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One week after getting handed her walking papers by Los Angeles voters, the city’s outgoing mayor is already contemplating life outside the political arena.
Karen Bass offered a decidedly bleak outlook on her political future Tuesday, giving a one-word answer when asked whether she would ever seek elected office again.
“Doubtful,” Bass told NBC4 during her first public appearance since her crushing reelection defeat.
The longtime politician, who will leave City Hall in December, suggested she may finally be ready to put her own ambitions ahead of a lifetime devoted to public service.
“I have spent my entire life devoted to service, never thinking about what do I want to do personally. That moment is here.”
Bass made the remarks while visiting the scene of an industrial business fire in Vernon, breaking her silence after former political ally Nithya Raman defeated her in a stunning upset.
Raman held a double-digit lead in Tuesday’s latest ballot count and will become Los Angeles’ 44th mayor.
The defeat was particularly remarkable for Bass, who had never previously lost an election for public office during her political career in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Washington, DC.
Asked what went wrong, Bass pointed to a broader wave of voter frustration and demands for change.
“I put the election in the context of the national scene,” she told NBC4. “To me, there was a wave and these waves happen. I’ve been around long enough to experience them, not where they necessarily affected me. But change waves happen where people are just frustrated. They just want change, they got it.”
Bass is now the first sitting Los Angeles mayor to lose to a challenger since Jim Hahn was defeated by Antonio Villaraigosa in 2005.
Raman ran as a more progressive alternative to Bass, who was widely viewed as the establishment candidate.
She was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America-LA, while Bass had the backing of all but one of Raman’s City Council colleagues.
Even real estate developer Rick Caruso, whom Bass defeated in 2022, said he planned to vote for her in this year’s election.
Raman’s victory puts Los Angeles alongside New York and Washington, DC, as major cities led by politicians with democratic socialist support.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and DC mayoral winner Janeese Lewis George are the others.
