Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman has overtaken former reality TV star Spencer Pratt in the city's mayoral race, closing in on a runoff election with Mayor Karen Bass.Show Caption
Spencer Pratt, an early aughts instigator on MTV's legendary reality show "The Hills," has fallen to third place in the race for mayor of Los Angeles after a new ballot drop on June 7.Formerly branded as a reality TV villain, Pratt has reformulated his public image as a conservative outsider in the race to unseat Mayor Karen Bass, but has been overtaken by progressive City Councilwoman Nithya Raman.Raman now boasts 27.12% with 196,198 votes to Pratt's 26.69% and 193,085 votes, according to election results released June 7 by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. The incumbent Bass has a large advantage with 34.68% of the vote total and 250,871 ballots cast.During the June 6 ballot count, Raman gained ground with 26.21% to Pratt's 27.32%.The update comes the same day as President Donald Trump walked off an interview that aired on June 7, with "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker over a tense argument about California election security.Pratt, too, has looked to sow doubt in the safety of Los Angeles elections, questioning the city's vote count and circulating a theory linking the number of votes found to an apparent March web story from the California Housing Partnership about the city's homelessness rates.Trump accused California of "rigged" election "cheating" in the state's June 2 primaries after Welker first said that "Republicans are doing well in California." Pratt is a conservative, while Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton sits in second place over billionaire Tom Steyer.Who is Nithya Raman? Los Angeles councilwoman beating Spencer PrattRaman — who was first elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2020 — used a rendition of "Unwritten," the famed theme song from "The Hills" popularized by singer Natasha Bedingfield, in a closing campaign ad. Her 2020 win was the first time a challenger beat a sitting councilmember in 17 years.The former Bass ally won reelection in 2024. She made headlines earlier this year when she entered the race on the last day possible on Feb. 7.She has said Bass "failed to lead this city" and called Pratt "a right-wing extremist powered by MAGA whose channeling people's frustrations about this city into fear and anger and hatred."A political novice, Pratt has seized on lingering disappointments of Bass' handling of last year's Los Angeles wildfires, in which he lost his home, in his campaign to unseat the former congresswoman. Pratt has also lasered in on the city's homelessness in a plea to local moms.The respective LA mayoral race and contest to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom, an expected entrant into the 2028 presidential race, provided the country with a closer look at "jungle primaries." That means the top two candidates advance regardless of their party in the nation's most populous state.National Republicans have panned the dayslong ballot tabulation in Los Angeles, the second most populous U.S. city behind New York City, whose own chaotic mayoral race led to a win for Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani on Nov 4. last year.Contributing: Paris Barazza
