Is it time to take Spencer Pratt seriously? Until recently, I only vaguely remembered the 42-year-old Pratt as the villain from a reality TV show I never watched (MTV’s The Hills) but couldn’t escape because of the ubiquity of the Viacom family of trash television.
But his campaign for mayor of Los Angeles this year has surprised everyone who doubted the viability of a political career of a guy who was once simply known as “Heidi’s boyfriend.” Thanks to his series of attention-getting—gee, where’d he learn that?—AI-generated campaign ads, some high-profile funders, and the low expectations of the calcified political class, Pratt has found himself in a position to proceed to a runoff against the incumbent mayor, Karen Bass. California’s bonkers mail-in voting rules mean that days after Tuesday’s primary, there are still over 35 percent of expected ballots left uncounted, but Pratt is in a competitive second place behind Bass and ahead of Nithya Raman, a city councilwoman and darling of the progressive left.
The race is officially nonpartisan, but the political affiliations of the candidates is hardly a mystery. Bass was an elected Democrat in the state assembly and then the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly two decades before she was elected mayor four years ago. Pratt is an independent-turned-Republican who has run against Bass from the right, starting from the premise that the mayor’s mishandling of the 2025 Palisades wildfire, which destroyed his own home, is illustrative of her mismanagement of the city. Crime and homelessness, he argues, are the result of the liberal excess Bass represents. And it seems that so far, tens of thousands of Los Angeles voters agree with him.
If Pratt makes it into the runoff with Bass, he’ll have plenty of headwinds to deal with, not least of which will be that the City of Angels remains heavily Democratic. If you combine the total votes for both Bass and Raman, who ran to the incumbent’s left, it’s roughly double what Pratt has received. While Pratt has tried to downplay his Republican connections, he couldn’t stop the biggest name in GOP politics from weighing in on his behalf. “I’d like to see him do well. He’s a character. I heard he’s a big MAGA person. He’s doing well,” President Donald Trump told reporters last month.
That would be a boon if Pratt were running in Alabama, but the sitting president is even more unpopular in California (34 percent of likely voters, according to one recent poll, approve of his job) than nationwide. If she’s smart, Bass will use that Trump connection to tie Pratt to the administration’s hated immigration enforcement actions in their city.
But the fact that Bass was unable to avoid challenges from both a progressive councilmember and a former reality TV star indicates plenty of underlying discontent with her tenure as mayor so far. Relying on partisan signals and shouting “Trump” may not be sufficient for winning a second term. And who knows, the pathway from reality TV to political success that Trump himself first blazed may continue to widen.
Top Stories From the Dispatch Politics Team
Six months ago, Ben Sasse was told he had only months to live after being diagnosed with stage IV metastatic pancreatic cancer. The pain is all too real. But so is the joy that he finds in his family, his friends, his work, and, most of all, in God and the promise of eternal life. Rather than retreat from public life following his terminal diagnosis, Sasse believes his calling to “redeem the time,” as he puts it. Over two rounds of drinks and one quesadilla al pastor at the Hyatt Grand Central, Sasse spoke with our own John McCormack about many topics—from his childhood to politics to Heaven; his regrets and his joys; and why his message is resonating with millions of people.
Ignore the substance of the Democratic National Committee’s autopsy of the 2024 election. The DNC certainly is, agreeing with critics who dismiss the report as shoddy and incomplete despite taking more than a year to deliver. At issue is party Chairman Ken Martin, his mismanagement of this crucial project, and how the lack of a competent after-action report on Kamala Harris’ loss to President Donald Trump is denying Democrats the benefits of what might have been learned to inform the 2028 campaign.
You’d think that the easiest job in government would be enforcing the law on people who want to comply with it—but, as it turns out, it is not that simple. If you’ve spent much time around the oil-and-gas business, you’ll have heard executives talk about “high compliance” when it comes to environmental and workplace safety rules, by which they basically mean giving regulators everything they ask for plus about 5 percent extra, interpreting vague mandates or rules in a stricter way rather than in a more self-indulgent way. You might think that sounds like companies are working against their own interests at the regulatory margins, but the opposite is the case.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on artificial intelligence on Tuesday, asking the leading AI companies to voluntarily allow the government to review their new models for potential cyber or national security threats 30 days before a public release. It’s unclear how significant the review will be. A voluntary executive action is a far cry from hard regulation, but in keeping with the administration’s broadly light-touch regulatory approach to the transformative technology.
At 8 a.m. on June 3, the morning after its statewide primary, the New York Times estimated that California had tabulated 58 percent of the ballots in its gubernatorial primary. Yesterday (June 4) afternoon, the state had yet to cross 60 percent according to the same poll tracker. This is completely consistent with previous California elections. It’s also a disaster in the making. Control of the U.S. House of Representatives after the November 3 midterm elections could hinge on a few competitive districts in California. We likely won’t know the winners of those contests until the Friday after Election Day at the earliest, and quite possibly many days later.
Enjoying our Dispatch Politics Roundup? Consider forwarding this article to someone you know who likes independent, fact-based journalism.