Progressive Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman defeated incumbent Mayor Karen Bass on Thursday.
The Associated Press called the race for the 45-year-old challenger, who captured 52 percent of the vote.
Raman will become the first South Asian mayor to lead the second-largest city in the United States.
She overcame major establishment endorsements for Bass from Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, and Nancy Pelosi.
The Democratic Socialists of America backed Raman, continuing a major electoral surge for the left-wing movement.
DSA-affiliated candidates won a record number of federal offices during Tuesday’s midterm elections across the country.
The organization supported 300 campaigns and ballot referendums, claiming 105 victories nationwide.
New congressional winners include Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, Melat Kiros, and Chris Rabb.
Raman’s triumph follows Zohran Mamdani’s democratic socialist mayoral victory in New York City last year.
Two leaders of Indian origin now govern the nation’s two largest metropolitan centers.
Born in Kerala, India, Raman immigrated to the United States with her family at age six.
She later returned to India and worked as an urban planner in the city of Chennai.
Raman moved to Los Angeles in 2013, serving as a city administrative officer before launching a homelessness nonprofit.
Although she initially endorsed Bass, Raman reversed course and entered the race hours before the February deadline.
During her victory speech, Raman promised to build an ambitious, creative, and entrepreneurial Los Angeles.
She told supporters that a broken and unjust status quo had held Angelenos back for too long.
Raman pledged to expand affordable housing, improve city services, and deploy medical teams for unhoused residents.
She also demanded a new police chief over concerns regarding cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
The mayor-elect must now govern 3.8 million residents and prepare Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympic Games.
Bass became the first Los Angeles mayor to lose a re-election bid in over two decades.
Critics hammered her administration over persistent homelessness and her absence overseas during the deadly Palisades Fire.
On Thursday, Bass congratulated Raman and promised a smooth transition of power for the city.
Bass noted her historic term as the first Black woman mayor and urged unity to move forward.
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