Socialist Nithya Raman drew loud groans and hisses from a crowd of Democrats during the Los Angeles mayoral debate after she fumbled while explaining her decision to hire the political consulting firm behind disgraced former Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign.
After winning the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Maine, Platner, also a socialist, dropped out of the race in July after several sexual misconduct allegations. Even before the allegations arose, Platner had stirred significant controversy over his history of inflammatory statements and a chest tattoo critics say resembles a well-known Nazi symbol. Though he continues to deny the sexual misconduct allegations and maintains his innocence, Platner remains an embarrassment for many Democrats after several prominent figures in the party endorsed and praised him.
During the debate Wednesday night, Raman, a Los Angeles City Council member and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Los Angeles chapter, faced questions over her decision to hire the consulting firm Fight Agency.
“[It was] reported that you’ve hired the same political consulting firm that managed Graham Platner’s campaign in Maine, who had to resign amidst sexual assault allegations. Is that true? And is that the best choice? And why did you make that decision?” the moderator asked.
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Raman responded by saying, “Well, I did hire an advertising agency to make my paid ads, who also worked with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s successful campaign.” At this, the crowd of several hundred people broke into loud moans as some hissed. Mamdani is another socialist politician backed by the DSA who won his race for New York City mayor last year.
Raman pushed on, saying that the firm also worked on “many, many other successful campaigns across the entire city.”
“Here’s what I do want to say, that I do want to win this race,” she said, adding, “I’ve retained most of my good campaign staff … we’ve made sure to invest in our team, and I hope that we can win this seat, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to win.”
“Did you weigh the pros and cons of being associated with Graham Platner’s campaign?” the moderator pressed.
“Absolutely. But we wanted to make sure that we were hiring good people to make our ads,” Raman responded.
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“We have to get talent to be able to run our team,” she said before briefly stumbling over her words and saying, “We we we we weighed the issues.”
After that, Raman criticized incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, also a Democrat. She pointed to a recent case in which an advisor to Bass simultaneously did crisis communications work for a company facing scrutiny over a major Los Angeles warehouse fire, raising concerns about a potential conflict of interest.
“That, to me, is a real, real, real problem,” Raman said.
After that, the moderator turned to Bass and asked, “That wasn’t a good look, was it?” Bass responded, “Absolutely not,” adding it “should not have happened.”
“However, I don’t know what the heck that has to do with the question that you asked her,” Bass told the moderator.
“I guess it’s a question of judgment,” the moderator responded.
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“Well, if I had known that person was doing that, that person would not have been advising me. When I realized it found out about it, they stopped advising me,” Bass said.
Bass and Raman are running in a competitive race to be the next mayor of America’s second-largest city. Raman secured a spot on the November ballot after narrowly edging out Republican candidate Spencer Pratt in a late election surge.
Fox News Digital reached out to Raman and Bass for additional comment. Fox News Digital also reached out to Platner, the DSA and Mamdani’s office for comment.
