Spencer Pratt, the villain from MTV reality show The Hills, is now leading incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the race for Los Angeles mayor. A new McLaughlin & Associates poll shows Pratt at 30.1% to Bass's 29.5%, and if you think that's embarrassing for Democrats, you're not thinking about it hard enough.
This is what happens when you let a city burn and then blame everyone else for noticing.
The poll, conducted May 26-28 for the California Post, surveyed 400 likely Los Angeles voters. Pratt — a registered Republican running as an independent — is pulling 33% of Hispanic voters, which should terrify every Democrat operative in California. CEO John McLaughlin said it plainly: "I think the mayor's race is a lot more volatile...being driven by the negatives on Bass."
No kidding.
Let's recap how we got here. The Palisades Fire ripped through Los Angeles in 2025, and Spencer Pratt lost his home. His actual house burned down. At the time, Mayor Karen Bass was off galavanting around Africa. She reportedly was briefed before she left on her overseas trip about the severity of the fires, but still chose to abandon her post in favor of rubbing elbows with rich politicians and businessman elsewhere. As Angelinos subsequently learned Bass is not so great at emergency management and making sure firefighters have access to plenty of water to do their jobs.
Spencer Pratt became somewhat of a folk hero in the wake of the disaster that burned thousands of homes and completely leveled the city of Pacific Palisades. Not because he's some policy genius, but because he's a guy who lived through the disaster and watched his city's leadership shrug. His campaign message is devastatingly simple: city leaders "don't have to live in the mess they've created." And it's working because it's true.
Bass's response to being outpolled by a reality TV star? She accused Pratt of "exploiting the grief" of fire victims. Read that again. The woman who fumbled the wildfire response is accusing the guy whose house actually burned down of exploiting grief. You cannot make this stuff up.
Here's the thing we all need to understand about this race: it's not really about Spencer Pratt. It's about what voters are willing to tolerate. And apparently, voters in America's second-largest city have decided that a guy famous for being a reality TV heel is preferable to the incumbent Democrat. That's not a commentary on Pratt's qualifications — it's a verdict on Bass's performance.
Pratt is also going after Governor Gavin Newsom's wildfire response, because of course he is. When your city burns and both your mayor and your governor are too busy posturing for national media to actually help, voters notice. They remember.
The primary looms, and Democrats are panicking. They should be. When 52% of your electorate is white, 27% is Hispanic, and a Republican-registered independent is winning both demographics in deep-blue Los Angeles, your party has a problem that no amount of fundraising can fix.
The villain from The Hills might actually become mayor of Los Angeles. And honestly? The voters of LA deserve better than Karen Bass. Whether that's Spencer Pratt remains to be seen — but at least he's asking the right questions.
