After Pratt’s loss, disaffected voters face November fork

Spencer Pratt’s brash mayoral run gave voice to thousands of Los Angeles voters angry at the city’s political establishment and frustrated by homelessness, public safety and the Palisades fire response. Now, with Pratt out of the race, his supporters are left

When Spencer Pratt burst into Los Angeles politics. it felt like an online fury had found a microphone—and then stepped into a city hall arena. He aimed his mayoral campaign like a challenge to the political status quo. directing a torrent of anger at Mayor Karen Bass’ handling of the Palisades fire.

The former reality TV star, whose home was lost in the blaze, quickly became a national story. He could harvest social media attention, rally a base, and dominate the news cycle. Even so. the odds were steep in a city that is overwhelmingly Democratic. where Republicans make up just 15% of registered voters.

In the end, voters did not send Pratt to the runoff. Instead, they chose Bass, a Democratic centrist, and democratic socialist City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who ran to Bass’ left. Still, for many of the roughly 200,000 Angelenos who voted for Pratt, the campaign wasn’t just trolling. Pratt. they said. gave voice to discontent with a system that can feel closed—one-party rule. they argued. that keeps certain frustrations out of the conversation.

“I know a lot of people who are disappointed,” said Meghan Daum, an L.A. writer and podcaster and former Los Angeles Times columnist who endorsed Pratt. “They are saying, ‘OK, now what? What can we do?”’

Daum’s question hangs over November: what happens to a political mood after the messenger is gone.

Political experts said Pratt’s candidacy tapped into Angelenos’ dissatisfaction with the Democratic establishment and resonated with voters who often feel underrepresented in L.A. politics. Dan Schnur. a longtime politics professor at USC. UC Berkeley and Pepperdine University. said Pratt identified “a previously invisible level of anger and frustration.” The core question. Schnur added. was whether he—or someone else—could “shape that raw emotion into a movement.”.

Pratt has yet to issue a statement conceding the race or contesting the results.

His absence became part of the story in another way, too. As a stream of Republicans—including President Trump—made unfounded allegations of election fraud in California, Pratt was conspicuously absent on X and Instagram.

Before the race closed, Democrats in L.A. also tried to force Pratt’s supporters to answer for what came next. Late night host Jimmy Kimmel told Pratt he had rented him a U-Haul, urging him to leave the city if Bass or Raman were elected.

For all the snark, observers say Pratt shifted the debate in ways that will be hard to unsee. Schnur said Pratt “forced the more conventional candidates to talk about the issues in a way that would not have been the case if he weren’t in the race.” Daum wrote on her Substack that for the first time in years. “there is a critical mass of citizens who are done pretending that what they see before their eyes isn’t really there. ” and that “The people in charge will have to answer to those citizens.”.

Pratt’s supporters now find themselves confronting a different reality: despite widespread attention in the final weeks of the campaign. he fell short of persuading enough Angelenos to make the runoff. Schnur said it “doesn’t appear that he’s impacted the political underpinnings of a deep blue city like Los Angeles. ” and described his impact as “less ideological than attitudinal.” Pratt. he said. wasn’t convincing voters to become more conservative; he was persuading them “that it was OK for them to vent their anger in an unconventional way.”.

That “venting,” for many, mapped onto the daily pressures building in Los Angeles. The city’s cost of living continues to mount, and a new generation of young Angelenos struggles to buy homes. Street homelessness remains a visible crisis for many residents. and some are angry about what they see as poor preparation and response to the Palisades fire.

Yet the momentum for change in Los Angeles was split. As Pratt challenged Bass from the right, Raman tacked to the left of Bass on homelessness and policing, making affordability a key plank of her campaign.

Even so, there was a line many voters would not cross. While Pratt offered an outlet, many Angelenos were unwilling to vote for a Republican.

Daum said she had numerous conversations with Angelenos who told her: “I can’t associate with anybody who voted for Trump. I can’t have them in my house. I can’t have a conversation with them. I want nothing to do with them.”

For those voters, the next choice in November is not just about policy. It’s about identity, comfort, and what it means to live among political differences.

Among Pratt supporters, the homelessness question is often the emotional center. Marissa Comstock, 36, a stay-at-home mom and former software engineer in Eagle Rock, said Pratt’s message resonated with her. “It’s totally obvious to me,” she said. “We need to get these people off the street.”

Last year, Comstock said she and her husband had a negative encounter at Griffith Park as they pushed their daughters around in strollers. “Just a few minutes into their hike,” she said, “they were accosted by an unhoused person who screamed at them and threatened to cut off their daughters’ legs.”

