Last year, when West Covina native and party promoter Bryant Acosta took a hard look at the candidates running for mayor of Los Angeles, he noticed a void he could not ignore.
“On the Democratic side, I saw a lot of political experience but weak records of actual execution — this was one of my main drivers for getting into the race,” says the nightlife and events impresario, whose name was added to the official mayoral ballot as a candidate in March.
And on the Republican side, he was even more discouraged.
“Do we really need another reality TV star running things? I don’t really see any relevant experience for the position of mayor,” he adds of contender Spencer Pratt — who is gaining ground on incumbent Karen Bass in recent polls, thanks to recognition from his time on MTV’s “The Hills” and a platform built around discontent with her response to the California fires in January 2025.
After Zohran Mamdaniwon the New York mayoral race in November, Acosta felt like his hometown was in need of a similar shake-up.
“It’s 2026, and our city is running on archaic systems,” Acosta asserts. “I’ve navigated through these systems in my work as an event producer and community builder.”
The 43-year-old Mexican American, who got his bachelor of science in graphic design at the Art Institute of Santa Monica, has lived all over Southern California — from West Covina to San Bernardino, then to West Hollywood and Los Feliz. As a creative director and marketing strategist, he’s also used his communication skills and organic charisma to connect with people.
On the surface, working in nightlife and events might not seem like an obvious path to civic leadership, but Acosta explains it in a way that makes a lot of sense. He’s built his career by navigating bureaucracies to secure city permits and meet public safety regulations for venue compliance; not to mention he’s a whiz at neighborhood outreach.
After specializing in marketing and event production for such companies as Warner Brothers and Fox, Acosta founded his own promotion company, the Nightbreed in 2016. What began with poolside rooftop soirees soon expanded to events in other hotels around the city, such as the Mondrian, Dream, the Sofitel and the Moxy — and additional locales in Austin, Miami and Mexico. The Nightbreed has also garnered a significant profile during L.A. Pride month events.
Acosta’s run has generated excitement from Angelenos like himself: educated, millennial, Latino and part of the LGBTQ+ community. On April 4 he announced his candidacy with a uniquely spirited town hall at Casita Hollywood. The event featured vivacious emcee Rhea Litré, one of the city’s most riveting drag and club personalities, but the topics discussed were sobering: homelessness, transgender discrimination, affordability, mental health and ICE raids.
“He stands for a Los Angeles where equality isn’t just a promise, it’s a practice,” says Litré.
“For me, it’s all about standing up for our generation, and really allowing us to bring in this ethos,” he continues. “Especially as Angelenos, we are very Rage Against the Machine. We are very much like, you know, ‘Unidos, vamos a salir adelante,’ which translates in English to, ‘United, we will come out stronger together.’ And I really believe that.”
To the young voters at his town hall, only Acosta represents true change and the same kind of much-needed generational shift we saw in New York. His ideas are music to many ears in the Latino and queer community — like Mark Anthony Figueroa Jr., a nightlife community figure who calls him “the leader Los Angeles has been waiting for.”
“He’s progressive, inclusive and refreshingly direct,” says Figueroa. “No BS, no fluff. Just transparent, grounded leadership that’s genuinely in touch with the soul of the communities that make this city run.”
“What sets [Acosta] apart is that he’s actually lived the city’s struggles, and is not just campaigning on them,” adds friend and hopeful constituent, Jed Inductivo. “He’s beholden to no one but the people. His vision for using technology to drive real transparency, job creation and creative opportunity, and to tackle homelessness at its root, rather than applying endless band-aids, is the most exciting, accountable thinking I’ve seen in this race.”
Given the hostility of the Trump administration, does Acosta fear his sexuality might deter close-minded voters?
“While I was canvassing to get my signatures to run, I was actually able to turn conservatives because they saw that my campaign is not ideological,” he says. “My campaign is about getting things done. When they saw my ideas and my platform, they were like, ‘You’re interesting enough for me to sign on.’ I was really proud of that. Conservatives in California are much different from conservatives in other parts of the country — they’re fiscally conservative but socially liberal.”
“Trans issues [are also] the hot button [issue],” he continues, citing his objective to install more public gender-neutral restrooms in the city. “One of the things that as a gay man I’ve noticed, is the evolution of acceptance. … You know, our stories were being told. So I’m using my platform for trans people and LGBTQ in general, to tell more of those stories and to offer education on some of this stuff, because I feel like there’s so much misinformation [online]. The algorithm is not our friend. When you hear people saying outlandish things, the algorithm rewards that. I want to push back by offering scientifically-based information.”
As the son of Mexican immigrants, Acosta also speaks to the broader immigrant community. The onslaught of ICE raids in L.A. hit very close to home for him, as his own aunt was picked up by ICE with his cousin during the Obama administration. He says his family members were thrown to the ground, threatened and detained.
“My aunt was already doing her paperwork, but she had just missed the meetings, which she conceded. But they tricked her. They used tactics in the jail to say, ‘If you don’t sign for this, we’re going to throw your son [who was a citizen] out of the country,’” he recalls, adding that his relatives have remained in Mexico ever since.
How does he plan to do that when the federal government has a strong hold on immigration policy? And what might he do differently when others before him have failed?
In addition to boosting the Know Your Rights campaign, Acosta wants to create a formal task force to have oversight and transparency over immigration that would include legal experts, civil rights advocates and community leaders to monitor, document and publicly report how enforcement impacts the city. He argues that there is currently “no strong centralized oversight or transparent public accountability system that allows residents to clearly see whether city policies are consistently being followed in good faith across departments.”
He also wants to expand clean-energy partnerships, implement community markets that bring organic food to under-served neighborhoods and proposes a clean budget initiative to make all city spending and contracts accessible to the public.
On public safety and homelessness, he proposes addressing root causes — such as mental health, substance abuse and the working poor being priced out of stability — then introduce housing campuses and other reforms.
“I think melding what I do with events is important because nightlife is all about community,” he says, noting that his next town hall meeting will take place on May 16 at the Kiso nightclub in downtown Los Angeles.
“It sets me apart from everybody else, but also it speaks to my work — not just as an executive, but also as a real person, as a small business owner and as a person who cares about Los Angeles,” adds Acosta. “I have my hand on the pulse of the city.”
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