Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman overtook former reality TV star Spencer Pratt for second place in the Los Angeles mayoral primary race on Sunday, the latest election results show.

NBC News projected on election night that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will advance to the November runoff, but the question of who she will face in the general election remains.

With 83.2% of the expected vote in, the Democratic incumbent maintained her lead with 250,871 votes, or 34.68%, according to the updated vote tally released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk on Sunday afternoon.

Raman has picked up 27.12% of the ballots counted so far, acquiring a narrow lead of 3,113 votes over Pratt, who has 26.69%.

For several days after election night, early results showed Raman in third place behind Pratt. The progressive and first South Asian councilwoman at LA City Hall inched much closer on Friday, when she received twice as many votes as Pratt, a registered Republican. On Saturday, Raman narrowed that gap again, trailing by about 7,500 votes.

“We are encouraged by the latest vote count and remain grateful to the thousands of Angelenos who have powered this campaign,” Raman said in a statement to NBC Los Angeles on Sunday.

NBCLA reached out to Pratt’s campaign after Sunday’s vote dump but has not received a response. Pratt did, however, post on X, comparing Raman’s gain of votes since election night to the number of people who experience homelessness each night in the city.

Although NBC News has not projected which candidate will face Bass in November, Bass’ campaign released a statement following Sunday’s drop, referring to Raman as the mayor’s “general election opponent.”

“We look forward to winning a contest against an opponent who allows encampments near schools and fights against hiring more cops, yet is MIA on saving Hollywood jobs and fighting back when ICE invades LA,” campaign spokesperson Alex Stack said.

Dan Schnur, political communication professor at the University of Southern California, University of California, Berkeley and Pepperdine University, said Raman obtaining a runoff spot will present challenges for Bass.

“Bass and her advisors think they know how to run against Pratt,” Schnur said. “They will use the same playbook they used against Rick Caruso.”

Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer and centrist Democrat, ran for Los Angeles mayor in 2022 and lost against Bass in the general election.

The Registrar said 122,807 ballots were included in Sunday’s update, bringing the total number of processed ballots to 1,897,653. That represents 32.21% of registered voters in Los Angeles County, with the agency adding that more than 368,000 ballots have yet to be counted.

Another election results update was expected on Monday.

NBC4 political contributor Dr. Fernando Guerra said the trends are in favor of Raman to overtake Pratt. This video was broadcast during NBC4 News at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 6, 2026.