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Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman smiles during her election night party at Boomtown Brewery on June 2 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s over,\u201d Democratic political consultant Michael Trujillo said Saturday night, after the daily vote tally showed Raman just 1 percentage point behind Pratt. \u201cIt appears Nithya will be in the runoff. Pratt doesn\u2019t appear to be growing much more.\u201d <\/p>\n
Analysts say Pratt, a registered Republican, likely appealed to conservative voters, many of whom were expected to have cast their votes early. Raman, by comparison, is a progressive democratic socialist. Analysts say younger, progressive voters tend to hold onto their ballots longer than conservatives. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, many Democrats were believed to have held onto their mail-in ballots until the eleventh hour as they waited to choose between Democratic gubernatorial candidates. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen Nithya Raman catching up on every update,\u201d said Paul Mitchell, vice president of the voter data firm Political Data Inc., late Saturday. <\/p>\n
Pratt, who came to fame as the villain on MTV\u2019s reality show \u201cThe Hills,\u201d turned the mayor\u2019s race into a national story,<\/a> becoming a darling of conservative media pundits on Fox News. President Trump, while not endorsing Pratt outright, offered words of support, saying he \u201cheard he\u2019s a big MAGA person.\u201d<\/p>\n On Sunday, Pratt reminded his supporters that the ballot counting will continue in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not the only ones who know where to find votes,\u201d he wrote on X before the latest tally was released, adding a winking emoji.<\/p>\n Should Raman make the runoff, she would probably pose a serious threat to Bass. Despite entering the race at the filing deadline, she had a strong presence on social media. Her years on the council have also given her a deep understanding of the issues facing the city.<\/p>\n In a head-to-head matchup, Raman would beat Bass 32% to 28%, according to a poll of registered voters<\/a> conducted last month by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, which was co-sponsored by The Times. The poll said 25% would choose neither or wouldn\u2019t vote, and 15% were undecided.<\/p>\n During the four-month primary campaign, Raman offered withering critiques of Bass\u2019 first term, saying the mayor failed to act with urgency on homelessness, apartment construction, street repairs and the exodus of entertainment jobs from the region.<\/p>\n Raman assailed Bass\u2019 decision to negotiate an expensive package of raises with the city\u2019s police officers, saying the deal \u201cbankrupted the city.\u201d And she opposed the $2.6-billion upgrade of the Convention Center, saying it would divert funds away from core city services.<\/p>\n Bass has pushed back on Raman\u2019s assertions, saying she secured two consecutive years of reductions in homelessness \u2014 the first recorded in city history \u2014 and fast-tracked approval of 40,000 units of affordable housing. The mayor defended the Convention Center project, arguing it would boost tourism, while saying the police raises were needed to keep the department\u2019s ranks from shrinking more than they already have since 2020.<\/p>\n Raman wasn\u2019t endorsed by any of her colleagues on the City Council, and she has been criticized by some community leaders in her district for not paying close enough attention<\/a> to their concerns. <\/p>\n In recent weeks, Bass has offered her own critical assessment of Raman, saying the democratic socialist struggled to work closely with others \u2014 even her own allies. Backers of the mayor accused Raman of changing her position on an array of topics, including police hiring, the city\u2019s anti-encampment law and even who should be mayor.<\/p>\n Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt speaks to the media outside an election night party at Don Antonio\u2019s Mexican restaurant on June 2 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n (Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cIt is waffling,\u201d Melina Abdullah, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, said before the election about Raman\u2019s changes on LAPD and no-camping zones. \u201cWe want to be sure we can hold her to her word. Right now we haven\u2019t been able to.\u201d<\/p>\n Bass looked like a shoo-in when she launched her reelection campaign in 2024. At that point, she received credit for moving swiftly to clear homeless encampments across the city, and to move their occupants into hotels, motels and other temporary facilities. Many of the region\u2019s politicians, including Raman herself, sought her endorsement.<\/p>\n Things changed in January 2025, when Bass was more than 7,000 miles away at a diplomatic function in Ghana<\/a> when the Palisades fire broke out. Many voters viewed Bass\u2019 response to the fire as a failure of leadership.<\/a> Pratt, who lost his Pacific Palisades home in the fire, blamed Bass for the loss and said it triggered his entry into the race.<\/p>\n![\"Los](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1780879392_697_.jpeg\")
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