Reality TV Star Spencer Pratt Falls Short in LA Mayor's Race

When reality TV star Spencer Pratt announced his bid for Los Angeles mayor earlier this year, the stakes were unmistakably personal. After his Pacific Palisades home was destroyed in the 2025 California wildfires, the former *The Hills* personality pivoted from entertainment to activism—declaring war on what he called a“fundamentally broken”system designed to protect the powerful while ordinary Angelenos suffer through natural disaster, homelessness, and urban decay.

But the primary results told a different story. On June 7, Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman leapfrogged Pratt in the voting count, securing the second spot in a runoff against incumbent Karen Bass. The race that was supposed to prove a reality TV outsider could shake up City Hall instead ended with Pratt on the sidelines as the June 2 primary votes were still being counted—a process so laborious that even Pratt couldn’t resist tweeting his frustration on June 11, asking simply,“Are they done counting yet?”

Pratt’s campaign wasn’t without celebrity muscle. David Foster and Katharine McPhee rallied publicly behind him, calling him“the right man for the right job at the right time”and framing his loss of a home as a credential to challenge decades of failing governance. He’d gone on the offensive against establishment politics with the kind of righteous anger that resonates with frustrated voters.“No normal person would want to fight this demonic machine of evil,”he said, positioning himself as the only candidate willing to get his hands dirty because he’d already been through the worst.

Yet despite his passionate platform and the emotional authenticity of his story, voters chose differently. Raman, with her city council experience, edged him out. The reality TV pivot—his supposed edge in name recognition and media savvy—wasn’t enough to overcome the gravitational pull of traditional political experience. It’s a reminder that charisma and outsider appeal, even when paired with genuine personal tragedy and a compelling message, don’t always translate to votes. Bass and Raman will face off in November, while Pratt returns to the reality he tried to change, left to watch from the outside as LA’s political machine churns forward.