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Spencer Pratt’s<\/a> campaign for Los Angeles<\/a> mayor began as a celebrity long shot. Days before Tuesday’s primary, the former MTV reality star<\/a> is threatening to force incumbent Mayor Karen Bass<\/a> into a November runoff.<\/p>\n Pratt, best known for “The Hills<\/a>,” is polling at 22%<\/a> among likely voters in a new UC Berkeley-Los Angeles Times poll<\/a>, just behind Bass at 26% and City Councilmember Nithya Raman<\/a> at 25%. Pratt and Raman each gained eight percentage points since March, according to the poll.<\/p>\n Los Angeles<\/a> mayoral elections are nonpartisan. If no candidate wins more than 50% in Tuesday’s primary, the top two finishers advance to a November runoff. In a crowded field, that means Pratt does not need to win outright to upend the race \u2014 he only needs to finish ahead of Raman.<\/p>\n Although the race is nonpartisan, Pratt is a registered Republican<\/a> and has drawn attention from conservative media and Trump<\/a>-aligned figures. He has rejected the “MAGA<\/a> Republican” label and framed his campaign as a referendum on City Hall competence<\/a> after the Pacific Palisades fire<\/a> destroyed his home and his parents’ home.<\/p>\n “I only got into the race because nobody else was going to run,” Pratt said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street<\/a>.” “I had to step up for my community and for Los Angeles.”<\/p>\n Pratt has lambasted the city’s challenges with homelessness<\/a>, drug addiction, crime<\/a>, fire preparedness<\/a> and the cost of doing business. He has accused Bass<\/a>, a former Democratic U.S. House member, of failing to keep residents safe and prepare Los Angeles for disasters.<\/p>\n “I don’t do national politics. I don’t do party politics,” Pratt said. “I do a nonpartisan race.”<\/p>\n LA Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt hosts a campaign “block party” event on 10th Ave. in Los Angeles, CA on Wednesday, May 20, 2026.<\/p>\n Robert Gauthier | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images<\/p>\n Pratt also rejected Bass’ argument that homelessness<\/a> has declined under her tenure, calling the city’s numbers “completely fabricated.” Bass has pointed to a 17.5% decline in homelessness<\/a>.<\/p>\n “How do you clean that up? You enforce the law,” Pratt said. “The only laws that are enforced now are maybe parking tickets for people that are hard-working taxpayers that are just trying to get their matcha and have to step over a naked drug addict.”<\/p>\n Pratt said he would use California’s SB 43<\/a> law to move people with severe addiction or mental illness into mandatory treatment.<\/p>\n “It’s not a homelessness problem, it’s a drug addiction problem,” Pratt said.<\/p>\n The former reality star has also pitched himself as a pro-business candidate<\/a>, saying he would cut red tape<\/a> for builders and push for stronger film tax credits<\/a> to bring production back to Hollywood.<\/p>\n “If you don’t feel safe on the streets, people don’t go to restaurants,” Pratt said. “Massachusetts has better tax credits than Hollywood,” he added.<\/p>\n Still, Pratt faces a difficult path in a heavily Democratic<\/a> city where Bass remains the incumbent with institutional support and Raman is competing for anti-Bass voters.<\/p>\n