HUNTER: Is lefty Los Angeles ready for reality star mayor Spencer Pratt? Maybe

Pratt has hit hard at the mega-wealthy Bass and the other challenger, radical L.A. Councillor Nithya Ramon

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Published May 12, 2026  •  3 minute read

Spencer Pratt, left, and Heidi Montag pose backstage at the 3rd Annual Reality TV Awards at the Avalon Hollywood, May 13, 2015, in Los Angeles. Photo by Rich Fury /Rich Fury/Invision/AP

On reality TV show The Hills, Spencer Pratt starred as the scheming villain.

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A Snidely Whiplash for the kids.

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The left-leaning Los Angeles establishment and hyper-progressive Hollywood no doubt see the 42-year-old neophyte politician through the same dark lens.

Average Angelanos have to face the reality of a high crime rate, runaway homelessness, drug addiction and a multitude of other vexing problems.

Pratt’s campaign resonating

Pratt’s campaign for mayor of America’s second-largest city is resonating with them.

“In politics, timing can be everything. Early voting is a couple weeks away and Pratt is ascending,” former New York Post political editor Gregg Birnbaum told the Toronto Sun. “As an outsider, he’s likening himself to Obama, and that’s smart.”

Pratt — married to fellow former reality star Heidi Montag — watched in horror as his house burned down during the wildfires of 2025. Mayor Karen Bass was in Ghana for the inauguration of that country’s president at the time.

A charred chimney is all that remains standing at a fire-ravaged ocean front home in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles  on Jan. 16, 2025. Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN /AFP via Getty Images

Birnbaum said Pratt — who is currently out-fundraising Bass — has also hit hard at the mega-wealthy Bass and the other challenger, radical L.A. Councillor Nithya Ramon.

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“In one, he stood outside their homes and contrasted their neighbourhoods with the ruins of his house,” the veteran political observer said. “Pratt says, ‘I live in a trailer because the city cut the fire department budget.'”

And using AI, Pratt portrays the City of Angels as a dark, menacing Gotham City ruled by out-of-touch lefties like Gov. Gavin Newsom, Bass, and former vice president Kamala Harris.

Republican but not MAGA

Pratt is portraying himself as a political pragmatist and centrist, with opponents’ allegations of his connections to MAGA rolling off his back. He is a registered Republican but not a Trumpite. Instead, he has targeted the city’s myriad problems with crime, homelessness and corruption. Problems laid at the feet of Bass.

“He’s taken a very interesting approach, he’s surprisingly articulate,” Birnbaum said.

Worrisome for Bass, a stalwart of the progressive Democratic establishment, is that in polls, the undecided vote is at a troubling 40%

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California Governor Gavin Newsom, right, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass tour the downtown business district of Pacific Palisades as the Palisades Fire continues to burn on January 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. Photo by Eric Thayer /Getty Images

“Bass will be terrified of that number. The undecided number is a problem for any incumbent, it means those voters are likely opting for the challenger,” he said, adding that Pratt has scoffed at comparisons to New York’s radical left-wing mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

A better comparison, Birnbaum said, is to former Minnesota governor and wrestling star Jesse “The Body” Ventura, or perhaps action star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

So far, Bass and her allies have zeroed on Pratt’s inexperience and tried to paint him with hues of Donald Trump. The attacks haven’t been sticking.

“The question I have, is Spencer Pratt just playing another role or is this for real? He seems to have excellent political instincts,” Birnbaum said. “And the attacks they’re running at him? Those don’t work anymore.”

Or, as famed political prognosticator William F. Buckley once noted, he’d rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than the faculty at Harvard.

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How Pratt responds to critics

To his critics, Pratt has offered pithy retorts. A response to Nithya Ramon’s ideas of big-time spending, including lots of money for homelessness and drug addiction, underscores his soaring appeal.

“The reality is, no matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth,” Pratt said in a three-way debate.

“They are on fentanyl. The DEA statistic says 93% of this is a drug addiction problem. I will go below the Harbor Freeway tomorrow with (Raman) and we can find some of these people she’s going to offer treatment for. She’s going to get stabbed in the neck.”

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt. Photo by Andy Kropa /The Associated Press

Birnbaum said on June 2, election night, he will have beer and popcorn on hand. He is making no predictions, admitting he’s “lousy at it.”

The election is somewhat a referendum on failed policies that created catastrophes like the wildfires that destroyed Pratt’s home.

“America is in a strange place right now, the old way of doing things is being dismissed and Pratt being mayor of L.A. is very much a possibility,” Birnbaum said, adding that Pratt is closer to former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg than Barack Obama or Mamdani.

“Spencer Pratt is not tied to the past and he doesn’t carry an ideological tool kit,” Birnbaum said. “He’s said he wants to surround himself with smart people without that baggage.

“I think he’s in a really good spot.”

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@HunterTOSun

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