Spencer Pratt Polls: How a Reality TV Star Became a Serious Factor in the Los Angeles Mayor Race

The phrase “Spencer Pratt polls” has moved from celebrity curiosity to political shorthand for one of the most unexpected storylines in Los Angeles politics. Spencer Pratt, best known to many voters as a former reality television personality from The Hills, is no longer merely an outsider candidate generating attention. Early election returns placed him in a competitive second position behind incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, turning his campaign into a major test of voter frustration, post-disaster anger, celebrity visibility, and the appetite for political disruption in America’s second-largest city.

In the Los Angeles mayoral primary, Bass led the field, but Pratt’s numbers made clear that his campaign had broken through. With more than half of the expected vote counted in one reported update, Bass had 35.8%, Pratt had 29.6%, and City Councilmember Nithya Raman had 21.8%. That count translated to 159,109 votes for Bass, 131,384 for Pratt, and 96,835 for Raman, with 56.5% of expected votes in.

The results did not immediately settle the race. They did, however, establish Pratt as more than a protest candidate. In a citywide contest shaped by homelessness, affordability, wildfire recovery, public safety, immigration enforcement, and confidence in City Hall, the polls and returns showed that Los Angeles voters were weighing an unconventional option with unusual seriousness.

A Primary That Became a Referendum on City Hall

Los Angeles uses a system in which a mayoral candidate can win outright by receiving a majority of the vote. If no candidate reaches that threshold, the top two candidates advance to a November runoff. In this race, Bass was projected to move forward, while Pratt and Raman were battling for the second runoff spot in the partial returns.

That structure is crucial to understanding why Pratt’s polling and early vote position mattered. He did not need to win the primary outright. He needed to consolidate enough support to survive the first round and force a head-to-head campaign against Bass.

The mayoral field included 14 candidates, but the contest rapidly centered on three figures: Bass, the incumbent seeking a second term; Raman, a City Council member challenging from the left; and Pratt, a registered Republican and political newcomer attacking Bass from the right.

The early returns showed a city divided not just by ideology, but by mood. Bass still commanded the largest share of the vote, yet she was below the majority needed to end the race in June. Pratt’s second-place position reflected the strength of a campaign built around grievance, visibility, and a direct critique of how Los Angeles is being governed.

Why Spencer Pratt’s Numbers Surprised the Race

Pratt’s path into the mayoral race was unusual by traditional political standards. He had never held public office, and his public profile came from entertainment rather than government. But the campaign he built was not simply a celebrity experiment. It drew heavily from his personal experience after the 2025 Palisades Fire, which destroyed his home and became a defining event in his political message.

Pratt announced his run on the anniversary of the Palisades Fire, framing his candidacy as a response to what he saw as failed leadership. His campaign centered on criticism of the city government’s response to the blaze, along with broader concerns about public safety, emergency readiness, small business empowerment, affordability, and homelessness.

His message was blunt. “We have no other choice, so it’s pretty simple. We can’t do four more years of Karen Bass,” he said.

That line captured the strategic core of the campaign: Pratt was not trying to sound like a conventional civic technocrat. He was positioning himself as a corrective to what he described as a broken political system.

At his campaign announcement, he sharpened that theme further: “Business as usual is a death sentence for Los Angeles, and I’m done waiting for someone to take real action. That’s why I am running for mayor,” he said. “But let me be clear, this just isn’t a campaign — this is a mission, and we are going to expose the system. We are going into every dark corner of L.A. politics and disinfecting the city with our light.”

The polling and early results suggest that this message found a meaningful audience. Pratt’s support was not enough to overtake Bass in the first wave of returns, but it was strong enough to put him within striking distance of a runoff position.

The Numbers Behind the “Spencer Pratt Polls” Story

The clearest snapshot from the provided election data showed Bass ahead, Pratt second, and Raman third. In one reported update, Bass led with 36%, Pratt followed with 29%, and Raman stood at 22%, with more than 50% of the expected vote counted.

