Spencer Pratt became the voice of the disabled in LA. Where are his supporters now?

When Republican Spencer Pratt entered Los Angeles politics, venting online outrage against Mayor Karen Bass’ handling of the Palisades fire, he cast his mayoral bid as a sweeping challenge to LA’s political landscape.

The former reality TV star, who lost her house in a fire, started as a longshot but emerged as a national story, with a knack for gaining attention on social media, establishing a foundation and dominating the news cycle.

But in a heavily Democratic city, where Republicans make up only 15% of registered voters, even some of his supporters wondered how far he could go. In the end, voters chose Bass, a Democratic incumbent, and Democratic City Council member Nithya Raman, who ran to Bass’s left, to face off.

Still, for the more than 200,000 Angelenos who voted for Pratt, his courage, social media-fueled the campaign was not just a long tramp. Pratt voiced their displeasure with the one-party system and said things they often feel uncomfortable saying.

And now, they face the tough choice of who to support in November.

“I know a lot of people who are disappointed,” says Meghan Daum, an LA writer and podcaster and former Los Angeles Times columnist. approved by Pratt. “They said, ‘Okay, now what?

While Pratt did not win, political pundits say his election tapped into Angelenos’ discontent with the Democratic establishment and resonated with a large number of Angelenos who are rarely represented in LA politics.

“He pointed to a level of anger and frustration that hadn’t been seen before,” said Dan Schnur, a longtime professor of politics at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine University, Pratt. “The question going forward is whether he, or anyone else, can shape that raw emotion into an organization.”

Pratt has not released a statement conceding the race or disputing the results. As a number of Republicans, including President Trump, make baseless allegations of election fraud in California, the most online candidate in the campaign was conspicuously absent from X and Instagram.

Some Democrats in LA urged Pratt to do his best he promised to leave the city if Bass or Raman is chosen. Late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel, a prominent Democrat, told Pratt that he had rented a U-Haul for him.

Despite the anger from Democrats, political observers say Pratt changed the terms of the mayoral debate.

“He forced people who were candidates to talk about these issues in a way that would not have been the case if he was not in the race,” said Schnur.

“For the first time in years, there is a critical mass of citizens pretending that what they see before their eyes does not really exist,” Daum wrote to him. A small stake. “The people in power will have to answer to those citizens.”

In the final weeks of the campaign, Pratt was all over the national media. There were profiles in top publications, podcast interviews and regular reports from Fox News. But the results show that he failed to persuade enough Angelenos to continue.

“It doesn’t seem like he’s touched the political base of a green city like Los Angeles,” Schnur said. “His influence was not at all ideological. He was not encouraging voters to be strict, he was telling them it was okay to express their anger in an unusual way.”

Discontent is rising in LA as the city’s cost of living rises and a new generation of young Angelenos can’t afford homes. Many are concerned about the lack of visible progress on street homelessness. Others are angry at what they see as poor preparation by city leaders and the response to the Palisades fire.

Ultimately, the momentum for change in Los Angeles was divided. As Pratt challenged Bass on the right, Raman moved to the left of Bass on homelessness and policing and made accessibility a central plank of his campaign.

Whatever their concerns about the current state of LA, many Angelenos were unwilling to vote Republican.

During the campaign, Daum said he had many conversations with Angelenos who said: “I can’t associate with anyone who voted for Trump, I can’t have them in my house.”

A 42-year-old millennial who starred in “The Hills” and owns a business selling “healing” crystals, Pratt had no political experience when he entered the mayoral race. He did not appear to have a campaign manager.

“The system in Los Angeles is not in trouble, it’s just so broken,” Pratt said when he launched his campaign on Jan. 7, which is the day to remember the fire. “It’s a device designed to protect the elite and their exchange partners while the rest of us sink into toxic smoke and ash.”

Full of bombast and full of braggadocio, Pratt criticized what he saw as Bass’ failure to prepare for and answer wildfires. He criticized city leaders for not doing enough to get homeless people off the streets. He insulted the city’s challenges with social Security, pitsagain dog abuse on Skid Row. He even caught a comment Bass made on the campaign trail about using taxpayer money to fund dental care for meth users.

