city that built a port in San Pedro where nature didn't give us one. That brought water across mountains and deserts so that millions could build a future here. The city where Chicano students walked out to demand a better education. Where protesters stood up to the police to fight for LGBTQ rights at the Black Cat. Before Stonewall, we did that here. We did that here. Where janitors banded together to fight for fair pay in Century City, a movement that changed labor organizing forever. And where over the past two years, we have seen hundreds of thousands of Angelenos take to the streets to protest the Trump administration and to stand up, to stand up for our immigrant neighbors. Country as well, we stood up. This is the city where jazz echoed across Central Avenue, where the folk music that defined a generation flowed from Laurel Canyon, where the greats of rock and rap and Chicano punk and hip-hop wrote the soundtrack of American life. This is the city where dog-town skaters turned empty swimming pools into a worldwide phenomenon. Researchers at UCLA sent the very first message. Sent the very first message across the internet. The city where DeMille filmed his first feature at Selma and Vine. In a barn that would become a studio and a studio that would become the pillar of the most famous industry in the entire world. We did that here. In just one century, Los Angeles built itself into a global metropolis. The gateway to the Pacific, a center of ingenuity and invention, the cultural capital of the entire planet. And that ambitious Los Angeles, that joyful Los Angeles, that creative Los Angeles, that entrepreneurial Los Angeles, that inclusive Los Angeles is the Los Angeles that this campaign was born to fight for. We had a vision for our city, one where the people who make this city extraordinary can afford a home. It's a simple vision. It doesn't feel radical to me. Doesn't feel that radical. Radical and divisive right here. Can afford to make their art where government answers when you call and takes responsibility For getting things done, where we stand up against. We show up for our gay and trans siblings, where children can walk safely to school, where there is shade at a bus stop, are alive with neighbors and music and good food. We believed that Angelenos were hungry for that city, and it turns out that we were right. When I entered this race on the very last day of filing, the incumbent mayor had spent years preparing for reelection. She was backed by almost every politician in the city, a deep bench of donors, millions in support from powerful interests. They threw everything they had at us, and they had a lot, but we fought back. Not with fear or with division, but with hope and with community. We fought back with a vision for change. And we fought back with all of you. All of you. Thousands of volunteers who gave up their evenings and weekends because they believe in what the city can be. They came from every corner of Los Angeles across races and ethnicities and generations and walks of life. 17-year-olds who volunteered for the very first time. Volunteers from their 40s even into their 70s and 80s who knock doors every single night Because they refuse. They refuse. We refuse to give up on this city's future. We love it too goddamn much. One volunteer I wanna call out is the Los Angeles icon, Melrose Larry Green. Who made his name, standing at Melrose and Highland with handmade signs, a former conservative radio host and Trump supporter, okay, Larry at, okay, but Larry at 75 years old, spent months singing at farmers markets across the city, covered in campaign pins, joyfully recruiting newcomers to our movement, Larry, where are you? More than 11,000 people registered to volunteer for this campaign. 11,000. Neighbors led canvases, trained other neighbors, and went back out the next weekend. And together, we built the largest volunteer program in the history of Los Angeles politics. You did that. You did that. You weren't waiting for someone else to come and change Los Angeles. You showed up to do it yourselves. And people gave this campaign more than their support. They brought what they knew, what they had fought for, and what they still believe Los Angeles could become. After the devastating fires in Boyle Heights, the East Side Padres brought the determination of parents who organized and refused to let City Hall stop paying attention. Alongside the indomitable Dr. Rocio Rivas. I think you're here. They knocked on doors throughout their neighborhoods asking their neighbors to demand more for their children and for their community. Let's give them a huge round of applause. The Carpenters, the Carpenters lit up this city and this campaign with their demand for good union jobs and more housing in LA. They showed us time and time again what it means to have someone's back even when City Hall hasn't always had theirs. They brought that determination to a demand this city needs to hear and they will hear it now. We are ready to build the homes Los Angeles needs and we're gonna do it with good union jobs. Environmental organizations came together, the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Thank you. California environmental voters, Climate Action California, Food and Water Action, Urban Environmentalist LA, so many leaders from across this city dissatisfied with the lack of progress on this issue, brought forward the demands of communities that have lived beside oil wells and freeways for generations. They shaped our plans for cleaner air. We deserve it. We deserve clean air. Lower utility bills and good green jobs, and it was so inspiring to be fighting alongside them. Street safety advocates alongside with Streets for All who had watched as City Hall found extraordinary ways to avoid fixing dangerous roads. They poured their knowledge into plans for crosswalks, protected bike lanes, safer routes to school, and a public transit system worthy of the people of this city. A whole host of progressive organizations brought their hearts to this campaign. Let's give it up for L.A. Forward, the Working Families Party, UAW showed up so hard for this campaign. We love you. So, DSA out. Revolution, feel the burn, San Fernando Valley, ground game LA, initiate justice, action. You showed up carrying this campaign from doorstep to doorstep, turning your love for Los Angeles into the patient work of asking one more neighbor to believe in its future. And guess what? Even though the Democratic Party wasn't always with me, a lot of Democrats were, a lot of Democrats were. East Area Progressive Democrats, the Miracle Mile Dem Club, the Korean American Democratic Committee, Armenian American Democrats, Asian Dems, and Democrats for the Protection of Animals. Incredible. So many Democrats fighting for a better future here in Los Angeles. So many groups stepped forward, Indian American Impact, Latino Coalition of Los Angeles, Leaders Leaders Action Fund California Women's List. Asian American Labor Project, ID Action Fund, all of these groups stepped up to make sure our democracy reflects the people who live in this city. Let's give them a huge round of applause. And I wanna thank our labor partners who showed up for this campaign, SEIU UHW, SEIU CIU 121, The Writer's Guild. That's my husband's union. ILP Staff Guild, ILW Local 56. Transport workers, TCU 1315, AFSCME 1902, SMART TD Local 1674, and workers from City Hall, EAA. The planners, the architects, they all showed up to fight for a Los Angeles that fights for workers. Cheers! Cheers! Advocates showed up. Corporate landlords showed up on the other side. Let's go inside. Tenant advocates showed up here. Ace, Glabrea, Rents Association. Police has fought for renter protections for decades, while a political establishment funded by corporate landlords stood in their way. They showed up en masse to speak out, inspiring our plans for the city's first ever Office of Tenant Protection.