Another count placed Bass at 35.8%, Pratt at 29.6%, and Raman at 21.8%, with 56.5% of expected votes in.

A separate projection described Bass as advancing to the November runoff, while saying it remained unclear whether she would face Pratt or Raman. With nearly half the votes counted in that update, Bass had 36.5%, Pratt had 29.5%, and Raman had 21%.

Taken together, these figures show a consistent pattern: Bass led the field, Pratt was a strong second, and Raman was close enough to keep the second runoff slot unresolved as counting continued.

For Pratt, the significance was obvious. A candidate dismissed by some observers as a celebrity longshot had placed himself in the central lane of the race. His numbers turned the contest into a broader question: could personal anger over wildfire recovery and dissatisfaction with City Hall translate into a citywide political coalition?

Karen Bass: The Incumbent Still Ahead, But Under Pressure

Bass entered the race with the advantages of incumbency, name recognition, and a long record in public life. She had served in Congress, chaired the Congressional Black Caucus, and built her mayoral campaign around claims of progress on affordability, homelessness, public safety, downtown business activity, and climate goals.

At her reelection launch, Bass argued that Los Angeles had made progress but still had unfinished work. “The city I’ve been in my whole life, the city that I love, I feel we have accomplished a lot, but we’re not done,” Bass said. “Until every Palisadian is back home. I will not rest until L.A. is affordable, until one paycheck is enough and families don’t have to double up or triple up. And I will not rest until there are no Angelenos on our streets.”

Her campaign also pointed to reductions in street homelessness, affordable housing streamlining through Executive Order No. 1, downtown revitalization efforts, union jobs, crime reduction, zero-emissions goals, and wildfire cleanup.

Yet the early vote totals revealed that incumbency was not enough to settle the race outright. Bass was ahead, but not above the 50% threshold. In practical terms, that meant the election was no longer just about her record. It was also about whether voters believed Los Angeles was improving quickly enough.

Nithya Raman and the Battle for the Alternative Vote

Raman’s role in the race complicated the “Bass versus Pratt” framing. As a City Council member, she challenged Bass from the left, arguing that Los Angeles needed stronger delivery on basic services, housing, homelessness, and city management.

Raman said she entered the race after becoming frustrated by the limits of council-level power. “It gets harder and harder for me to look at them in the face and to say, ‘I can’t fix your streetlight for a year.’ I don’t think that’s an acceptable answer,” she said. “I’ve hit up against my limitations as a council member. I’ve done a lot, but to do what needs to be done at this moment, to make sure departments are doing their job, to make sure that we’re organized to face the incredible moment of crisis and challenge that we’re at right now, we need to be doing something differently at the very top.”

Her campaign message focused on families being priced out, housing not being built fast enough, and a city government that sometimes fails to deliver basic services.

That made the race ideologically layered. Bass defended her record. Raman argued the city needed a different progressive approach. Pratt argued that the entire system needed disruption. The “Spencer Pratt polls” story gained traction because Pratt, rather than Raman, was the challenger most visibly threatening to turn the race into a November contest defined by anger at City Hall.

From Reality TV Persona to Political Outsider Brand

Pratt’s celebrity background remains central to how voters, critics, and the media interpret his rise. He became widely known in 2007 after appearing on The Hills, eventually marrying fellow cast member Heidi Montag. The couple later appeared on other reality programs, including I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here and the British version of Celebrity Big Brother.

But in the mayoral campaign, his entertainment background functioned in two opposite ways. For critics, it raised questions about readiness for office. For supporters, it made him a recognizable outsider with a platform and a direct communication style.

Pratt’s campaign was not built on a conventional political résumé. It was built on visibility, grievance, and a promise to challenge entrenched power. That formula is familiar in modern politics, where candidates with celebrity recognition can bypass traditional party structures and speak directly to voters who feel ignored by institutions.

