By The Daily Caller (Opinion) | Created at 2026-06-04 17:37:38 | Updated at 2026-06-06 19:55:22
2 days ago
As the votes trickle in for the Los Angeles mayoral primary, one candidate has fallen behind.
Incumbent Karen Bass has nabbed enough votes to advance to the November runoff election. Spencer Pratt appears poised for second place, with about 30% of the vote, according to NBC News. Los Angeles city councilwoman and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Nithya Raman is in third place, with 22.8% of the vote. About 62% of the expected votes have been counted as of Thursday morning, according to NBC. (RELATED: NBC Reporter Quickly Pulls Mic After Spencer Pratt Supporters Mention LA’s Poop Problem)
California has a “top two” primary system in which the top two vote-getters — regardless of party — advance to the general election.
Raman broke down in tears Tuesday night as she addressed her ten-year-old twins before a crowd of supporters.
“I hope you know that everything every person in this room is fighting for in this campaign has been about building a city that’s worthy of you, and every child in this city,” Raman said, struggling through tears.
Womp womp. Forgive me if I’m not overly sympathetic to Raman’s plight. The city councilwoman is the West Coast’s Zohran Mamdani, if you stripped away Mamdani’s charisma and kept all the destructive ideas.
Mamdani, a fellow DSA member, won the New York City mayoral election in November 2025 in no small part thanks to his social media presence. Mamdani was younger than his opponents. He framed the race in simple and urgent terms: New York City is too expensive. Vote for me, and I’ll make it less so.
Pratt is more talented, and more honest, than Mamdani. Pratt’s message is: Los Angeles is dangerous and dirty. Vote for me, and I’ll make it less so.
Pratt is running a smart race. Pratt, a registered Republican, has distanced himself from partisan affiliations, rejecting Raman’s description of him as a “MAGA” candidate. (RELATED: INGERSOLL: I Can’t Believe This Anti-Spencer Pratt Ad Is Real)
“My message is about public safety for moms. Moms and kids in the park. I will never do national politics. I will never talk about other states. I’m going to talk about how we fix Los Angeles. So, the opposition, Councilmember Raman, Mayor Bass, they can say anything they want. But I represent all of Los Angeles,” Pratt said in an NBC LA interview.
What if Pratt had not entered the race? As one social media user speculated, Raman would have made the runoff election. California Democrats like Rep. Ro Khanna might have endorsed her, leading to national endorsements from DSA and DSA-aligned Democrats like Mamdani, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar. Raman’s relative youth (in comparison to Bass) and DSA membership would have drawn favorable comparisons to Mamdani. Raman would have a solid chance of beating Bass. If Raman won, Los Angeles would have continued rotting, with the city shelling out untold sums of taxpayer money on fresh needles and “safe” injection sites for heroin addicts.
Raman may still advance to the runoff election. But in any case, Pratt has exposed Raman’s rhetoric for what it is: hollow.
As Pratt said on the debate stage, “Councilwoman Raman’s plan for ‘treatment first’ — I will go below the Harbor Freeway tomorrow with her, and we can find some of these people she’s gonna ‘offer treatment’ for — She’s gonna get stabbed in the neck. These people do not want a bed. They want fentanyl or super meth.”
His inclusion in the race is already a win. And a Pratt victory would be great news for Los Angeles and America. The fact that Pratt, a political outsider with the “wrong” politics for Los Angeles, is a serious contender in the mayoral race speaks to the frustration of Angelenos. Pratt’s campaign serves to remind the more disaffected among us: You don’t have to live like this. We don’t have to tolerate vagrants openly defecating in the streets. Disorder is a choice, and we should reject those who want to inflict it on us.
