Nithya Raman edges out Spencer Pratt to face Karen Bass in LA mayoral runoff

Karen Bass, left, and Nithya Raman. The two will battle it out in November. Composite: Getty Images for Highland Fleets, AP View image in fullscreen Karen Bass, left, and Nithya Raman. The two will battle it out in November. Composite: Getty Images for Highland Fleets, AP Nithya Raman edges out Spencer Pratt to face Karen Bass in LA mayoral runoff Progressive challenger to face incumbent mayor in November as former reality star Pratt trails behind Nithya Raman, a progressive Los Angeles city council member, has advanced to the November runoff for LA mayor, edging out former reality TV villain Spencer Pratt for the chance to face incumbent mayor Karen Bass. Pratt, who decided to run for mayor after his Pacific Palisades home burned down in the 2025 wildfires, held a lead over Raman for days. But as ballot processing from last week’s election continued, the city councillor pulled ahead. Bass, who is seeking another term leading America’s second largest city,learned on 2 June’s primary election night she had secured enough votes to make it to the November election, but the race for second remained close for nearly a week. With many Democratic voters hanging on to their ballots until the election’s final days and California’s notoriously thorough, but slow, processing time for ballots, the results of some of the biggest races in the state remain unclear. In the governor’s race, voters are waiting to learn whether Republican Steve Hilton or Democrat Tom Steyer will advance to run against former Biden cabinet official Xavier Becerra. Becerra advanced to the general election on Friday. But misinformation about the integrity of California’s election and conspiracy theories about vote rigging has proliferated while the state awaits results. On Friday, Trump walked out of an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press after making false election claims and calling the state “crooked” and alleging there was “cheating”. “It’s four days and they aren’t even close to counting [ballots],” Trump said. Pratt hinted at similar election conspiracy theories in a social media post, writing, “They’re not the only ones who know where to find votes” and suggesting that Raman’s lead in the race came from votes from the entirety of LA’s unhoused population. In the weeks leading up to the election, Pratt, a political novice, surged to the top of polls as he made headlines for controversial campaign videos and unrelenting social media attacks on his rivals, portraying Bass and Raman as ineffective leaders. But his campaign was dogged by questions around his lack of political experience, as well as his status as a registered Republican in deep-blue LA. What is California’s ‘jungle primary’ – and why are some Democrats calling to change the system? Read more Raman’s last-minute February entry into the race – hours before the filing deadline – rattled the city’s politicos. Weeks before, she had endorsed Bass’s re-election bid. The two have also heaped praise on each other in past soci