{"id":857395,"date":"2026-06-10T11:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/857395\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T11:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:58:19","slug":"commentary-spencer-pratt-could-have-been-a-real-contender-his-greatest-enemy-was-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/857395\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Spencer Pratt could have been a real contender. His greatest enemy was himself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spencer Pratt had a few things going for him when he launched an insurgent campaign to become Los Angeles\u2019 next mayor<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He had a heart-tugging origin story that saw him transform from a has-been television star into one of the thousands of residents who lost their home in last year\u2019s Palisades fire<\/a>. He faced an unpopular incumbent in Mayor Karen Bass. He was powered by a vigorous social media presence and an angry electorate thirsty for change.<\/p>\n

He was able to capitalize on those conditions to outraise his main rivals, Bass and city council member Nithya Raman<\/a>, and transform his candidacy from an afterthought into a national story. Running as a Republican in a super-blue city like L.A. put him at an automatic disadvantage \u2014 one that might have been extremely difficult to overcome in the end. But the Pratt posse started to feel like a bona fide movement the more it thundered on, the type of revolt against the old guard that in previous eras led to the passage of Proposition 13<\/a> and the recall of Gov. Gray Davis<\/a> \u2014 the type of movements that forever alter California politics.<\/p>\n

Pratt, however, faced an apparently insurmountable obstacle. <\/p>\n

Pratt.<\/p>\n

With almost all votes counted, he\u2019s going to finish in third place with about 26% of the electorate \u2014 the same slice Donald Trump received in 2024 \u2014 while Bass and Raman proceed to face each other in November<\/a>. Political strategists will teach his failed attempt to their clients as a cautionary tale of how a candidate blew every advantage they had when they couldn\u2019t afford to lose one.<\/p>\n

Pratt\u2019s first mistake was thinking that Angelenos wanted a campaign of wanton rage<\/a>. Yes, many residents are furious at the state of the city. Yes, they want change. Yes, the angry Angeleno archetype<\/a> is a real phenomenon that flares up in local elections to smack back at the powers that be.<\/p>\n

But L.A. is not MAGAlandia \u2014 running from the right on apocalyptic, whiny messaging will only get you the few Republicans that remain in the city and some disaffected liberals. Pratt didn\u2019t run as a MAGA candidate, but it\u2019s hard to say he didn\u2019t run like one \u2014 even as he swore he was running for everyone. <\/p>\n

He took every opportunity to ridicule progressives in a city where four democratic socialists sit on the city council, one of them \u2014 Raman \u2014 has a good chance of becoming the next mayor, and five of the six candidates endorsed by the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America either won outright or are moving on to the general election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead of making overtures to that side of the populist coin, Pratt recorded videos obsessing over Bass\u2019 trip to communist Cuba in the 1970s, a well-known fact<\/a> he treated as revelatory and which made Pratt sound like he was stuck in a John Birch Society meeting circa 1965. His dismissal of Raman as \u201cstupid\u201d and the mayor as \u201cBasura\u201d \u2014 trash \u2014 came off as facile juvenilia at a time when we already have the Big Juvenile Delinquent running things in the White House. Ridiculing homeless people<\/a> as \u201czombies,\u201d \u201cvagrants\u201d and \u201cbums\u201d only riled up the worst elements of the city and turned off anyone with a heart.<\/p>\n

\"Keith <\/p>\n

Keith Casey of Casey\u2019s Family BBQ serves up food as L.A. mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt hosts a campaign \u201cblock party\u201d event on 10th Avenue in Los Angeles on May 20.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Pratt undoubtedly attracted votes from a good amount of non-MAGA people fed up with various problems afflicting L.A. But many of the supporters who brayed the loudest on his behalf were the same people already doing daily propaganda on social media for a failed, hate-filled president and his baleful cronies. <\/p>\n

Pratt acted like he believed the AI-generated videos created by fans<\/a> that cast him as a comic-book hero was real life instead of forgetting that he was a novice trying to take on two experienced politicians. While Bass and Raman trekked across the city during the primary, Pratt limited his public appearances mostly to the Westside and random encounters with supporters he posted on social media. The few times he appeared outside those safe spaces came off as safari expeditions in a mysterious city the 42-year-old lifelong Angeleno obviously didn\u2019t know. <\/p>\n

