Reality TV star Spencer Pratt confronted incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on the debate stage on Wednesday evening.
Although he doesn’t lead in the polls, Pratt’s performance generated a lot of social media chatter, giving the large number of undecided Angelenos a chance to get to know him beyond his reality TV persona amid a tight mayoral race.
Channeling more than a year’s worth of frustrations, Pratt criticized Bass over the January 2025 Palisades Fire that burned down Pratt’s home.
“Mayor Bass and I are definitely not working together. I blame this person for burning my house, and my parents’ house, and my town — all my neighbors down,” Pratt said. “As mayor, I will never drain the reservoirs that we need for wildfire protection.”
But Bass defended her actions amid, and in the days and weeks after, the destructive wildfire.
“The primary problem there was that the chief sent home 1,000 firefighters. We actually had firetrucks with not enough firefighters there,” Bass said. “So yes, there were firetrucks that were broken, but there were also firetrucks that were out of use because she had sent the firefighters home.”
An early April poll by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs found Bass in the lead with 25% support, while 40% of voters remained undecided.
Pratt, a registered Republican who is running as an independent, garnered 11% support, while Nithya Raman, a progressive candidate, hovered at 9%.
With a significant portion of voters still undecided and Pratt trailing in polls, his spirited confrontation over the Palisades Fire thrust him into the spotlight on Wednesday night.
This comes as his viral campaign ad offered voters a new perspective on his candidacy beyond his entertainment persona while painting his opponents as a part of an elitist political class. His campaign has pushed out other viral AI-generated content mocking his opponents.
What did LA mayor candidates debate?
The three candidates debated policy on affordability, public safety and more during the debate, hosted by NBC4 and Telemundo 52.
Bass touted LA’s progress on helping more people get off the streets.
“Homelessness was going up year after year, and under my watch, it is the first time we’ve had a decrease in street homelessness,” Bass said. “While it went up in the country 18%, it came down in Los Angeles 17.5%. I have expedited the building of housing because our No. 1 issue in this city is affordability.”
But, as one Los Angeles Times analysis found, 40% of people who participated in the city’s $300 million homelessness program, called “Inside Safe,” returned to the streets.
Raman made promises to reduce encampments ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games.
“Let’s actually build out a real system that can get as many people indoors as possible,” Raman said.
“Let’s not put them into $100,000 a year motel rooms for a year or more per person. This system is not fiscally sustainable, and we must work to end this crisis with urgency and with accountability right now.”
Pratt interjected, “I will go below the Harbor Freeway tomorrow with her, and we can find some of these people she’s going to offer treatment for. She’s going to get stabbed in the neck. These people do not want a bed. They want fentanyl or super meth.”
The former reality TV antagonist, who doesn’t have experience in public office, said he’s “going to surround myself with the smartest people in the world.”
The Los Angeles Times gave Pratt props for his performance as “a boisterous bro with enough charm to call himself ‘humble’ without coming off as obnoxious.”
“He dominated the flow of conversation without coming off as commandeering, even interrupting Raman at times to let Bass speak. At one point, he even said ‘Sorry’ when he had taken up too much time and the moderators cut him off.”
But, as the report noted, Bass has the backing of major unions in Los Angeles as well as the Democratic Party after former Vice President Kamala Harris endorsed her last week. She defended her record but kept a measured tone in comparison to Pratt.
LA mayoral candidates find some consensus
Los Angelenos vote for mayor on June 2. All three candidates raised around half a million dollars or more during the last fundraising cycle. Bass has the larger war chest with $2.5 million in cash on hand.
At the debate, Bass attacked Raman for her lack of success while serving as an LA city councilwoman and leading one of the “most important committees” on housing and homelessness.
Raman became the first South Asian woman elected to the City Council in 2020. Raman responded by stating that the council is composed of 14 other members.
Bass, Raman and Pratt reached a consensus on the need for increased public safety and a lifeline for Hollywood.
“We need post-production tax credits, and Councilman Raman will tell you, ‘My husband’s a producer blah, blah, blah,’” Pratt said. “The reality is, she’s been in power for five years now … both of these people have been the reason why there’s no more Hollywood.”
As Pratt suggested, Raman did make note of her husband’s career as a longtime writer in the entertainment industry.
“I feel like the mayor’s role is really to be the loudest advocate for the best possible version of the policies that we need, including a tax credit that has no cap, that is guaranteed years into the future, so that production, so that studios, can actually invest here,” Raman said.