Raman overtakes Pratt in Los Angeles mayor runoff race

Nithya Raman has edged past Spencer Pratt in the race for Los Angeles’s second mayoral runoff slot, sharpening a contest that now pits a progressive city council member against a former reality-TV figure with Donald Trump’s backing. Karen Bass had already secured a place in November, but the fight for second has become the real measure of which politics can still move Los Angeles.

In the June 2 primary, Raman led Pratt by the thinnest of margins as the count continued to change. As of the latest tally, Raman had 196,198 votes, or 27.12 percent, to Pratt’s 193,085 votes and 26.69 percent. Election officials said the numbers would keep shifting as vote-by-mail, provisional and other ballots were processed after election night, leaving open the possibility that the order could change again before the count is finished.

Raman’s rise has given momentum to a candidate who has served on the Los Angeles City Council representing District 4 since 2020 and has campaigned as a progressive alternative centered on housing, transit and city accountability. Pratt entered the race with a very different profile, as a Republican outsider whose celebrity made him an instant curiosity beyond city hall. He also rejected the need for endorsements, even as Trump’s support pushed the contest further into the national spotlight.

Bass’s own position in the runoff carries historical weight. Her reelection bid marked the first time a sitting Los Angeles mayor has been forced into a runoff since 2005, when Antonio Villaraigosa defeated incumbent James Hahn. That history has made this race feel less like a routine municipal contest than a judgment on the city’s mood after years of strain around leadership, housing pressure and the aftermath of the 2025 Palisades Fire, the most destructive wildfire in city history.

The fight for second place has also become a broader test of what kind of politics can still win in Los Angeles now. Raman’s surge suggested that an issue-focused progressive coalition can still compete in a city where voters have grown weary of spectacle and political fatigue. Pratt’s strong showing, meanwhile, showed that celebrity and outsider appeal remain potent in a fractured electorate. Whoever finishes second will face Bass in November, but the deeper verdict may already be coming into focus.