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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has advanced to a November runoff election in her bid for a second term, NBC News projects, but the opponent she’ll face in the one-on-one race remains unclear.
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More than a dozen candidates faced off in an all-party primary in the mayor’s race. Since no candidate is on track to earn more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers move on to a runoff this fall.
Leading the pack behind Bass are former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, a Republican, and Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman, a Democrat.
Bass, a former member of Congress, was first elected mayor in 2022, when she defeated real estate developer Rick Caruso in an expensive race.
Despite enjoying relative popularity throughout the city at the start of her term, Bass faced backlash in the aftermath of last year’s destructive wildfires for being out of the country when they broke out. The fires burned over 16,000 structures, and at times, fire hydrants and water tanks ran out of water, limiting efforts to fight the blaze.
A March Los Angeles Times poll found that over half of voters in the city, 56%, had unfavorable views of Bass.
On the campaign trail, Bass acknowledged the public’s frustrations over issues like the wildfires and widespread homelessness.
“It’s super important that I explain about the accomplishments that have been done. The fact that homelessness is down 17.5% two years in a row, it is the first time we’ve seen a decline in street homelessness. Around the country, homelessness went up 18%. Crime is down to 60-year low in terms of our homicide rate. We go through spikes here and there, and when we do, we respond aggressively,” Bass told KABC-TV last month.
Bass’ wobbly standing with voters led to challenges from both the left and the right. Pratt ran an insurgent campaign focused on criticizing Bass for her response to the Los Angeles wildfires last year.
Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who was once a Bass ally, ran to the left of Bass on major issues, including affordability and homelessness. She pledged to reduce red tape associated with building affordable housing and to encourage the film and TV industry to return to Los Angeles by streamlining permitting.
Pratt’s presence in the race — which included amplifying videos generated by artificial intelligence, lodging personal insults against his opponents and accusing Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom of “criminal negligence” — drew higher-than-usual levels of national attention to the election. Pratt, the former star of the 2000s MTV show “The Hills,” lost his house in last year’s fires.
He not only blamed Bass for the mass destruction from last year’s wildfires but also pledged to eliminate the city’s homelessness crisis if he is elected.
President Donald Trump did not issue a formal endorsement, but he praised Pratt’s bid, saying: “I’d like to see him do well. He’s a character.”
Asked about Pratt in the KABC interview, Bass said, “I think he’s tapping into the anger and frustration that people have,” but she added that “I don’t think he has a clue” about how to actually run Los Angeles.
Alexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.
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