Socialist's Odds Surge in LA Mayor Race as Spencer Pratt Attacks Karen Bass

Nithya Raman, a progressive Los Angeles mayoral candidate, is gaining ground in the race for the city's top office just days before the primary election, according to a new poll.

The Los Angeles mayoral contest has intensified in recent weeks, with incumbent Karen Bass and candidates Spencer Pratt and Raman locked in a tight battle. A new poll found Bass, Pratt, and Raman separated by only a few percentage points, with Raman and Bass polling within the survey's margin of error.

If a candidate is unable to clear 50 percent in the primary on June 2, a runoff will be held between the two candidates with the most support in the race to lead one of the nation's most populous cities.

Newsweek reached out to Raman, Bass, and Pratt via email for comment.

Who Is Nithya Raman?

Raman, a Los Angeles City councilmember, was first elected in 2020 after defeating incumbent councilmember David Ryu. The 44-year-old Indian immigrant was reelected in 2024 and has built a profile as a progressive Democrat focused on housing, tenant protections, homelessness policy and public transit. She has called Bass’ Inside Safe program for homeless individuals unsustainable due to its high cost.

The urban planner, who graduated from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Her surge in popularity has sparked comparisons to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist who beat an incumbent mayor and former governor in last year’s election with a highly progressive campaign.

Who Do Polls Show as Top Contenders?

Most polls show Pratt and Bass neck-and-neck in the Los Angeles mayoral race, though recent surveys show Raman gaining ground.

Pratt, a reality TV personality best known for starring in MTV’s The Hills, is a registered Republican running as an independent. He is campaigning against Bass on an anti-establishment platform targeting public safety, homelessness and government corruption, with the Palisades Fire and the mismanagement of the blaze as a core component of his campaign. He lost his home in that fire and has emphasized advocacy for wildfire victims in his mayoral bid.

Pratt has ramped up attacks on Bass in the lead-up to the primary, gaining attention with AI-generated campaign videos and scathing social media posts. One video depicted Pratt as Batman, fighting for the citizens of Los Angeles, with Bass dressed as the Joker. Another viral ad showed him outside Bass and Raman’s homes, before moving to a mobile home parked on the lot where his family’s home had stood before burning down in the Palisades Fire.

Bass and Raman both condemned the video in comments to Newsweek, with Bass saying Pratt was “doing his best Trump impression” and Raman calling filming outside of her home “unnecessary and reckless.”

Bass is the first woman elected mayor of Los Angeles and is leading most polls. She has, however, faced low approval ratings and criticism of her leadership amid wildfires throughout her tenure, vulnerabilities her rivals aim to exploit in the election.

“Everyone knew this would be a close race, and it shows Karen Bass in the lead heading into Tuesday. It’s a choice between a Mayor who reduced homelessness and hired more officers, a Councilwoman who voted repeatedly to allow encampments near schools and to shrink LAPD, or a reality TV villain. We will win,” Doug Herman, Bass’ campaign advisor, told Newsweek.

What Polls Show in the LA Mayor's Race?

A new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, found Bass leading the pack, with 26 percent. The poll showed Raman just behind at 25 percent support, within the poll's 2.5 percentage-point margin of error. Pratt has 22 percent according to the poll, Rae Chen Huang 9 percent, Adam Miller 5 percent, and about 10 percent of participants were undecided.

"You've got three very different candidates, each with very different constituencies, all within the margin of error. It's going to boil down to turnout," Mark DiCamillo, the director of UC Berkeley IGS polls, said.

In a hypothetical head-to-head runoff between Bass and Raman, the mayor leads 32 percent to Raman's 28 percent. About 25 percent of voters said they would choose not to vote, and 15 percent were undecided. Between Bass and Pratt, the lead is bigger for the mayor, at 47 percent to 29 percent. The poll shows a similar political landscape if Raman and Pratt go to a runoff, 45 percent to 28 percent.

The poll found that both Raman and Pratt jumped up 8 percentage points since a similar survey in March, while Bass remained steady.

The poll of 1,913 registered voters was conducted between May 19 and 24.

A Cygnal poll conducted between May 15 and 18 of 500 likely voters finds Bass with 25 percent, Pratt with 22 percent, Raman with 18 percent, and Huang and Miller both with 5 percent. Nearly one-fifth of participants don't know who they will vote for. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percentage points.

A recent poll from Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics showed 30 percent of respondents support Bass, up from 20 percent in March, while 22 percent back Pratt, up from 10 percent in March. Raman came in third with 19 percent of support, and fewer respondents supported other candidates or were undecided, though the number of undecided respondents dropped dramatically, from 51 percent in March to 16 percent in May.

The poll was conducted May 9-10-a week after Bass, Pratt and Raman faced off in a mayoral debate-among 1,000 likely primary voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.

An earlier UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs poll found that 40 percent of participants were undecided in the race, while Bass garnered support from 25 percent, Pratt 11 percent and Raman 9 percent.

"It is unusual for 40% of likely voters to be unsure of their choice just two months before an LA mayoralty election," Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, said in the poll. Yaroslavsky continued, "Although Mayor Bass faces the most challenging reelection of an incumbent mayor in decades, it is highly likely that this election will be decided in a November runoff. A lot can change between now and then, so it's a wide-open race."

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This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 3:49 PM.