Long-running reality show star Spencer Pratt is close to being renewed in the Los Angeles mayoral race, but this season’s finale may contain some surprises.
After 56% of the votes were counted on Tuesday evening Hills The star-turned-politician sat in second place with 29.4% of the vote in his bid to run California’s largest city, ahead of his third-place rival, progressive City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, with 7.6%. Pratt received 128,000 votes to Raman’s 95,000, but 350,000 votes still need to be counted.
Raman also appears to be closing the gap, in keeping with the trend of Republican votes tending to come early in the counting process; They were down 10 points a few hours ago. Whoever wins will advance to a two-person runoff in November.
Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass currently sits comfortably ahead of her challengers with 157,000 votes (36%), guaranteeing her a spot in the runoff but falling short of the 50% needed for automatic re-election. Bass would be the first Los Angeles mayor to need a runoff since 2005, when incumbent James Hahn finished second in the primary and had to go to a runoff against challenger Antonio Villaraigosa, who defeated him. Both Villaraigosa and his successor Eric Garcetti would win a second term with 50% in the primary.
If the totals hold and Bratt advances against Bass, it will set up a showdown made for MTV. The battle between the two will be one of the fiercest elections the city has seen in decades. Pratt repeatedly went after Bass in the primary campaign, reposting AI videos of her that cast her as the Joker and mocking her response to wildfires and the city’s housing crisis. After previously ignoring him, Bass recently went after Pratt as well, calling him an “evil reality TV star.” Pratt received the stamp of approval from another reality star-turned-politician, Donald Trump, though he declined the endorsement.
A Brat victory over Raman would mean a rejection from the city’s progressives, though it would also rile up some Monday morning quarterbacks over the decision of Rae Huang, the Democratic Socialist of America candidate, to stay in the race and take away votes from her. Of course, Raman’s late entry into the race itself may have taken votes from Bass, who could have reached the 50% threshold and avoided a runoff with Pratt if she had stayed out of the race. (Think Nader-Gore-Bush in 2000).
On the other hand, Raman’s return would be a shock defeat for Rath, who has risen in recent weeks on the back of viral videos and public dissatisfaction with the challenges faced by the Bass-run city. It would end one of the most surprising and novel campaigns of the era of surprise and new campaigns, halting a foreign tour by conservative entertainers who have made their stock in trade dating back to Jesse Ventura in the 1990s, Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2000s, and Donald Trump in the 2010s.
Despite Pratt’s entertainment bona fide, it was Bass who sought to position herself as a Hollywood candidate in her speech to supporters Tuesday night. She described Los Angeles as the “creative capital of the world” and criticized “an industry that was leaving but we’re bringing it back.”
Pratt, for his part, kept Hollywood, or at least the media, at bay — appearing to block reporters from covering his Election Night party at Don Antonio in the Sawtelle neighborhood of Los Angeles, according to two people on the ground, in violation of longstanding Election Night practices but in keeping with his anti-elite theme. He did speak to reporters outside the restaurant, speaking generally in a controlled tone but offering some additional loquacious challenges to his presumptive runoff opponent. “She knows it’s on. I hope she’s ready,” he said of Bass.
In the California governor’s race, another critic of incumbent Democrats had a strong performance. Former Fox News host Steve Hilton — like Bratt, a TV personality who has never run for elected office before — easily rose to the top late Tuesday night. With 55% of the votes counted, he had a strong lead with 27.6% of the vote, compared to 25.5% for Democrat and pollster Xavier Becerra, and a full eight points ahead of progressive Democrat Tom Steyer. But the margins — 1.3 million for Hilton, 1.2 million for Becerra, and 900,000 for Steyer — were not conclusive with nearly four million votes remaining uncounted.
If the results hold, they would set up a general election between former California moderate AJ Becerra, an establishment candidate, and British-born Hilton, a former Conservative strategist and political talker who also has Trump’s endorsement.
Hilton ran to criticize incumbent Democrats, especially Gov. Gavin Newsom, and campaigned on a traditionally conservative platform of lower taxes and less regulation. “Change is coming,” he chanted with his supporters at an election night party. He also said he would raise the cap on the film tax credit to 60%. In his speech to supporters, Hilton nodded to his English-born status. “I know some of you who are watching are thinking ‘Who is this guy who has a funny accent and thinks he can be governor,’” he then transitioned into a reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger and a conversation Hilton had with the former governor about Hilton seeking the job.
Steyer has taken a far more activist government stance than Hilton, calling for more climate regulations, more worker protections and new proposals like a “token tax,” which would charge people to use AI and put the money in a pot for displaced workers. Some opinion polls placed the billionaire businessman in second place in the days leading up to the race.
But the candidate — who spent more than $200 million of his own money on the campaign, the most by any candidate this nationwide primary season — appeared to be gossiping with voters early in the election, which seemed like a rejection of progressivism.
Becerra continued to ride a late-season wave that saw him go from single digits at the polls to the top of the heap in his bid to become the state’s first Latino governor. He has avoided bold policy prescriptions, including regarding Hollywood, perhaps waiting to see whether his November opponent will be to his right or to his left. Speaking to supporters Tuesday night, the former Department of Health and Human Services secretary played Cinderella, saying he was “spent too much” (referring to Steyer) and how he was “called out along the way” (referring to the California Democratic Party chairman’s pleas for low-polling Democrats to step aside early in the race).
“Well, guess what,” he said, his voice getting louder. “The underdog stayed in the fight.”
