Pratt's lead over Raman narrows in LA mayor's race

After opening with a sizable lead for second place in the Los Angeles mayor's race, reality TV personality Spencer Pratt has seen his advantage over Councilmember Nithya Raman steadily erode as incumbent Karen Bass waits to learn her November runoff opponent.

In California, only the top two vote-getters will move on to the November election.

On Thursday, with 64% of the vote counted, Bass widened her lead over Pratt to nearly six percentage points, holding 35% to Pratt's 29% and Raman's 23%.

The race for second place tightened even more on Friday with Raman gaining ground to 24.9% and Pratt dropping to 28.2%

"Spencer Pratt has been losing share of the vote with every one of these new ballot dumps, and we expect that to continue," election data expert Paul Mitchell said on Thursday. "The question is, will he drop? Will Nithya Raman rise? And at some point, will there be an inflection point where Nithya Raman would take over that second spot?"

Leading up to Election Day, the trio appeared deadlocked in a tight battle for voters, with Bass holding a slim 26% lead, Raman close behind at 25% and Pratt at 22%, according to a May 28 UC Berkeley-LA Times poll, which cited a margin of error of around 3%.

"I haven't seen a race this close in decades, especially for the city of Los Angeles. Everybody is tied within the margin of error," campaign strategist Luis Alvarado told CBS LA several days before the election.

In the two months leading up to the primary, UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs poll found that 40% of likely voters remained undecided, with director Zev Yaroslavsky calling the election "a wide-open race."

However, the more recent UC Berkeley-LA Times poll found that a majority of undecided voters have chosen sides, with the undecided share dropping to 10%.

The hotly contested race has drawn national attention, fueled by events in 2025 with the devastating Palisades and Eaton Fires, and the series of immigration enforcement raids and protests that followed months later.

In recent months, Pratt's residency was called into question by the Los Angeles Times. He argued that the attempts to discredit his eligibility while he said he was living in a trailer on his burnt-out property were "diabolical."

In April, Pratt said in a social media post that he had been living at his father's rental home in Santa Barbara County after losing his Pacific Palisades home in the January 2025 fire. He shared a video of an Airstream trailer, which he said he lived in. Afterward, Pratt then showcased the upscale properties of his opponents in his own attack ad. His campaign promoted other political ads, some generated with artificial intelligence, which have also been scrutinized for utilizing the "MAGA strategy" to target Bass and Raman.

After serving the better part of two decades as a congresswoman and LA's 43rd Mayor, Bass said this race will be her last campaign for public office.

Prior to her 12 years in the House of Representatives, Bass represented LA in the state Assembly from 2004 to 2010, where she was the first Black woman to serve as Speaker of a state legislative body.

"Let me just say this is my third office, but this is it," Bass said to CBS LA before the election.

While Bass had led in recent polls and received endorsements from Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris, the incumbent held just a modest lead over Pratt and Raman.

"I think we are dealing with the mood of an electorate that is not really sold on any elected officials right now," Bass said to CBS LA. "I think all of us are struggling. But it is my job to convince them."

During her four-year term, Bass has faced an onslaught of critical tests of leadership, including the Hollywood labor strikes in 2023, the Palisades Fire in 2025, increased immigration enforcement operations and the ongoing homelessness crisis in the city. All of these complex issues have impacted the local economy, which came to a head last year when the city faced a $1 billion shortfall.

Despite the challenges, Bass has celebrated her administration's achievements, noting that she worked to avert layoffs during the budgetary crisis and reduced the number of unhoused residents.

"First of all, while the nation's homelessness went up 18%, we went down 18%," Bass said to CBS LA. "The fact that our streets are safer. The fact that we will have our streetlights back on, basic city services. Reducing crime to record levels."

Formerly an ally of Bass, Raman announced her surprise bid for mayor in February. The news came after she had previously endorsed the incumbent in her reelection bid.

"Los Angeles is at a breaking point, and people can feel it in the most basic ways," Raman said in her campaign announcement. "The city gave me and my husband so much, but today, I fear that the city is no longer a place of opportunity for too many."

