Los Angeles Runoff Drama Masks Bigger Revolt

Woman speaking at a podium in blue jacket

A reality TV star nearly knocked out an incumbent Los Angeles mayor — and the massive anti-establishment vote he drew may be the bigger story than who actually won.

Story Highlights

Spencer Pratt, a registered Republican running as an independent, held second place with roughly 27–30% of the vote for much of the Los Angeles mayoral primary count before late mail-in ballots pushed him to third
A data timing gap in Associated Press vote updates briefly showed Pratt receiving zero new votes on election night, sparking fraud claims from President Trump and others — but election officials and the Justice Department confirmed every candidate received votes in every official update
Pratt himself did not push the fraud narrative, saying he planned to wind down his campaign while criticizing the two Democrats who advanced
The race heads to a November runoff between incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman, with Pratt’s large protest vote signaling deep voter frustration with Los Angeles leadership

Outsider Candidate Shakes Up Los Angeles Mayor’s Race

Spencer Pratt — best known from the reality show “The Hills” — ran as an independent in the 2026 Los Angeles mayoral primary. He ran against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman. Only those three candidates qualified for a televised debate. Pratt focused his campaign on blaming the two Democrats for the city’s decline on everyday issues that matter to voters. His outsider message clearly connected with a large share of Los Angeles residents.

At one point during the count, Pratt held about 30% of the vote with roughly 62% of ballots tallied. The Associated Press reported him in second place on election night with 29.4% of the vote. That put him ahead of Raman and in position to advance to the November runoff. But as late mail-in ballots came in — which lean heavily Democratic in California — Raman steadily closed the gap and eventually passed him.

The Vote-Count Confusion Explained

On election night, a data timing gap caused a brief, misleading display. One Associated Press update showed new votes for Bass and Raman but zero new votes for Pratt. The reason: the system pulled candidate data in two separate electronic updates, one minute apart. Pratt’s votes came in the second pull. Combined, those two updates included 21,870 votes for Pratt, 12,850 for Bass, and 9,521 for Raman.

The Los Angeles County registrar’s office was clear: there was never an official batch that included zero votes for Pratt. “In every single result update that we released on election night and since election night, he has received votes,” said county spokesperson Michael Sanchez. A Justice Department official in Los Angeles also reviewed the official records and confirmed the same — every candidate received votes in each update.^[1]

Trump Cried Foul — But Pratt Didn’t

President Trump called the result an example of election fraud. Elon Musk and other high-profile voices on social media amplified that claim. The story spread fast. But the facts did not support it. The Justice Department — Trump’s own — reviewed the records and found no fraud.^[1] The misleading display came from a one-minute lag in automated data feeds, not from any manipulation of votes.^[2]

Notably, Pratt himself did not go along with the fraud narrative. He said he planned to wind down his campaign while continuing to criticize the two Democrats who moved on.^[14] That is a meaningful detail. The candidate at the center of the controversy chose not to contest the results — even as others around him pushed the story hard.

This post highlights prosecutors investigating a late "flip" in LA's 2026 mayoral primary results, where reality TV star Spencer Pratt lost his lead for second place to progressive councilwoman Nithya Raman as mail-in ballots were tallied, advancing incumbent Karen Bass and Raman…

— Joe Donlan, Ph.D. (@OrdaininReality) June 22, 2026

What Pratt’s Vote Really Tells Us About Los Angeles

The real takeaway here is not the data glitch. It is that a first-time candidate with no political record nearly made the runoff in the second-largest city in America. With 78% of votes counted, Pratt had 184,596 votes — about 27% of the total.^[11] That is not a fringe showing. That is a massive block of voters telling City Hall they are fed up. Bass and Raman now head into a November runoff with that signal hanging over them.

Los Angeles has struggled with homelessness, crime, sky-high costs of living, and a slow recovery from devastating wildfires. Bass has faced sharp criticism over her handling of those crises. Pratt ran squarely against that record. Whether his voters backed him personally or simply wanted to send a message, the size of his vote makes one thing clear: a large share of Los Angeles voters want something very different from what they have been getting.