With less than two weeks to go before Los Angeles’s crowded primary, polls suggest incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and reality star Spencer Pratt are the top two candidates heading into a November runoff. Councilmember Nithya Raman is also hoping to break through, but has slipped in polls since a lacklustre debate performance.
Bass has lined up union support, including from the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, yet remains the focal point of anger over homelessness and last year’s fire response. Pratt has seized on the fervour for an outsider, drawing backing from some prominent Democrats, though doubts persist about his ability to win a general election likely to be a referendum on President Donald Trump.
“Angelenos are frustrated and angry and they are looking for a place to direct those feelings,” said Dan Schnur, a professor at USC, Berkeley and Pepperdine. “Karen Bass is the incumbent mayor and is definitionally part of the political establishment. So much of that rage gets directed toward her. What is still unclear is the extent her opponents take advantage of that.”
Bass beat real estate developer Rick Caruso in 2022 by tapping into voter discontent, but the January 2025 fires—which destroyed much of Pacific Palisades while she was in Ghana—put her future in doubt. Caruso later decided not to run again, and another rival, Austin Beutner, dropped out. On the filing deadline, Raman, a former ally, entered the race to run to Bass’s left.
Raman’s district includes Hollywood Hills and Studio City, and she has drawn donor backing from writers and creatives such as Ed Zwick, Colin Jost and Chelsea Handler. She has criticised City Hall’s “rudderlessness” and pledged to streamline bureaucracy. Bass has countered that Raman “has never initiated one thing for the industry” while on the council.