Since that incident, Comstock said she takes her daughters only to places like the Huntington or Descanso Gardens that require membership to be admitted.

“I don’t feel comfortable even being on regular streets,” she said. “If there’s some crazy homeless person, what am I supposed to do?”

Political strategist Paul Mitchell. vice president of the Sacramento-based bipartisan firm Political Data Inc. said Pratt did extraordinarily well at capturing attention and developing a message. Mitchell noted that many Angelenos had a better sense of Pratt’s viewpoint than they did of much more deeply funded California gubernatorial candidates like Matt Mahan or Xavier Becerra.

Pratt’s pitch was also shaped by what he refused to say. During his campaign, he did not express support for Trump or the Make America Great Again movement, insisting he was a nonpartisan candidate running on local issues.

“I’m going to show everybody that I’m their mayor,” Pratt said on election night.

But even if he wasn’t explicitly MAGA. some observers said his reality TV theatrics and antiestablishment populism came across as MAGA-coded enough to limit his reach. Pratt referred to the homeless as “fentanyl zombies,” railed against California’s “socialism,” and called Bass “Basura,” Spanish for trash.

As Trump spoke about Pratt—telling reporters, “I heard he’s a big MAGA person”—Raman shared Trump’s remarks on social media. Her response warned Angelenos that Pratt was wildly out of step with their views.

Some Democrats may have criticized Pratt for his tone. but others said his language also risked turning off the voters he wanted most. Rob Stutzman. a GOP political strategist. said Pratt “could have talked about the drug use and the risks and the filth and the fire risks and all that. ” but instead paired that focus with “My God. these liberals are leaving these people out here to die. ” and expressed “some humanity towards the population that’s on the streets.”.

In the final stretch, Daum said Pratt was a “terrible candidate.” “He did a million things wrong,” she said. “The whole time, I was yelling on Twitter about how he’s got to stop it: the AI videos are gonna hurt him, the Basura stuff, the zombie stuff. Like, stop it! Stop it!”

Others wondered whether Pratt built anything that could outlast the campaign itself. Stutzman said it is not clear he represents any lasting political movement. posing the question: “Did he create a political movement or did he exploit the opportunity to run for mayor to restoke his diminishing fame?” Stutzman compared Pratt to “a Kardashian. ” saying he “found ways to be famous without ever really doing anything important. ” and added: “I suspect that this was more about him acting out as to what he is as a reality celebrity versus becoming a leader of a political movement in L.A. We’ll see.”.

So what do Pratt voters do now?

There are several paths, and they begin with uncertainty. Mitchell said some Pratt voters will probably sit the election out entirely.

“You’ll get some Republicans who vote for Raman because they’re like, ‘Well, she’s a socialist and I can’t stand her, but I’m just voting no on Bass.’ And then you’ll have a lot of Republicans who are like, ‘OK, Raman’s a socialist,’” he said.

After Raman made it to the runoff, Bass’ campaign criticized the council member for voting against hiring more police and for blocking efforts to keep homeless encampments away from schools. Raman, for her part, positioned herself as the anti-status quo candidate.

In a statement celebrating her advance to the general election, Raman did not mention Pratt or his supporters. She attacked “powerful interests” in City Hall and argued that “Working people pay the price in higher rents. depleted services. and a city that has stopped working for them.” She said. “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.”.

Daum said she felt depressed that Pratt’s campaign was not continuing, but she also said it left her more engaged in Los Angeles politics than she had ever been. She plans to vote in November and said she’ll be watching how Bass and Raman respond to Angelenos’ concerns about street homelessness.

“If Karen Bass said. ‘OK. I get it. “housing first” is not the panacea that I’ve been thinking it is. Seriously, I’m gonna put together a task force of people who are going to actually think this through.’ … I would be following that. I would be very curious,” Daum said. “Same if Nithya said that, too. I’m open to either of them, I guess.”.

Comstock, who said she will likely support Bass, drew a sharper line. “Nithya Raman is just way too far on the socialist scale for me and will likely do more damage, rather than Karen Bass’ ineffectualness,” she said. “I don’t want to go any farther left.”

The question now is whether the anger Pratt surfaced will dissolve as the election approaches—or be redirected into a new coalition. For the 200,000 Angelenos who backed him, November is no longer about airing a grievance.

It’s about choosing where that grievance goes next.

Spencer Pratt Karen Bass Nithya Raman Los Angeles mayoral election Palisades fire homelessness political dissatisfaction USC UC Berkeley Pepperdine Meghan Daum Marissa Comstock