Reality TV star Spencer Pratt just did something every political insider in California said was impossible — he's leading DSA-backed City Councilmember Nithya Raman in the Los Angeles mayoral primary, and Raman was reportedly in tears as the results rolled in on Tuesday night. A reality TV star is beating a progressive activist in the bluest city in America.
The left told us this couldn't happen. Not in LA. Not in a city where Republican voter registration is less than 15%. And yet here we are.
The numbers from the June 3 primary tell the whole story, as reported by RedState. Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass pulled 34.78% with 172,720 votes. Pratt grabbed 30.44% with 151,149 votes. And poor Nithya Raman? A distant third at 22.32% with just 110,848 votes. Pratt's lead over Raman stood at a commanding 40,301 votes. And it got worse for the progressive darling as the night went on — in the final batch of 52,605 votes, Pratt surged to 37.6% while Raman cratered to 26.6% and Bass slid to 25.9%.
Pratt and Bass will now head to a November runoff, and Raman gets to go home and think about what went wrong. Spoiler: everything.
So who is Spencer Pratt? He's a guy whose home was destroyed in the Palisades Fire, and instead of waiting for the government to fix things — because we all know how that goes — he decided to run for mayor. "I got in this because my city failed — myself, my neighbors, my family," Pratt said. That's not a political consultant's talking point. That's a guy who watched his house burn down and decided the people in charge were useless.
And useless they are. Pratt didn't hold back on Bass's record: "Mayor Bass allowed potholes... We don't have sidewalks. We don't have lights." Meanwhile, Bass is out there claiming homelessness is down and homicide rates are the lowest since 1968. Sure, Karen. Tell that to the people stepping over needles on Hollywood Boulevard.
Bass had every advantage imaginable. Kamala Harris endorsed her. Gavin Newsom endorsed her. Nancy Pelosi endorsed her. Labor unions backed her campaign. She had the entire Democrat machine behind her and she still couldn't break 35% in her own city. That's not winning. That's a warning.
President Trump weighed in with his usual elegance: "I heard he's a big MAGA person." Whether or not that's technically accurate, the fact that a guy Trump is praising is leading a mayoral race in Los Angeles tells you everything about where this country is heading.
Pratt isn't running as a typical anything. "Business as usual is a death sentence for Los Angeles, and I'm done waiting," he declared. And when asked about debating Bass in the runoff? "As many debates as Mayor Bass would like" — adding that debating her is "my most favorite thing." The man is begging for the fight.
After the results came in, Pratt summed it up perfectly: "Obviously, God wanted 5 more months of me exposing all failures."
Five more months of a reality TV star embarrassing the entire Democratic establishment in their own backyard. November can't come soon enough.