Spencer Pratt celebrated his early lead ahead of Nithya Raman in the Los Angeles Mayor race on Tuesday, as “The Hills” star and incumbent Mayor Karen Bass emerged as frontrunners. (Bass was already confirmed as advancing in the runoff Tuesday evening.)
While speaking to press outside his election night party, the former reality star boasted his successful mayoral bid, noting, “The communists already lost.”
While Pratt was notably polling 10 points ahead of Councilmember Raman as 47% of the vote was reported on Tuesday, he admitted that there was still plenty of local constituents to win over.
“My message to those people that didn’t vote for me. Thank you for voting,” he continued. “I’m excited that everyone voted today. One thing I’ve learned is a lot of people don’t vote. My goal by November, whether it’s you’re voting for me or you’re voting for Mayor Bass, I’m going to get more people to vote.”
As Pratt went on, he claimed that Angelenos don’t vote and don’t care “enough about our city,” adding, “Everybody’s giving up because they’ve just accepted failure. Nothing changes. Things can change if you vote. So to people who didn’t vote for me, thank you for voting and caring about your city. I hope to switch you and show you you’re going to be voting for me in November, but regardless, we need 4 million people to vote in November.”
Meanwhile, despite trailing by approximately 35,000 votes on election night, the mood at the Raman election party was upbeat. Several attendees told TheWrap they are hopeful that the mail-in ballots that are still to be counted, and which historically have skewed left, will help the city councilmember advance to a runoff with Mayor Karen Bass in November.
Additionally, a handful of Los Angeles comedians who have vocally supported Raman, including Adam Conover and Milana Vayntrub, were present at the event. Conover told TheWrap that Raman was the first politician he wholeheartedly supported as an LA resident when she first ran for the city council in 2020, and accused Pratt of describing the city in apocalyptic tones rather than the more optimistic vision Raman has espoused.
Earlier on Tuesday, in a 12-minute speech, Raman thanked her campaign team and volunteers, whom her campaign says knocked on 1.5 million doors during the four month blitz campaign that began in February when Raman filed to run minutes before the election deadline. Raman did not concede in her speech, noting there are thousands more votes to be counted.
Jeremy Fuster contributed reporting to this story.
