Bass Advances To Runoff In LA Mayor's Race; Pratt Leads Contenders

Authored by Jackson Richman and Beige Luciano-Adams via The Epoch Times,

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass advanced to the November runoff election for Los Angeles mayor.

The Associated Press called Bass’s advancement after 1:30 a.m. ET on June 3. Reality TV star Spencer Pratt and Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman lead 11 other candidates in the race for runner-up.

The runner-up will face Bass in the runoff election on Nov. 3.

Bass campaigned on issues including affordability, public safety, and homelessness. Pratt focused his campaign on crisis management, fiscal responsibility, government reform, public safety, homelessness, infrastructure improvements, support for small businesses, and oversight of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Raman’s platform emphasized ending homelessness, expanding housing, protecting renters, improving public safety and transportation, environmental protection, immigrant rights, animal welfare, and support for small businesses.

Both Raman and Pratt have criticized Bass for her response to recent wildfires sweeping Los Angeles. Pratt’s home was destroyed in the Pacific Palisades fire in 2025.

A distinctive feature of Pratt’s campaign was the widespread use of artificial intelligence-generated videos created by supporters.

One of the most widely viewed videos opens with scenes of Los Angeles engulfed in flames, with Bass as a Joker-like villain and Pratt as a Batman-style hero promising change. In another, Bass is portrayed as Darth Vader from Star Wars, and in a third, she appears as the villain Thanos from Marvel’s Avengers franchise.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush praised the Joker-themed video in a May 5 post on X, calling it “maybe the best political ad of the year.”

Bass has publicly criticized the AI-generated videos.

“Actually, I think it’s a very dangerous trend,” she said during a May 13 interview with CNN.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt visits 'Fox & Friends' at Fox News Channel Studios in New York City on May 28, 2026. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

She argued that some of the imagery, including scenes showing tomatoes thrown at her character in the Joker video, resembled blood and contributed to an increasingly hostile political atmosphere.

Bass warned that portraying political opponents as villains could influence unstable individuals and escalate tensions.

Los Angeles city councilwoman Nithya Raman speaks in Los Angeles on Aug. 7, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

At the same time, she acknowledged that many voters are frustrated with current conditions and that Pratt has tapped into those concerns by presenting himself as a solution to the city’s challenges.

“I think that plays into people’s desperation, and I think oftentimes we look for someone superhuman to save us,” Bass said. “The reality is it never happens. Those are fictional characters.”

Voters Sound Off

In interviews with The Epoch Times, many voters at polling stations across L.A. County on Tuesday described a deep dissatisfaction with incumbent Karen Bass’s handling of the fires and the homelessness crisis.

Some embraced Pratt, while others said they would have preferred a more progressive candidate in the style of New York City’s Zohran Mamdani.

“Bass has failed us,” said Tom Perez, 69, a resident of East Los Angeles who said he has been a lifelong Democrat since he began voting in the 1970s. “It’s not that I don’t trust them as individuals, I just don’t trust the Democratic Party.”

Perez said he found Pratt empathetic, and his AI-fueled guerrilla campaign effective. “I feel for him, he lost his house. Even his commercials, who could not vote for him?”

Eduardo Cardenas, 28, also an East L.A. resident, a self-described political pessimist, said he was simply voting against the worst of what he’s seen.

“Like the Mayor [Bass], when the fires happened, I just didn’t like how she handled it. So I’ll pick a candidate that is most likely going to be the contender against that person. Basically, my preference is for anyone but her.”

Elizabeth, a 56-year-old West Adams resident who asked to be identified by her first name only, said her main priority was to ensure Pratt didn’t make it to the general election.

“I was struggling between Karen Bass and Nithya Raman, and I ultimately voted for Raman in a strategic vote, because I will do anything to keep Spencer Pratt off the ballot—I find him dangerous, unqualified—every negative thing possible,” she said.

“I used to live in New York City, and I would love a Mamdani here for mayor. Maybe Raman is that, I don’t know,” she said, adding that she has leaned more progressive in recent years as a result of rampant corruption among both parties.

A 31-year-old West Adams resident who goes by the name “Zochi” expressed a similar sentiment.

“I moved here recently. … I was in New York last year, so I got to experience Zohran and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is amazing.’ And then I come here and I’m like, ‘Oh, there is not a lot going on here,” he said, referring to a “pretty weak ballot” in the primaries.

Meanwhile, residents in unincorporated areas and other cities in L.A. County who can’t technically vote for L.A. mayor but are impacted by the office’s policies, also weighed in on Bass.

“She’s doing a great job, but she didn’t do enough for the homeless, because you can see the shift—they’re now in other cities, and who’s tracking them? They’re in Montebello, where I live,” Lydia Leon, 67, told The Epoch Times at the L.A. County Registrar’s Office in Norwalk.

“If you go down any freeway, you’ll see tent after tent after tent. They’re all over the place. And maybe they’ve shifted out of downtown L.A., but they’re now all here and in the other cities.”

Joseph Trevisu, 20, said he was rooting for Pratt.

“I think anyone who lives in L.A. County and frequents the city of L.A. knows it’s a mess,” Trevisu said. “They need an outsider who’s going to come in and clean house.”

Trevisu, a college student, said his professors have drilled in him that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting a different result.

“For a long time, us Democrats have been electing Democrats because they have a ‘D’ next to their name and expecting a different result,” he said. “The party is out the window. I think we’re all sick and tired of this stuff.”