Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) is in a tough fight for reelection against a onetime liberal ally and a Republican reality TV star in Tuesday’s primary.
Bass, seeking a second term leading the second-most-populous city in the country, is trying to overcome frustrations with her handling of wildfires, homelessness and high costs of living. Nithya Raman — the first Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidate elected to the Los Angeles City Council — has argued Bass is not tackling big issues urgently enough. Self-proclaimed reality TV “villain” Spencer Pratt is challenging Bass from the right, appealing to disappointment in the city’s longtime Democratic leadership.
If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the nonpartisan primary, then the top two vote-getters will advance to November’s general election. Polls show a highly competitive race: Bass led with 26 percent of likely voters in a UC Berkeley-Los Angeles Times survey released last week, with Raman at 25 percent and Pratt at 22 percent.
Polls close at 8 p.m. Pacific time, but it may take days or longer to project who advances to the general election. The results of mail and in-person ballots cast before Tuesday are expected to be reported within an hour of polls closing, followed by daily updates for several weeks. Results for primaries in California’s hotly contested governor’s race are available here, and results in primaries for the state’s U.S. House districts are available here.
Live results
Bass is defending her record
The mayor’s race is testing voters’ mood in a blue stronghold.
Bass, a former congresswoman and State Assembly speaker, said she is delivering on promises to reduce homelessness and build more housing. But the share of residents who view her unfavorably has risen toward the end of her term as she has faced blowback for her handling of devastating fires.
Bass was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana when a blaze engulfed the Pacific Palisades neighborhood early last year, ultimately destroying thousands of buildings and leaving a dozen people dead. She traded blame with her fire chief over the disaster.
“It was one of the worst moments of my life to not be here when my city needed me,” Bass said at a recent mayoral debate. “But I think that I deserve a second term, and I’m gonna fight for that, because we have made significant progress in a variety of areas.”
Bass was elected in 2022 over Rick Caruso, a billionaire developer and former Republican who switched parties and spent more than $100 million.
A TV ‘villain’ shook up the race
Pratt rose to notoriety on the MTV show “The Hills” and later wrote a book titled “The Guy You Loved to Hate: Confessions From a Reality TV Villain.”
President Donald Trump has praised Pratt as “a big MAGA person” — a label that could add to skepticism of Pratt in solidly Democratic Los Angeles.
Pratt lost his home in the Palisades fire last year — and channeled residents’ anger over the blaze to become an unlikely mayoral contender.
“I know what the consequences of failed leadership are,” Pratt says in a campaign video that flashes images of tent encampments and flames. His derisive nickname for Bass uses the Spanish word for garbage: “Karen Basura.”
Pratt has also called homeless people “zombies,” promising to get them off the street through arrests and mandatory medical treatment, among other tactics.
A former Bass ally jumped in to challenge her
Raman is pitching herself as a break from the status quo.
She initially endorsed Bass for reelection. But then she entered the race less than two weeks later — saying Los Angeles residents want change even as she called herself a Bass “admirer.”
“We are at a moment where we’re not delivering on the basics at a time when the public has trusted us with hundreds of millions of dollars to solve complex problems,” she told NBC Los Angeles.
An urban planner, she has championed a “YIMBY,” or “Yes in my backyard,” push for more housing. She has also criticized Bass’s “Inside Safe” homeless program as too costly.
Bass has hit back on Raman’s attempt to cast herself as an outsider, noting her more than five years on the council.
Though Raman won her council seat with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America, she has sometimes broken with the group, and DSA-LA has not made an endorsement in the mayor’s race.
Full primary results from June 2
The races we’re watching:
California governor primary results and analysis
New Mexico governor primary results and analysis
Other elections:
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