A late comeback

After trailing for days, Nithya Raman, a progressive Democrat on the Los Angeles City Council, has secured the second slot in the November mayoral runoff. She will face Mayor Karen Bass, who led with 34.3% of the vote. Raman held 28.5% while Republican Spencer Pratt slipped to 25.8%, ending his viral bid. The AP called the race on Monday after updated totals from the June 2 primary showed an insurmountable 22,000-vote lead for Raman.

“To the thousands of supporters who knocked doors, made calls, sent texts, donated, and opened their homes for events across the city, and everyone else who made this moment possible: thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”

Raman entered the race hours before the filing deadline in February, weeks after endorsing Bass for reelection. She had unseated an incumbent council member in 2020 with backing from the Democratic Socialists of America. Media outlets drew comparisons to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, another democratic socialist.

Pratt’s viral campaign fades

Spencer Pratt, best known as the bad boyfriend on MTV’s “The Hills,” lost his home in the 2025 Palisades wildfires. His campaign harped on frustrations over the city’s fire response, homelessness and the cost of living. He was the only Republican to break into double digits in a city where the party makes up about 15% of the electorate. Early returns showed him in second place, prompting right-wing outlets to tout his chances. But as later baskets of mail ballots were counted, the numbers tilted.

Ballot counting feeds fraud claims

California’s vote-processing timeline is elongated by the popularity of mail-in voting. About 13 million of 16 million votes in the 2024 presidential election were cast by mail, and late-arriving ballots consistently skew Democratic. Christian Grose, director of USC’s Schwarzenegger Institute, explained: “The reason a lot of the ballots haven’t been counted yet is because they were dropped in the mail Monday or Tuesday, and as long as they’re postmarked by Tuesday, they get to be counted.”

President Trump nonetheless called the election rigged. “Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had. 3rd World Nation. Rigged Elections!” he posted on Truth Social. He had earlier stormed out of an NBC “Meet the Press” interview when pressed on his 2020 election falsehoods. The U.S. Justice Department sent a federal prosecutor to observe ballot processing, while Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced “multiple election fraud investigations” with the FBI.

“No way this could have happened. Rigged Election!”

Pratt himself alluded to the unfounded rigging theories, posting a meme of Russell Crowe’s John Nash with the caption “Me trying to figure out how votes get counted in LA.”

November runoff stakes

The runoff will be the first for an incumbent Los Angeles mayor since 2005, a stinging rebuke to Bass, a former congresswoman once shortlisted for vice president. It sets up a generational fight between the center-left Democratic establishment and young progressives who argue that baby-boomer housing policies have priced them out of the city. Raman could become the first South Asian woman to hold the office; Bass is the first Black woman to do so.

“A campaign against Nithya Raman, who allows encampments near schools and cuts the police force, is one Mayor Bass looks forward to winning.”

General election turnout is expected to be larger and more progressive than the primary, an advantage for Raman. The city of nearly 4 million people faces deep frustrations over homelessness, buckling streets and climbing rents — the central issues of the fall contest.