Spencer Pratt seeks to shake up Los Angeles mayoral race after fire loss

Spencer Pratt has turned a reality-TV persona into a campaign test for Los Angeles politics, arguing that name recognition and outsider energy can carry him into City Hall after the fire that wiped out his Pacific Palisades home.

Pratt announced his mayoral bid on January 7 at a “They Let Us Burn” rally in Palisades Village, where about 1,000 demonstrators gathered. The former MTV figure told CBS News that he thinks he can “shake up city hall” even though he has never held public office. The pitch is direct, and so is the gamble: Pratt is 42, a registered Republican, and is running in a city that has not elected a Republican mayor since Richard Riordan served from 1993 to 2001.

The timing of Pratt’s entry has made his candidacy part political protest, part personal reset. His home in Pacific Palisades was destroyed in the January 2025 wildfires, and Pratt has said that loss pushed him into politics. He also said he moved to Santa Barbara after the house burned down, after questions surfaced about whether he met the residency requirements to run in Los Angeles. The issue has added another layer of scrutiny to a campaign already built on celebrity visibility rather than a long political résumé.

Pratt is polling second in the race, according to CBS News, which makes him more than a novelty candidate in a crowded field. Still, the structural obstacles are severe. Karen Bass is the incumbent mayor, and Los Angeles remains overwhelmingly Democratic. Politico’s Melanie Mason said it will be difficult to persuade a very blue city to back a novice politician closely associated with Republicans and Donald Trump. That tension sits at the center of Pratt’s run: whether a familiar face can convert attention into credibility on crime, housing, homelessness and recovery after disaster.

The mayoral primary is set for June 2, with Los Angeles County vote centers opening Saturday, May 23. Pratt’s campaign now faces the same basic test facing every challenger in the race, but with an added one unique to him: whether a celebrity identity forged on entertainment television can be recast as a believable governing brand in the country’s second-largest city.