Reality star Spencer Pratt has lost the race for Los Angeles mayor, with left-wing city council member Nithya Raman advancing to face incumbent Karen Bass, US media projects.
Raman’s win was declared nearly a week after the election in California. Bass swiftly secured enough votes, but counting continued to be tallied to find whom she would run against to lead the nation’s second most populous city.
The winner of November’s race will lead the city as it grapples with homelessness and housing affordability.
Pratt had an early lead over Raman, but over days of counting she leap-frogged him. With the latest results, she had 28.5% of the vote and Pratt had 25.8%.
Counting votes in California – and in LA – can take weeks, as the state boasts the nation’s largest population and has 23 million registered voters. An estimated 80% of the state’s votes are cast by mail and those ballots need to be sorted, validated and counted.
The second candidate advancing in governor’s race has not yet been called in the 2 June primary election. Former Biden health secretary Xavier Becerra has advanced to the November election but it’s still too close to say whether he will face British-American former TV host Steve Hilton, a Republican, or billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, another Democrat.
The delays spurred complaints from US President Donald Trump, with allegations – without proof – of fraud.
Pratt, who is best known for his role on MTV’s The Hills, remained confident that he would be victorious, writing earlier on Monday that, “there’s still hundreds of thousands of votes outstanding, and LA officials have given us the next 3 weeks to count! Let’s git-r-dun!”
In Los Angeles, a mayoral candidate who gets 50% or more votes wins the election outright. Since no candidate reached that threshold, the top two candidates will advance to the general election in the fall.
If Bass wins, she will serve a second and final term as mayor.
The 72-year-old has had a lengthy career in politics and community organising in LA, serving six terms in Congress representing parts of Los Angeles.
Bass chaired the Congressional Black Caucus and was a key member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. She was also reportedly floated as a potential running mate for then-presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in 2020.
Before being elected to Congress, Bass served in the California state assembly, where she became the first black woman to serve as a House speaker in any state legislature.
Her mayoral term has been defined by her responses to the city’s homelessness issue, federal immigration raids and a destructive wildfire that burned through a wealthy neighbourhood in Los Angeles in January 2025.
Bass has faced widespread scrutiny in the aftermath of the Palisades Fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and left 12 people dead. It became one of California’s most destructive fires on record, and the city’s response has been heavily criticised.
Raman, an urban planner, entered the mayoral race as somewhat of a surprise just before the filing deadline.
The left-wing 44-year-old has served on the Los Angeles City Council since 2020, but did not gain a mayoral endorsement from any of her city council colleagues.
She has been compared to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a fellow member of the Democratic Socialists of America organisation.
Her campaign platform has focused on expanding affordable housing, reducing homelessness and bringing jobs back to Hollywood. She has argued Bass has not done enough to address the city’s homelessness issue.
Pratt, a registered Republican, launched a longshot campaign for mayor in January despite being a political outsider who has not held public office.
The 42-year-old emerged as a vocal critic of Bass in the aftermath of the Palisades Fire, which destroyed his home.
The former publicist rose to fame in 2007 when he joined the cast of The Hills, a spin-off of the MTV reality show Laguna Beach, as the boyfriend of Heidi Montag.
By BBC News
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