After a tumultuous race leading to Tuesday’s election, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will advance to a runoff in November. A second candidate has not yet been called, leaving the battle between reality star Spencer Pratt and city council member Nithya Raman. Early Wednesday morning returns showed that Pratt was in second place behind Bass.
“I appreciate you for standing with me when others doubted me, because you know who I am,” Bass told supporters (via AP). “I have devoted my entire life to serving the city that I love, where I was born, and I’m going to continue to do that all the way to victory in November.”
Pratt rose to fame as a reality TV villain on MTVs The Hills. He and his wife, Heidi Montag, have been tabloid staples since the early 2000s, often in regards to their financial troubles and televised antics. During the 2025 Palisades fire, the Pratt’s mansion was burned to the ground alongside large swaths of their neighborhood.
In May of last year, Montag told The Independent that the couple just didn’t “have the finances” to rebuild the 2,000 square foot house, and would likely need to sell the lot it was on. Pratt openly accused the government of Los Angeles of mismanaging the response to the devastating wildfires, and announced that he would challenge Bass for the reins of the city.
Last night, he told reporters he welcomed a rematch between himself and Bass. “This is not a candidate that I’m too concerned about,” he said. “I got in this because as a citizen, I felt like my city failed—myself, my neighbors, my family. Mayor Bass has allowed the city to be covered in potholes. We don’t have sidewalks. We don’t have lights. I’m an Angeleno who said ‘Enough is enough.’”
It has been a surrealist campaign by a reality TV candidate. Pratt has relied heavily on the use of generative AI to create his advertisements and social media slop posts. Everything from videos depicting himself as a parody of Will Smith’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Pratt as Batman rescuing Angelenos from tribunals held by Bass and other prominent republicans.
It turned out many of Pratt’s campaign claims about living in squalor following the fire were false. According to the The Los Angeles Times, Pratt has not been living full time in a trailer, and has actually spent over $15,000 at the Hotel Bel-Air in little more than a month.
Bass, a former member of the House of Representatives, is seeking reelection after her first term as mayor. California runs on a “jungle primary” system, meaning that all candidates run in the same primary regardless of party. As Bass did not win over fifty percent of the vote, she did win the election outright. The top two candidates will now continue on to the general election in November.
This story is developing
