Election Twist Stuns Bass, Raman Mayoral Race

Spencer Pratt’s brief rise mattered because it showed how a celebrity candidacy can shake a slow-count election before the final ballots settle the score.

Quick Take

Pratt ran a real campaign built around anger at Los Angeles leaders and the Palisades Fire.^[1]^[2]
Early returns put him in the mix, which briefly made a Bass-Pratt runoff look possible.^[6]
Late mail ballots flipped the race, and Nithya Raman advanced instead.^[3]^[5]^[7]
The episode exposed how top-two primaries can turn a temporary lead into a loud political story.^[4]^[7]

A Celebrity Campaign That Started With a Fire

Pratt did not stumble into politics as a joke candidate. His campaign website called his run a “mission” and said he was running for mayor of Los Angeles.^[2] Wikipedia says he announced his bid on the first anniversary of the Palisades Fire, after his home was destroyed, and tied the campaign to his frustration with Mayor Karen Bass’s response.^[1] That gives the race a simple core: personal loss turned into political anger.^[1]^[2]

That is why the race drew more attention than a normal primary. Pratt framed himself as an outsider attacking homelessness, public safety, and city failure.^[3]^[4] Polling before election day showed him within reach of the leaders, with Bass, Nithya Raman, and Pratt all packed tightly together.^[4] Once a celebrity enters a close race with a clear grievance, every vote count starts to feel larger than the math on paper.

The Illusion of Momentum

The first-night story helped feed the idea that Pratt’s loss could still damage Bass and Raman. Reporting said Pratt initially led Raman by more than eight points on election night, while the race stayed too close to call because late mail ballots were still coming in.^[1] A YouTube report also said Pratt was in the lead over Raman and facing Bass in the runoff picture at that moment.^[6] In a top-two primary, that kind of snapshot can look like destiny.^[6]^[7]

Then the count did what slow counts often do. PBS reported that the Associated Press confirmed Pratt failed to qualify for the November runoff against Bass.^[3] CalMatters reported that the tide steadily turned against Pratt as returns piled up, sending Raman into the second runoff slot instead.^[5] Ballotpedia also lists Bass and Raman as the candidates who advanced.^[7] The headline-grabbing lead turned out to be temporary, not durable.^[1]^[3]^[5]^[7]

Why This Still Matters for Bass and Raman

Pratt’s collapse does not erase the political effect of his surge. For days, his campaign forced everyone to talk about whether Bass could survive a backlash and whether Raman could overtake a high-profile outsider.^[1]^[3]^[5] That matters because campaigns react to expectations as much as vote totals. A public lead, even a short one, can shape donor nerves, media framing, and the stories voters hear while ballots are still being counted.

🚨BREAKING: Spencer Pratt says he has recordings of one of the two Democratic candidates in the Los Angeles mayoral race "doing or saying something that would force her to resign in disgrace."

Pratt, who lost last week's primary, directed a warning Friday at Mayor Karen Bass and… pic.twitter.com/KaVaCXfxAU

— Off The Press (@OffThePress1) June 12, 2026

Still, the final result limits the strongest version of the “nightmare” claim. The completed count put Pratt out and Raman in.^[3]^[5]^[7] So the sharper reading is not that Pratt broke the election. It is that he briefly made the race feel unstable, which is often enough to unsettle incumbents and stress a challenger’s path. In a city known for political theater, that kind of interruption can be its own kind of damage.^[4]^[7]

What The Race Reveals About Los Angeles Politics

This contest showed how fast a celebrity can become a political weather system when local anger is already high. Pratt’s image gave voters a face for frustration, while the fire gave his campaign a story that felt personal and real.^[1]^[2]^[3] The top-two system magnified that story by making second place the whole prize.^[6]^[7] Once late ballots arrived, the illusion cracked, but the pressure he created did not vanish overnight.

That is the real lesson for Bass and Raman. Los Angeles voters did not hand Pratt a governing mandate. They did, however, let him shape the race long enough to change the conversation. In a close election, that can be enough to force both major candidates to answer harder questions, spend more energy, and live under a brighter spotlight than they planned. Pratt lost. The disruption he caused was the larger story.