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President Trump’s favored candidate to become Los Angeles mayor looks like he won’t even make the runoff — a reality that has provoked a barrage of unsubstantiated claims of fraud from the commander in chief.
Votes are still being counted in the nation’s second-largest city, where a high proportion of ballots are customarily cast by mail. As those votes are tabulated, progressive City Council member Nithya Raman has pulled ahead of MAGA-friendly Spencer Pratt, best-known as a reality TV star, for second place.
Raman and Pratt are vying to run against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass (D), who will top the primary poll — but with a less-than-stellar vote share of about 35 percent as of Monday.
Raman, who had been behind Pratt as in-person votes were tallied, is now ahead of him by roughly 3,000 votes, or four-tenths of a percentage point.
Most experts expect the left-wing Raman’s margin over the right-wing Pratt to increase as more votes are counted, given the propensity for Democratic and progressive voters to be more inclined to vote by mail than Republicans and conservatives. Los Angeles is also an overwhelmingly Democratic city.
California abjures party primaries in favor of “jungle” primaries, where all the candidates are in one contest and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election.
“He would have to beat her from this point forward if he is to come back, and I don’t see that happening,” Zev Yaroslavsky, the director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs — and himself a former member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors — told this column.
None of this is likely to persuade Trump, however.
“Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had, 3rd World Nation. Rigged Elections!” the president wrote on social media on Monday.
The president provided no evidence to back up his claim. He had made similar allegations about California in general during a stormy interview with Kristen Welker of NBC’s “Meet the Press” that was broadcast on Sunday. Trump furnished no evidence on that occasion either, under robust questioning from Welker.
The charge of election fraud elicits a degree of weariness from experts in the matter, given the president’s history of making false claims about election outcomes, most infamously in relation to his loss to former President Biden in the 2020 presidential contest.
As regards the specifics in Los Angeles, the idea that Pratt would have actually won — as in, emerged from the primary in first place — was fanciful to begin with. Registered Democrats in Los Angeles County outnumber registered Republicans by almost 2 million.
For any candidate of the right to win, “it would be an incredibly uphill battle,” said Mindy Romero, the founder and director of the California-based Center for Inclusive Democracy.
“Only about 15 percent of Los Angeles voters are registered Republicans. It’s an overwhelmingly Democratic city. You would have to have a candidate who could pull an incredible number of Democrats, and do that in our current polarized environment.”
The question was always whether Pratt could edge out Raman for second place.
In that quest, he got an enormous amount of friendly media attention, especially from conservative-leaning outlets, but he also acquitted himself well in debate and seized the initiative on social media.
One especially viral moment centered on an AI ad that cast Pratt as a heroic Batman-type figure and cast Democrats including Bass, Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris as members of a sneering yet ineffectual elite.
The ad did not come from the official Pratt campaign, but the candidate reposted it to his 1.2 million followers on the social platform X, helping it reach a wider audience.
More generally, Pratt sought to take advantage of public dissatisfaction in the city.
Nationally, the biggest story in that regard was Bass’s much-criticized response to the wildfires that devastated large swaths of the Pacific Palisades and adjacent areas in January 2025. Bass contends she was unfairly blamed for a situation she could have done little to change.
However, other grievances around the city’s difficulties with homelessness — and a broader sense that Los Angeles is on the wrong track — also generated momentum for Pratt.
The difficulty was, they appear to have helped boost Raman, who has been pressuring Bass from the left, even more.
While Pratt’s critique of Bass from the right got plenty of airtime, the leftist critique was less prominent.
The argument from figures like Raman is that Bass “did not deliver on her promises for the city of Los Angeles,” according to Kamy Akhavan, who leads the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California.
“She was put in office largely on the promise of more jobs for more people and on significantly reducing the homeless problem in Los Angeles,” Akhavan add…
Read the full article at The Hill →📄Source document: Los Angeles Mayoral Election Results→6 reports
The HillIndependentLeft12 days agoThe article discusses the ongoing Los Angeles mayoral race, noting that Spencer Pratt, a reality TV star and Trump supporter, appears unlikely to reach the runoff against current Mayor Karen Bass. Progressive council member Nithya Raman is currently leading Pratt by a narrow margin, which is expected to widen as more mail-in ballots are counted. The article mentions President Trump's reaction to the results, including unsubstantiated claims of fraud.
Bias read (Left): The article frames the situation with a focus on the progressive candidate gaining ground due to higher mail-in voting rates among Democrats, implying a systemic advantage for left-leaning candidates. It also highlights Trump's unsubstantiated fraud claims without balancing them with evidence or a '
The Washington TimesIndependentCenter12 days agoNithya Raman, a progressive Los Angeles City Council member, has secured a spot in the mayoral runoff against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass following the nonpartisan primary election. Reality TV star Spencer Pratt finished third. As of Monday evening, with 93% of the votes counted, Mayor Bass leads with 34.3%, Raman follows with 28.5%, and Pratt trails at 25.8%. Both Democratic candidates have begun campaigning against each other, with Raman criticizing the current administration for favoring powerful interests and Bass's team highlighting Raman's policies on encampments and police reductions.
Bias read (Center): The article presents the election results and quotes both candidates' positions without overtly favoring one side. It includes direct statements from both Raman and the Bass campaign, providing balanced perspectives on their respective platforms and strategies. There is no evident editorializing or偏
The Washington TimesIndependentRight12 days ago The statistical impossibility of L.A.'s mayor raceThe article discusses the Los Angeles mayoral race, highlighting the unusual surge in support for third-place candidate Nithya Raman following the initial election results. It notes that Raman gained significant momentum through mail-in ballots received after the election date, overtaking second-place candidate Spencer Pratt. The author argues that this outcome is statistically improbable, pointing out that voter turnout for Raman was initially very low, but then saw a dramatic increase. The piece also references the idea that Democrats tend to vote later by mail.
Bias read (Right): The article uses strong language such as 'statistical impossibility' and frames the situation as suspicious, implying potential irregularities without providing evidence. It emphasizes the improbability of the outcome from a conservative perspective, suggesting that the Democratic voting pattern may
The HillIndependentCenter12 days ago How DDHQ projected Raman over Pratt in Los Angeles mayoral raceThe article discusses how the timing of voter turnout affected the projection of results in the Los Angeles mayoral race. According to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), the delayed voting by registered Democrats influenced the outcome, with current projections showing Mayor Karen Bass leading with 34.7% of the vote, followed by City Council member Nithya Raman with 27.1%, and Spencer Pratt with 26.7%. DDHQ's chief election analyst explained that many Democrats waited to vote due to uncertainty surrounding the gubernatorial race.
Bias read (Center): The article provides a factual account of the mayoral race results and the impact of voter behavior without taking a stance or using biased language. It quotes an analyst from DDHQ and presents the data objectively.
Official sources cited
- organisation Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ)
The New York Times (US)Independent🔒Center13 days agoNithya Raman has overtaken Spencer Pratt in the Los Angeles mayoral election, moving into second place in the race to challenge current Mayor Karen Bass. The article notes that there are still more votes to be counted.
Bias read (Center): The article provides a neutral summary of the current standings in the mayoral race without taking a stance or using biased language. It mentions the ongoing vote count but does not favor any candidate or imply a particular outcome.
NPR NewsIndependentCenter14 days agoResults are still being tallied for the Los Angeles mayoral primary, and it remains unclear who will challenge Karen Bass in the general election. Reporter Frank Stoltze from LAist provides an update on the situation.
Bias read (Center): The article does not present any overtly biased language, framing, or sourcing. It simply reports on the ongoing results of a mayoral primary without taking a stance or emphasizing one candidate over another.
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