Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told a podcast audience that California’s gubernatorial contest is already decided and that the November 3rd election is unnecessary, comments that American Thinker seized on as an illustration of what the outlet calls Democratic contempt for the voting process.
Appearing on the “Flagrant and Funny” podcast alongside former ESPN personalities Jemele Hill and Cari Champion, Bass discussed her own reelection campaign and runoff before turning to the statewide race, according to American Thinker’s account of the episode. In that appearance, she reportedly said Californians “all needed to see was the ‘R’ behind his name,” referring to the Republican candidate, and declared, “That’s why the governors’ race right now is over. Our governor’s name is Xavier Becerra. You don’t need an election on November 3rd. A Republican cannot win in this state!”
A claim of inevitability, not a prediction
The phrasing matters. Bass was not describing a polling average or an emerging electoral trend so much as asserting that the outcome is settled before ballots are cast — a claim that treats the partisan registration advantage in California as a guarantee rather than a hurdle. American Thinker’s Eric Utter characterized the remarks as delivered “breezily, confidently, and snarkily,” and argued they echo the way the Biden administration dismissed concerns about border enforcement.
The outlet’s central objection is not that Bass favors Becerra, but that she framed the election itself as superfluous. “From the same people who lecture us on ‘our democracy,'” Utter wrote, adding, “How about focusing on your own race and the SQUALOR in your city, Karen!” — a reference to the Palisades and Altadena fires that Bass has faced sustained criticism over, and which she also discussed on the podcast.
The democracy argument, turned around
Much of the American Thinker piece is built on what its author sees as a contradiction: Democrats who warn that Republicans threaten democratic norms now publicly suggesting that one of the two major parties cannot, or should not, be permitted to win in the nation’s most populous state.
Utter points to Democratic efforts in 2024 to remove Donald Trump from ballots in multiple states as evidence of the party’s willingness to narrow the field rather than compete on it. He then contrasts that history with Bass’s remarks, arguing that the mayor’s position amounts to an admission that elections are no longer needed when the partisan math is unfavorable to the other side. “That is the opposite of democracy … and a representative republic,” he wrote, describing what he called “Cuba-style ‘democracy,’ which Bass admires and has spent time in.”
It’s worth being precise about what Bass did and did not say. Nothing in the quoted remarks describes an effort to change election law, suppress turnout, or alter the mechanics of the November vote. What she offered was a prediction presented as certainty — that a Republican simply cannot win statewide in California — paired with the rhetorical flourish that the election therefore serves no purpose. That distinction matters for readers trying to evaluate the episode on its merits, since the outraged response and the underlying comment operate at different levels.
Why California Republicans keep losing, and what it means
There is a real asymmetry underlying Bass’s confidence. California’s voter registration leans heavily Democratic, and the state has not elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006. The GOP’s last serious attempt at the governor’s mansion ended in a roughly 24-point defeat. In that context, Bass is stating an uncomfortable electoral reality — though she stated it in a way that flatters her own side and dismisses the voters who disagree with it.
The conservative objection, as articulated by American Thinker, is that this candor reveals a deeper attitude: that elections are legitimate only when they produce the preferred result, and that any outcome is acceptable as long as “a Republican cannot win.” Whether one finds that reading persuasive likely depends on whether one hears Bass’s comments as a boast or as a battlefield assessment. The piece clearly hears a boast.
That two Democratic figures — one of them a sitting mayor running for reelection — can say this out loud without immediate pushback from their own party is the part conservatives find most revealing. The media, academia, and what the outlet calls “a great many RINOS” will not, in Utter’s view, hold these “power-hungry charlatans accountable.” Whether or not one accepts that framing, the underlying asymmetry — one party declaring a contest over months before it happens — is a legitimate subject of debate, and it is being debated.
What this episode actually demonstrates
It is easy to overstate the significance of a podcast remark. Bass was in a friendly setting, talking to hosts known for their commentary rather than their hard political reporting, and the comments had the loose quality of a conversation rather than the precision of a press conference. But the substance of the claim — that a Republican cannot win and therefore the vote is unnecessary — is not a slip of the tongue, and it reflects a confidence that has become commonplace on the Democratic side in deep-blue states.
That confidence is not without cost. When elected officials frame elections as foregone conclusions, they give voters a reason to stay home — including their own voters — and they give the other party a genuine grievance to organize around. The GOP’s entire case for relevance in California depends on persuading people that their votes matter. Bass handed them ammunition, and American Thinker wasted no time making use of it.
For Bass, the more immediate question is her own race, which she was on the podcast to discuss. Her runoff, her handling of the Palisades and Altadena fires, and her record in a city that conservative commentators describe in harsh terms will be litigated regardless of what happens in the governor’s contest. In that sense, the mayor may find that the election she dismissed as unnecessary is one she still has to win.
Source: www.americanthinker.com — https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/09/los-angeles-mayor-karen-bass-says-we-don-t-need-an-election-on-november-3rd/