When Pratt talked about homelessness, her message resonated with Marissa Comstock, 36, a stay-at-home mom and former software engineer in Eagle Rock.

“It’s obvious to me,” he said. “We have to get these people off the street.”

Last year, Comstock said she and her husband had an awkward encounter at Griffith Park when they were pushing their daughters in strollers. As soon as they were walking for a few minutes, they were met by someone who was not there who shouted at them and threatened to cut off their daughters’ legs.

Since that incident, Comstock said, she only takes her daughters to places like Huntington or Descanso Gardens that require a membership to be accepted.

“I don’t feel comfortable even being on the streets,” he said. “If there is a crazy homeless person, what should I do?”

Pratt has done a great job of attracting attention and developing a message, said Paul Mitchell, vice president of the Sacramento-based firm Bipartisan Political Data Inc. Many Angelenos, he noted, had a better opinion of Pratt than they did of deeply funded California councilmen, such as Matt Mahan or Xavier.

During his campaign, Pratt did not express support for Trump or the Make America Great Again movement. He emphasized that he is not affiliated with a party that intervenes in local issues.

“I’m going to show everybody that I’m their mayor,” Pratt said on election night.

But even if Pratt wasn’t outright MAGA, his reality TV theatrics mixed with anti-establishment populism were so MAGA-coded that he struggled to appeal to disaffected liberal Angelenos. He called the homeless “fentanyl zombies.” He insulted the “socialism” of California. He called Bass “Basura,” Spanish for trash.

When Trump mentioned Pratt, telling reporters that “I heard he’s a big MAGA guy,” Raman quickly to share Trump’s comments on social media, warning Angelenos that Pratt does not share their views.

While Pratt impressed political observers with his work on a May 6 televised debate and Bass and Raman, some say he alienated a large portion of Angelenos with some of his social media performances.

“He could talk about drug use and accidents and pollution and fire hazards and all that,” said Rob Stutzman, a GOP political analyst, of Pratt’s zombie speech, “but then he combined that with, ‘My God, these liberals are leaving these people to die,’ and he brought out a certain humanity in the street community.”

Ultimately, Daum said Pratt was “a bad person.”

“He did a million wrong things,” she said. “The whole time, I was yelling on Twitter about how he should stop: AI videos that will hurt him, Basura stuff, zombie stuff. Like, stop it! Stop it!”

Now that Pratt’s campaign is over, Stutzman said, it’s unclear whether he represents any kind of lasting political movement.

“The question that remains is: Did he establish a political organization or did he use the opportunity to run for mayor to restore his dwindling reputation?” Stutzman said. “He’s still like the Kardashians: He’s just found ways to be famous without ever doing anything important. I suspect this was about him being a real celebrity versus being the leader of a political movement LA We’ll see.”

When Angelenos go to the polls in November, there are several options for Pratt voters.

Others, Mitchell said, will probably end the election altogether.

“You’re going to get Republicans who vote for Raman because they’re like, ‘Well, he’s a socialist and I can’t stand him, but I’m voting no on Bass.’ And then you’re going to have a lot of Republicans who are like, ‘Okay, Raman is a socialist.’”

After Raman won, Bass’ campaign criticized the city council member for voting to hire more police officers and blocking efforts to keep homeless people away from schools. At that time, Raman positioned himself as an opponent of the status quo.

In a statement celebrating his passage to the general election, Raman did not mention Pratt or his supporters, but insulted the “strong desires” in City Hall.

“Working people are paying the price in high rents, depleted services, and a city that has stopped working for them,” she said. “If you are frustrated with the current situation, I hope you will join our movement to build a city that works for everyone.”

Although Daum feels disappointed that Pratt’s campaign is not moving forward, he said he feels more engaged in LA politics than ever. He plans to vote in November and will be watching both Bass and Raman to see how they respond to Angelenos’ concerns about street homelessness.

“If Karen Bass said, ‘Okay, I understand, “house first” is not the solution I thought it was. Obviously, I’m going to put together a team of people to think about this.’ … I will be following that. I would like to know,” said Daum. “It’s the same if Nithya says so, so do I.

Comstock said he will probably vote for Bass in the contest.

“Nithya Raman is very far on the social scale for me and will do more damage than Karen Bass’s inaction,” he said. “I don’t want to continue to the left.”