Arnold Schwarzenegger spent years telling Californians he was the post-partisan problem-solver who could work with anyone. On Sunday, that image got its clearest test yet: the former Republican governor hosted a private meeting between socialist Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman and some of the city's biggest private-sector players, according to a report first flagged by the New York Post.
The Post's account, shared on X, described the gathering plainly: "Arnold Schwarzenegger hosts private meeting with Nithya Raman and LA bigwigs." Breitbart confirmed the story under the headline "Arnold Schwarzenegger Jumps In to Help Socialist L.A. Mayor Candidate Nithya Raman," reporting that the Terminator star is "coming to the aid" of Raman by helping her connect with top private sector leaders.
Raman is not a garden-variety Los Angeles liberal. She is a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and DSA-LA formally endorsed her this month after more than 60 percent of participating members backed her, according to Newsweek. She sits on the L.A. City Council. She is now running to unseat a sitting Democratic mayor from the left.
That is the part Arnold apparently wants to help with.
A RACE THAT JUST FLIPPED
The timing is no accident. A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times now puts Raman at 39 percent among likely voters, with Mayor Karen Bass at 28 percent. A full third of likely voters — 33 percent — remain undecided, with the runoff set for November 3 and vote-by-mail ballots already heading out.
It is a dramatic reversal. Raman finished behind Bass in June's primary, 29 percent to 34 percent, per official results. Prediction markets have taken notice. As of Friday, Kalshi priced Raman at roughly 57 percent to win, against Bass at 42 percent, while Polymarket had her at about 58 percent, according to Newsweek. Those are wagers, not votes, and with a third of the electorate still uncommitted, the race is not settled.
Blaze Media framed it bluntly: Los Angeles voters may be ready to fire Karen Bass, "but their leading alternative comes from the socialist left." The left-leaning Newsweek asked whether Raman's rise means the coalition that elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is now "beginning to reproduce itself on the other side of the country."
Raman's platform rhymes with Mamdani's, though it is not a carbon copy. She has centered affordability — substantially more housing, stronger renter protections, a city government that "works better on basic services," as Newsweek put it. Mamdani ran on freezing rents for rent-stabilized tenants, fare-free buses, universal child care and city-owned grocery stores.
That agenda needs money and institutional buy-in. Enter the man who once won two statewide elections in California as a Republican.
WHAT ARNOLD GETS OUT OF IT
Schwarzenegger has spent the post-gubernatorial phase of his career as a self-styled elder statesman — the guy who shows up to warn Republicans about the dangers of the party's direction while collecting goodwill from the entertainment and donor classes. Opening his rolodex for a DSA candidate is the logical endpoint of that project.
What is not known: what was discussed at the meeting, who exactly attended, and whether any of the private-sector leaders in the room have committed money, endorsements or resources to Raman's campaign. Neither Schwarzenegger's office nor the Raman campaign has publicly detailed the gathering. The Post and Breitbart accounts do not name the "LA bigwigs" involved.
What is clear is the signal. A former Republican governor of California is now functionally a facilitator for the socialist left in the state's largest city. For Los Angeles business leaders staring down a Bass-versus-Raman runoff, the calculus is apparently that the DSA candidate is the more viable horse — and that a meeting arranged by Arnold is the price of admission.
Republicans watching from outside California should understand what this means for the national map. If Mamdani's model can travel from Queens to Los Angeles, the affordability-first socialist playbook is not a New York curiosity. It is a template.
The same week Raman's poll numbers broke open, California's Republican gubernatorial nominee was trailing Democrat Xavier Becerra by 25 points in the latest line, per the Mercury News' roundup. The state GOP is not a counterweight. It is a spectator.
Which leaves the fight inside the Democratic Party — Bass, the establishment incumbent, against Raman, the DSA challenger — as the only real contest on the November 3 ballot in Los Angeles. Arnold Schwarzenegger has picked his side.
Our Take
Arnold Schwarzenegger has spent a decade telling conservatives they were on the wrong side of history. It turns out he was just auditioning for the other team.
A man who once asked voters to send him to Sacramento to clean up the mess is now arranging private meetings for a Democratic Socialists of America member who wants to run the largest city in the West. This is not centrism. This is not the "big tent." It is a wealthy Hollywood celebrity using his access to smooth the path for the exact ideological project that has gutted California's cities, emptied its downtowns, and driven its taxpayers to Texas and Florida.
Patriots, ask yourself the obvious question: what do L.A.'s "top private sector leaders" think they are buying? The same thing corporate America always thinks it is buying when it cuts a deal with the left — protection. A seat at the table. A promise that the rhetoric stays rhetorical. It never does. The DSA is not a coalition partner. It is a movement that eats its hosts, and the business class lining up behind Raman will find that out the same way every other donor class has.
And notice what this story really confirms: the Republican Party in California is not even in the conversation. The runoff is a fight between a failed Democratic mayor and an open socialist, and the most famous Republican in the state's recent history just showed up to help the socialist.
The polls say Raman is ahead. A third of voters still have not made up their minds. If you live in Los Angeles, that is your opening — and November 3 is your deadline. Arnold has made his choice. Have you made yours?
