Spencer Pratt Running for LA Mayor Because Someone Had to Out-Crazy the Status Quo
The Hills Villain-Turned-Political-Outsider Is Polling Second, and Los Angeles Has No One to Blame But Itself
Spencer Pratt — known nationally as the smirking antagonist of MTV’s The Hills, the man whose entire early career was built on being someone you wanted to throw a pillow at — is currently polling in second place in the race to become mayor of the second-largest city in the United States. He is a registered Republican running in the most progressive major city in America. His campaign slogan is essentially “the metro will be free from urine and stabbings.” He has a Batman-themed AI campaign video. He is, against all reasonable expectation, the most interesting politician in California right now, which tells you nearly everything you need to know about California right now.
“People know when I was a reality villain, I was doing it to get paid,” Pratt told CBS News. “It was strategic.” The implication being that his mayoral campaign is also strategic, but differently — this time he wants to save Los Angeles rather than make it watch him sneer at Lauren Conrad. In both cases, he requires your attention. He is comfortable with that.
The Origin Story: Fire, Fury, and City Hall
Pratt lost his home in the 2025 Palisades Fire. His response was not to quietly rebuild, hire a publicist, and do a spread in Architectural Digest. His response was to drive to Washington D.C. to meet with Attorney General Pam Bondi, sue the city of Los Angeles and its Department of Water and Power, and announce his candidacy on the one-year anniversary of the disaster at a rally held on the property where his house used to stand. He was standing in an Airstream. He is not a man who misses a visual metaphor.
According to Ballotpedia, the June 2 primary includes incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, progressive city council member Nithya Raman, Pratt, and nine others. Bass has been hammered over her response to the wildfires — she was in Ghana when they started — and a city with a massive structural budget deficit, a homelessness crisis that billions of dollars have failed to solve, and streets that Pratt describes, accurately, as looking “abandoned.” Raman is a Democratic Socialist who wants free metro. Pratt also wants free metro — specifically, a metro “free from urine, feces, stabbing, attacks.” He compared the two platforms himself. He is not wrong that there is overlap.
The Debate, the Batman Video, and the Art of the Pivot
At a recent debate hosted by KNBC, Pratt compared himself favorably to Barack Obama — both are community advocates, he argued, which is a sentence that required several journalists to pause mid-sip and check their notes. He denied being MAGA. He argued that “super meth” is fueling homelessness. He filmed campaign footage outside the homes of his opponents, prompting Nithya Raman to accuse him of recklessness and Bass’s campaign to say he was “doing his best Trump impression,” which was presumably meant as a criticism but in certain Los Angeles zip codes is functioning as an endorsement.
The Batman video, which used artificial intelligence and emphasized crime and homelessness, was described as “viral.” In 2026, this is apparently sufficient qualification for municipal governance. As NBC Los Angeles noted, Pratt is polling second largely because a UCLA poll found that 40% of voters are still undecided, which Pratt interpreted as evidence that Bass has “the worst record in LA history” and not, say, evidence that Los Angeles voters are extremely unsure about Spencer Pratt as their mayor.
Why He Might Win, and What That Would Mean
He would be the first Republican mayor of Los Angeles since Richard Riordan left office in 2001. He has no prior political experience. He has a degree in political science from USC that he finished in 2013 after re-enrolling in 2011 when he decided television was not a sufficient long-term plan. He has now decided television is not a sufficient long-term plan twice. The city of Los Angeles, operating on the same logic, is considering hiring him anyway.
His donors include Jeanie Buss, Katharine McPhee, and Rick Salomon. His campaign email is [email protected]. This is real. This is on Ballotpedia.
As John Mulaney has noted about the strangest developments in American public life: you cannot explain it, you can only watch it happen with the expression of someone who has accidentally made eye contact with something feral. Los Angeles, on June 2, gets to decide whether that feral thing becomes its chief executive. The budget deficit doesn’t care. The metro doesn’t care. The urine on the metro particularly does not care. Spencer Pratt is ready to make it care.
Auf Wiedersehen, amigo!
Spencer Pratt, 42, is a former reality TV personality from MTV’s The Hills who lost his home in the January 2025 Palisades Fire and announced his campaign for Los Angeles mayor on January 7, 2026. He is currently polling second in the race behind incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. The nonpartisan primary is scheduled for June 2, 2026; if no candidate wins a majority, the top two advance to a November 3 runoff. Pratt is a registered Republican and would be LA’s first Republican mayor since 2001. His campaign website is mayorpratt.com. This is American satirical journalism. The Airstream was real. The comparison to Obama was also real. We are not sure which of those is more alarming.
Originally posted 2026-05-10 12:33:27.