Politics

Spencer Pratt Finished Second in the LA Mayoral Race. Bass vs Pratt Is Now Real.

By Mike Harper · June 3, 2026

Spencer Pratt was on a reality television show called “The Hills” from 2006 to 2010. He was cast as the villain. He played the role enthusiastically. He is now, pending final vote counts, the Republican nominee in a November runoff for mayor of the second-largest city in the United States.

With approximately 60% of the expected vote counted, ABC News and NBC News have projected that incumbent Mayor Karen Bass will advance to the November runoff with Pratt in second place at approximately 29-30%, ahead of City Councilmember Nithya Raman at 21%. The race for second place between Pratt and Raman has not yet been formally called, but the gap is substantial enough that Pratt’s path to the runoff appears clear.

Mail ballots in California continue to be counted for days after election night. The final result will take time. The direction is not in doubt.

Bass addressed her supporters Tuesday night with a message calibrated for a long fight.

“Tomorrow begins the second half of this journey.”

Pratt, 42, ran on a single issue: what happened to his house. The January 2025 Palisades Fire destroyed his home in Pacific Palisades. He blamed Bass, who was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana when the fire ignited and who returned to Los Angeles as it spread across the hills. Pratt has said he held Bass personally responsible for the city’s preparedness failures — an argument that resonated with the significant portion of Los Angeles voters who have never forgiven her for where she was that night.

“I’m going to prove to everybody that this is for real,” Pratt told reporters Tuesday night while the votes were still coming in.

Bass has led by consistent margins in polls throughout the race, but she has never approached 50% — the threshold required to avoid a runoff. The city’s two-round system means she now faces a one-on-one contest in November against a candidate whose entire campaign is a referendum on the worst night of her tenure. She won the 2022 election over real estate developer Rick Caruso in a race that also went to runoff. That race she won decisively.

This one will be harder. Kamala Harris won Los Angeles by 70% in the 2024 presidential election. In a city that lopsided, a Republican winning the mayor’s office would require Bass to be sufficiently damaged that a meaningful portion of that Democratic majority either votes for Pratt or stays home. Pratt is betting the fire was enough.

He will have until November to make that case.