Candidates supported by the Democratic Socialists of America are posting strong election results across Southern California, alongside a broader wave of Democratic victories nationwide. Of the nine candidates endorsed by the organization’s Los Angeles chapter in the latest election, seven were winning their contests as of Nov. 12. One other candidate received a school board appointment, while the race for Los Angeles City Council District 9 remained too close to call.
Burbank is poised to have a DSA majority on its five-member City Council. DSA members Mike Van Gorder and Nolan Southerland were running second and third in a field of 13 candidates. They would join Councilmember Konstantine Anthony to form that majority, which the local chapter described as the first of its kind on the West Coast.
The organization’s candidates also prevailed in major Los Angeles contests. Nithya Raman will become mayor, while Marissa Roy secured a landslide victory in the city attorney election. Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez, representing District 1, and Hugo Soto-Martínez, representing District 13, had already won outright during the primary. In the 34th Congressional District, Highland Park resident Angela Gonzales-Torres defeated incumbent Jimmy Gomez. She will enter Congress representing a district that includes downtown Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock and Koreatown.
Other results pointed to gains in city government and education. West Hollywood public safety commissioner Stephen Post was third among 14 City Council candidates, putting him on course for a seat. Yaritza González, a policy manager at the Central American Resource Center, had more than twice her opponent’s votes in the Inglewood Unified School District’s Trustee Area 3 contest. Estefany Castañeda, an existing school board member and the sole candidate on the ballot, received an appointment to Trustee Area 5 on the Centinela Valley Union High School District board.
Tom Hogen-Esch, a political science professor at California State University, Northridge, told LAist that broader participation in local politics could produce an electorate more representative of the region, including younger voters and renters. He expected those voters to have made a substantial difference in the election. Still, he cautioned that it was too early to anticipate radical populist or socialist-leaning policies, saying, “I wouldn't expect a revolution from [Raman’s] time as mayor.”
In Orange County, the DSA chapter backed three Santa Ana council candidates and an Irvine ballot measure in the general election. Santa Ana Ward 2 Councilmember Benjamin Vazquez was leading his reelection race with more than 74% of the vote as of Wednesday, Nov. 11, placing him roughly 4,000 votes ahead of his opponent.
The chapter’s other Santa Ana candidates were also ahead. In Ward 4, immigrant rights advocate Sandra De Anda led incumbent Phil Bacerra with 57.5% of the vote. Isuri S. Ramos, who chairs the Santa Ana Planning Commission, was winning the Ward 6 contest with more than 59%.
In Irvine, the chapter endorsed Measure D, which would establish ranked-choice voting for mayoral and City Council elections beginning in 2028. By Wednesday evening, the measure was ahead with slightly more than 53% support, a lead of approximately 5,000 votes.
