As Los Angeles voters prepare to head to the polls, campaign volunteers for both Mayor Karen Bass and her challenger, Nithya Raman, remain active and hopeful in the final days of the mayoral race. Supporters on either side are emphasizing the qualities they believe their preferred candidate brings to the city's leadership.

At a street corner in South La Brea Avenue and Obama Boulevard, Shirley Dace, a retired flight attendant, spent an afternoon reaching out to local residents to encourage them to back Bass for a second term. Dace highlighted the incumbent mayor’s deep roots in Los Angeles and extensive experience. “Karen Bass was raised here. She knows the city,” Dace said, noting that she has seen Bass at various community events over the years.

Meanwhile, about 10 miles northeast in Boyle Heights, volunteers rallied for Raman, organizing a door-knocking effort aimed at expanding the challenger’s support base. Among them, Christian Perez described Raman as “incredibly intelligent” and expressed confidence in her potential leadership. His colleague, Marium Mohiuddin, a Muslim immigrant from Canada, emphasized Raman’s engagement with minority communities, particularly amid recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and broader discussions surrounding immigrant rights.

“Given the ICE raids and general denunciations of immigrants, I’ve been impressed by Raman’s outreach to minority communities,” Mohiuddin commented. He added that, as an immigrant himself, he sees Raman’s background and commitments as particularly meaningful, stating, “I want a mayor that’s going to protect me.”

The contrasting volunteer efforts reflect broader themes in the campaign, with Bass’s supporters focusing on her local knowledge and experience, while Raman’s backers highlight her advocacy on immigration and minority issues. Both candidates have sought to address the diverse concerns of Los Angeles’s residents in a race shaping the city’s trajectory for the coming years.