Nithya Raman will face incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in November's runoff after a stunning reversal that left Spencer Pratt, the MTV reality star who had dominated headlines for months, out of the race entirely.
On election night, the progressive Democrat and LA city councilwoman appeared braced for disappointment. Pratt's viral campaign had captured national attention and seemed poised to secure the second spot in what promised to be a chaotic general election. But as votes rolled in over subsequent days, it became clear Raman had edged past the former "Hills" cast member to advance.
The result capped an extraordinary turn in a mayoral race defined by the unpredictable. Raman's entry into the contest itself had been a political earthquake. She filed her candidacy hours before the February deadline, just weeks after publicly endorsing Bass for re-election. Her sudden flip shocked the Los Angeles political establishment and instantly gave the race a third heavyweight candidate.
An urban planner by training, Raman argued that the city had reached a breaking point. She told supporters that Angelenos across the city were calling for change, pointing to the administration's failure to manage homelessness, the crippling housing shortage, and deteriorating basic services. Her 2020 victory over a Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton-backed incumbent had already established her as a formidable political force.
Pratt's rise had seemed meteoric. The actor, best known as the antagonistic boyfriend on MTV's "The Hills," lost his home in last year's devastating wildfires. He channeled the resulting anger at City Hall into a mayoral campaign that crystallized broader frustrations among voters. His advertisements went viral. He performed unexpectedly well in debates. His message resonated across multiple fault lines in LA politics: the botched wildfire response, the cost-of-living crisis, and the staggering homelessness emergency that has left nearly 44,000 people on the streets despite Bass's documented 17.5% reduction in the unhoused population.
What Pratt lacked was crucial political infrastructure. His background as a reality television personality with no government experience, combined with questions about his party registration and a late endorsement from Donald Trump that most analysts viewed as damaging rather than helpful, ultimately proved too difficult to overcome in an overwhelmingly Democratic city.
Raman seized on the Trump backing during the campaign, framing Pratt's ascent as an opportunity for the "Maga machine" to establish a foothold in Los Angeles. As his vote totals slipped, Pratt adopted another page from the Trump playbook, posting social media messages questioning the legitimacy of the results and suggesting without evidence that Raman's lead came from fraudulent votes cast by the city's homeless population.
Now Raman faces the harder task of taking down Bass in a runoff where the incumbent already has secured backing from major unions and key segments of the city's liberal base. Bass was more vulnerable from the political left than from the right, and Raman enters November as that alternative. Los Angeles continues drifting leftward, according to political observers, but Bass has name recognition, institutional support, and the power of the mayor's office behind her.
Author James Rodriguez: "Raman's surprise entry and Pratt's viral moment both revealed how volatile LA politics has become, but when voters had to actually decide, the establishment Democrat with a track record won out over a celebrity wildcard."
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