His position in the returns suggests that a substantial bloc of Angelenos was willing to consider that bargain.

Why the Palisades Fire Became a Political Fault Line

The Palisades Fire did more than shape Pratt’s personal story. It became one of the defining political issues in the mayoral race. The fire destroyed thousands of homes and left 12 people dead, and the city’s response drew heavy criticism.

For Bass, recovery from the fire became part of her reelection argument. For Pratt, it became proof of system failure. The emotional power of that issue helped move his campaign beyond celebrity novelty.

In a city where disaster preparedness, housing reconstruction, insurance pressures, and public trust are deeply connected, wildfire recovery was not a single-issue concern. It intersected with affordability, bureaucracy, neighborhood safety, and confidence in leadership.

That explains why Pratt’s polling strength mattered beyond his own candidacy. His rise showed that disaster response could become a citywide political weapon, especially when tied to a broader argument that Los Angeles is not functioning for ordinary residents.

What the Polls Reveal About Los Angeles Voters

The early figures suggest three important dynamics.

First, Bass remained the strongest single candidate. She led across reported updates and was projected to advance to the runoff.

Second, the anti-incumbent vote was fragmented but substantial. Pratt and Raman together represented very different kinds of dissatisfaction: one rooted in outsider disruption and criticism from the right, the other in progressive frustration with city operations.

Third, Pratt’s support showed that Los Angeles voters were willing to elevate a nontraditional candidate when traditional politics seemed unable to answer urgent concerns. His numbers indicate that the race was not only about party identity. It was about confidence, competence, anger, and the perceived ability to respond to crisis.

That is why “Spencer Pratt polls” became a meaningful search term. People were not just looking for election percentages. They were trying to understand whether a reality television figure could actually become one of two finalists to run Los Angeles.

The Runoff Question: What Happens Next?

The immediate question is whether Pratt can hold second place as vote counting continues. Bass was projected to advance, but the second spot remained the key uncertainty in the provided returns. Pratt led Raman in the available numbers, but counting had not fully concluded.

If Pratt advances, the November race would become a stark contrast between an experienced Democratic incumbent and a Republican outsider whose campaign is built around disruption, emergency readiness, public safety, and criticism of the city’s handling of the Palisades Fire.

If Raman overtakes him, the runoff would instead become a contest between two Democrats, focused more heavily on housing, homelessness, service delivery, and the future direction of progressive governance in Los Angeles.

Either outcome would show that Bass faces a more difficult reelection environment than a typical incumbent might expect. Historically, only two of the 10 Los Angeles mayors who sought a second term since the mayoral term became four years in 1925 were denied reelection: John C. Porter in 1929 and James Hahn in 2005.

That history makes the current race significant. Bass is still ahead, but the polls and partial returns show that her path to a second term is contested.

Why Spencer Pratt’s Polling Surge Matters

Spencer Pratt’s rise in the Los Angeles mayoral race is not just a celebrity-politics story. It is a signal of how modern urban elections can be reshaped by crisis, dissatisfaction, and the collapse of old assumptions about who voters will take seriously.

His campaign speaks to anger over wildfire recovery, frustration with homelessness, concern about affordability, and a belief among some voters that the city’s political establishment has failed to act with urgency. Whether that message can carry him into a runoff remains dependent on final vote counts. But the early numbers already show that Pratt has become a major factor in the race.

The significance of the “Spencer Pratt polls” story is that it captures a city at a political crossroads. Los Angeles is preparing for the 2028 Olympics while still confronting homelessness, housing pressure, public safety concerns, wildfire recovery, and questions about basic government performance. In that environment, a candidate once known mainly for reality television has turned himself into a vessel for voter frustration.

Bass remains the front-runner. Raman remains a serious contender. But Pratt’s numbers have changed the shape of the race. They show that in Los Angeles politics, celebrity alone is not enough—but celebrity combined with a clear grievance, a crisis narrative, and a restless electorate can become a serious political force.