The final results are far from in for the Los Angeles mayoral race, but already Karen Bass is already in battle mode to take on Spencer Pratt in November.
“Tomorrow begins the second half of this journey,” the incumbent told supporters at a Koreatown gathering just over an hour after the polls closed in LA and throughout California Tuesday. “We can have the city we know we all deserves,” Bass said, making reference to the home of Hollywood as a global “creative” center
Right now with nearly 50% of the vote in America’s second largest city in, Bass holds a steady lead with just under 37% of the ballots counted so far. The Hill alum Pratt has 29.8% of the vote, with Councilmember Nithya Raman coming in third place with 20.5%.
With no single candidate reaching 50%, the top two contenders will head to a run-off.
On a night where there were primaries in six states across the nation, including a lethargic and crowded race for Golden State governor, the L.A. Mayor election commanded much of the attention on cable news, with CNN, MS Now, Fox News and Newsnation anchors and talking heads focused on what was going down out West.
If this trend maintains, Raman will stay in her City Hall gig as Bass and Pratt go head-to-head in November. Despite a clearly strong online game, the Donald Trump endorsed Pratt is the near perfect electoral foil for Bass in the heavily Democratic L.A.
For a City of Angels battling an exodus of Hollywood productions and jobs as well as being on the verge of FIFA World Cup match hosting this month and the 2028 Olympics, Bass recently said this is “no time for amateurs.”
Even if the previously Bass endorsing Raman withheld support for the Mayor, the bulk of her vote will surely go to the incumbent. In fact, even some of Pratt’s support could end up in the Bass camp now they got the protest vote out of their system in a city screaming out for change and leadership.
Huddled inside a private party at West L.A.’s Don Antonio, Pratt has not come out to speak publicly. Either way, while former Palisades resident and self-declared villain Pratt hasn’t out-and-out won tonight and victory in the fall is unlikely, the Reality TV regular can declare victory of a sorts out of Tuesday’s primary in more way than one.