Raman, a Democrat, was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2020, when she unseated David Ryu. She was reelected in 2024, defeating Deputy City Attorney Ethan Weaver. Her Fourth District stretches from Griffith Park to parts of Hollywood, Studio City, Sherman Oaks and Encino.

"I am an urban planner by training," Raman told CBS LA during an interview in April. She graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a master's degree in urban planning.

One of her most notable acts while in office came in 2025, when she introduced a motion that capped maximum annual rent increases for tenants at rent-stabilized apartments built before 1978. It was eventually passed with a 13-2 vote.

Raman believes that Bass has been unable to properly address the city's homeless crisis.

"I've tried to partner with the mayor's office. I've hit a wall. I've hit a wall of inaction, a wall of a lack of responsiveness to the most urgent issues that are facing Los Angeles," Raman said during her interview with CBS LA.

Raman's own approach to homelessness has been heavily scrutinized during her two terms. Recently, she drew criticism from fellow councilmember Traci Park for voting to block an anti-encampment ordinance in Venice.

In a statement, Raman said that she believes encampment bans only serve to shift the homeless population and are not a viable long-term solution.

"My plan expands shelter access by using programs like short-term rental subsidies, which are a third of the cost," Raman told CBS LA's Tom Wait.

While most polling through April showed Raman trailing Bass and Pratt in third place, the May 28 UC Berkeley-LA Times survey showed Raman's support among likely voters lifting her into second place at 25%, just behind Bass' 26%.

"She's got a mastery in a lot of the things that a municipal official needs to know," Yaroslavsky said while speaking with CBS LA. "Her challenge is to get known and to define herself before somebody else defines her. She's got a record, she's not a newbie."

Raman said this will be her last political campaign if she does not win the mayoral election.

Starring on the MTV hit series "The Hills" in the early 2000s, Pratt became well known as a reality TV agitator, a persona that has carried over into his mayoral bid as he positions himself as Bass' chief antagonist.

A political newcomer, Pratt made waves on social media in the months after the devastating Palisades Fire in January 2025. The charred remains of his property were often the centerpiece of his Instagram posts as he became one of the loudest voices representing victims of the blaze, questioning the actions of politicians, including Bass and Newsom.

"If I don't get in [office] and we have four more years of these current plans and this current direction, and not a real 180 [degree] change, everyone is in big trouble," Pratt said in an interview with CBS LA.

Pratt and his parents were among the thousands who lost their homes in the Palisades Fire, but he says it was the months after the tragedy that spurred his entry into politics.

"The fire was not what motivated me to go after becoming the mayor of Los Angeles," he said during the CBS LA interview. "It was the months after, and discovering the layers of city negligence and then the coverups and the lies."

He says that he gets strength from talking to other survivors of the fire.

"I'm in the best place I've been since the house and the town burned down, because of the hope that I feel from all of Los Angeles," Pratt said.

Since announcing his bid for mayor, Pratt has continued amassing a large social media following. President Trump also appeared to back Pratt's campaign, saying he'd like to see the political newcomer "do well" in the upcoming election.

"I'd like to see him do well. He's a character. I don't know him. I assume he probably supports me," Trump said in late May. "I hear he does. I heard he's a big MAGA person. He's doing well."

In an interview with CBS LA, Pratt said that he would spend his first 100 days "enforcing the law and making moms feel safe with their kids at parks, in front of their schools."

He says that Bass' "Inside Safe" program is ineffective because of its reliance on adding beds at homeless shelters and establishing affordable housing, and noted that the city should instead provide "medical, mandatory treatment."

Pratt, who has compared the trajectory of his political career to that of former President Obama, says that he doesn't identify with a specific political party and instead intends to address issues that everyone can support.

"Thankfully, it's a nonpartisan race, but if there was a letter next to my name, it would be 'R.' But, that 'R' would stand for results," Pratt said. "I'm coming in here with no tribal politics. I'm coming in here to represent all Angelenos. I'm coming in and auditing and cutting off all this stolen money, and I'm going to put it back into the city of LA."