As Los Angeles inches through another slow-motion vote count, a reality TV star, a progressive city councilmember, and a razor-thin margin are fueling fresh doubts about whether ordinary voters—not political insiders—will decide who faces Mayor Karen Bass in November.
Story Snapshot
- Nithya Raman has cut Spencer Pratt’s lead for second place in the Los Angeles mayoral primary to roughly 1 percentage point, or about 7,500 votes, with many ballots still uncounted.[1][3][4]
- Spencer Pratt has held second place since election night, but every new mail ballot batch has shrunk his margin as Raman consistently outperforms him in late-count votes.[1][2][3][4]
- Media projections and political consultants already talk as if Raman will likely make the runoff, even though official results remain unresolved and the county has weeks to finish counting.[1][3]
- The drawn-out, opaque counting process is reinforcing a bipartisan sense that the system is slow, confusing, and too easy for political “elites” to spin before the final votes are in.[2][3]
A Reality Star, a Progressive, and a Vanishing Lead
Los Angeles voters are watching an unusual showdown: reality television personality Spencer Pratt versus Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman for the second slot in the November mayoral runoff against incumbent Karen Bass.[1][2][3] Election night placed Pratt comfortably in second, but successive updates from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder have turned that cushion into a sliver.[1][2][3][4] By Saturday’s update, Pratt hovered just over 27% of the vote, with Raman slightly above 26%, separated by only about 7,494 votes.[1][3][4]
That slim divide comes after days of erosion in Pratt’s numbers. Early post–election night tallies showed him with roughly 29% to Raman’s 23%, a six-point spread that looked, at first glance, like a solid path to November.[1][2][4] Friday’s tally cut the gap to three points—with Pratt at 28% and Raman at 25%—as mail ballots were added.[1][2] Saturday’s drop shrank it again to about a one-point margin, underscoring how vulnerable early leads can be in California’s long counting window.[1][3][4]
How Late Ballots Are Rewriting the Race
The story beneath the headline is the behavior of late-arriving mail ballots, which have consistently broken in Raman’s favor.[1][3][4] In one recent batch of about 60,000 votes, Pratt reportedly picked up around 10,000 while Raman gained more than 23,000, slicing her deficit from roughly 20,000 votes to under 7,500.[1][3][4] CBS News reported that with about 78% of expected votes counted, Pratt stood at 27.3% and Raman at 26.2%, highlighting a narrowing but still unresolved contest.[3][4]
Los Angeles Times coverage noted that Pratt “has been in second place since Tuesday,” but stressed that Raman has “gradually eroded his lead as mail-in ballots have been counted.”[1][2] Consultants quoted in that reporting described Pratt as closer to his ceiling, while suggesting Raman’s support continues to grow as more progressive-leaning, late-returned ballots are tabulated.[1][3] At least one strategist went so far as to say, “It appears Nithya will be in the runoff,” even though county officials have not certified any result.[1]
A Prolonged Count Feeds Distrust Across the Spectrum
County election officials are operating within state law, which allows mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive for several days and gives counties up to 30 days to complete counting provisional ballots.[3] That legal framework is meant to protect voters, but it also means races like this can remain unsettled for weeks, while media outlets and political figures shape the narrative in real time.[2][3] ABC and CBS both emphasized that “outcomes… remained unresolved” even as they highlighted Raman’s surge and Pratt’s shrinking lead.[2][3][4]
As of June 6 with ~78% of expected votes counted in the LA mayoral primary, roughly 676,000 votes have been tallied.
Karen Bass: 235,180 votes (34.8%)
Spencer Pratt: 184,596 (27.3%)
Nithya Raman: 177,102 (26.2%)Bass is projected to advance to the November runoff. More…
— Grok (@grok) June 7, 2026
For many Americans—left, right, and independent—this looks like a familiar pattern: slow counts, shifting margins, and talking heads declaring winners or losers before the last ballot is verified. Conservatives, already wary of late “ballot dumps” and mail-voting expansions they link to mismanagement and potential abuse, see Pratt’s sliding numbers as yet another reason to question the system.[2][3] Progressives, frustrated by money-driven politics and fears of establishment favoritism, see the same opaque process as proof that elites can frame close races however they like before certification.[1][2][3]
What This Fight Reveals About Power in Los Angeles
The stakes extend beyond which candidate faces Bass in November. A recent poll by the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, had Bass at 26%, Raman at 25%, and Pratt at 22%, suggesting that big segments of the electorate wanted a contest between the incumbent and a progressive councilmember, not a reality TV personality.[1][3] Yet early ballot patterns propelled Pratt into second place, illustrating how turnout timing and mail voting habits can temporarily override longer-term opinion trends.[1][2][3]
Commentary from outlets such as CalMatters has argued that Bass would prefer Pratt as her opponent, calling that matchup beneficial to the mayor but not necessarily to voters seeking a substantive debate on homelessness, public safety, and affordability. That framing reinforces a broader worry shared by many on both sides: the system often seems structured to deliver the opponent most convenient to those already in power, not the one most citizens would choose in a straightforward, transparent process.[1][3]
Waiting for Numbers in a System People No Longer Trust
Officially, the truth is simple: as of the latest reports, Spencer Pratt is still in second place, Nithya Raman is close behind, and Los Angeles County has more ballots to count.[1][2][3][4] Unofficially, the story many voters will remember is different: a high-profile race where the order of finish may change days after the polls closed, while analysts and insiders pronounce what “will” happen before all votes are tallied.[1][2][3] In an era when both conservatives and liberals suspect a “deep state” of entrenched elites, that gap between process and perception is corrosive.
Whether Pratt hangs on or Raman overtakes him, this primary is another reminder that confidence in elections is not only about who wins, but how clearly and quickly the people can see that they—not pundits, not consultants, not party machines—actually made the choice. As long as the counting remains slow, complex, and framed by competing narratives, the sense that the federal and local systems are failing ordinary Americans will only grow.[2][3]
Sources:
[1] Web – Spencer Pratt’s lead over Nithya Raman withers in bombshell ballot …
[2] Web – LA mayor’s race: Nithya Raman surges, closes gap on Spencer Pratt for …
[3] Web – Pratt’s lead over Raman further erodes in new L.A. mayoral race …
[4] Web – Raman closes in on Pratt as more votes in L.A. mayor’s race are …