Take the South L.A. block party<\/a> he hosted last month. Instead of having something thoughtful to say about the state of Black L.A. or how its political leaders continue to neglect the region, all Pratt seemed to take away from that afternoon was that it was in the territory of the Rollin\u2019 60s Neighborhood Crips, a detail he shared ad nauseum on social media and to the press<\/a> \u2014 as if kicking it with gang members would fix L.A. or gain him any votes or grant some kind of street cred. <\/p>\n

That self-centered cluelessness ended up torpedoing Pratt\u2019s best campaign moment. In the one debate he participated in<\/a>, Pratt put Bass on the defensive, turned Raman into a tongue-tied mess, kept his answers sharp and relatable, and even earned the praise of the moderators. He should\u2019ve demanded more gatherings like that to flex his mastery of television cameras, make his case to as many Angelenos as possible and showcase the self-proclaimed Pratt Daddy as someone willing to take on hard questions anytime, anyplace, from anyone. <\/p>\n

Instead, Pratt declined an invite to their only other scheduled debate<\/a> and never bothered with the forums civic groups across the city held in order for their members to hear from candidates. Instead, Pratt flew out to New York the week before election day to appear on Fox News.<\/p>\n

Sticking to largely sycophantic media who lobbed softball questions hardened his ceiling. Pratt needed to proselytize \u2014 not preach to the choir.<\/p>\n

The thing is, Pratt made some strong points about the inefficiencies of L.A.\u2019s political status quo and the outrage that is having tens of thousands of people live on our streets. And there\u2019s something appealing about an outsider crashing City Hall, which is way too beholden to sclerotic lifers who can be as clueless about what the city needs as Pratt turned out to be.<\/p>\n

Instead, he platformed people who saw L.A. as a hellhole \u2014 or \u201cshithole,\u201d as Trump likes to call certain places. It was hard to see what some of Pratt\u2019s loudest and most strident supporters actually thought was worth preserving in the city \u2014 but not why they felt he was their man. <\/p>\n

In the wake of his loss, Pratt sure hasn\u2019t push back against unfounded claims by too many of his followers and Trump, Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> that Democrats somehow rigged the election against him. Quite the contrary, Pratt has insinuated on social media that they\u2019re onto something.<\/p>\n

That last point reinforces the ultimate reason Pratt could never become L.A.\u2019s next mayor: He really doesn\u2019t believe in L.A.<\/p>\n

Angelenos don\u2019t mind haters \u2014 it\u2019s the type of city that frustrates residents even on its best days. But one insult residents won\u2019t brook is someone who doesn\u2019t have confidence in better days ahead for the city no matter how dire things may be.<\/p>\n

Angelenos can spot a phony from far away \u2014 and Spencer, you\u2019re turning out to be phonier than the fake drama on any of the television shows you ever appeared in. <\/p>\n

You vowed to leave L.A. if you didn\u2019t win the race for mayor. Maybe you should stay and try to righteously pressure Bass and Raman to make much needed changes. If you do, urge your followers to do the same instead of them pouting and sitting out the mayor\u2019s race. <\/p>\n

But if you don\u2019t, well, maybe you never really loved L.A. as much as the City of Angels, warts and all, deserves. And you kind of need to really love L.A. to really fix what ails it.<\/p>\n

Step up, or step outta town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spencer Pratt had a few things going for him when he launched an insurgent campaign to become Los…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":857396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[6297,1582,276,14732,2451,54659,6276,2961,224,5337,173333,349919,249145,190258,52462,17823,25467,47440,349920,13235],"class_list":["post-857395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bass","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-candidate","tag-city","tag-homeless-people","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-next-mayor","tag-pratt-posse","tag-raman","tag-spencer-pratt","tag-supporter","tag-thing","tag-thousand","tag-type","tag-vigorous-social-medium-presence","tag-vote"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116725698419395389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}