Nithya Raman Knocks Out Spencer Pratt in L.A. Mayoral Race

Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman has knocked former reality TV star Spencer Pratt out of the running, securing second place in the Los Angeles mayoral primary race.

The Associated Press called the race on Monday, announcing that Raman will advance to a November runoff against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, where the two former political allies will face off in the general election. As the outlet highlighted, Bass is the first Black woman to serve as LA mayor, and Raman could be the first South Asian woman in the role.

In California’s open primary system, which sees candidates of all parties run in a single pool with the top two advancing to the general, polling consistently showed Pratt was locked in a tight race with Raman, with late surveys giving Raman the edge. Raman surged in front of Pratt over the weekend as ballots continue to be counted.

Raman has been a figure in Los Angeles politics since 2019, and is a well-known campaigner within her city. “If you’re as frustrated by the broken status quo as I am, I hope you’ll join our movement to build a city that works for everyone,” Raman said in a statement to AP. “For too long, City Hall has prioritized giving political advantage to powerful interests that fund elections. Meanwhile, working people pay the price in higher rents, depleted services and a city that has stopped working for them.”

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On Monday, Raman overtook Pratt by nearly 3 percentage points. Per CNN, Bass currently holds 34.3 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, Raman has a lead of 28.5 percent of the ballots counted so far, while Pratt has 25.8 percent.

Pratt and his wife, Heidi Montag, have been tabloid staples since the early 2000s, often in regards to their financial troubles and televised antics. During the show, Pratt rose to fame as a reality TV villain on MTVs The Hills. During the 2025 Palisades fire, the Pratt’s mansion was burned to the ground alongside large swaths of their neighborhood. Pratt publicly accused the government of Los Angeles of mismanaging the response to the devastating wildfires, and announced that he would challenge Bass for the reins of the city. 

Now that he is out of the race, polls indicate that Raman will be a challenge to Bass in the November runoff. Raman is part of a wave of progressive L.A. city leaders elected since 2020. She was the first candidate backed by the Democratic Socialists of America to win public office in Los Angeles — winning more votes than any other councilmember in the city’s history and beating an incumbent councilmember for the first time in nearly two decades