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Voters across Los Angeles made their voices heard at the ballot box Tuesday, sharing with The California Post who they wanted to see hold the city’s top job.
A California Post survey conducted with McLaughlin & Associates just days before the June 2 primary election showed reality TV star-turned-mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt surging to a statistical tie with incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.
Pratt led the field with 30.1% support, compared with 29.5% for Bass, setting up a razor-thin race heading into Tuesday’s primary, while left-wing Councilwoman Nithya Raman sits in third place at 23.4%.
“I want my L.A. back,” one female voter who voted for Pratt told The Post outside a polling location. “I think he’s the most common-sense guy ever because I don’t like either party. I just like common sense.”
“We have homeless people sitting there disgustingly dirty,” she added.
Several other voters who supported Pratt cited concerns about homelessness, crime, quality of life, and frustration with Bass, particularly with her handling of the Pacific Palisades fires.
“I voted for Pratt because our apartment burned down in the Palisades. I felt like everybody kind of abandoned us,” Marissa Abel told The Post. “Pratt’s house burned down too, so I feel like he’s kind of an advocate for us fellow Palisadians.”
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Abel said her experience during the Palisades fire shaped her vote for Pratt.
Frustrated by what she described as government failures during the disaster response, she said she supported Pratt because she believes he understands the community’s struggles and is willing to push for accountability and change.
“I’m not really on either side politically. I don’t vote red or blue. I vote based on what I believe,” she said.
Pratt announced his run for mayor in early January during the one-year anniversary of the Palisades fire, in which he lost his own home. He cited his experience during the disaster as a major reason for entering the race.
Of the almost dozen people the Post spoke to, no one supported the incumbent, despite many saying they wanted experienced leadership.
“I was also surprised Karen Bass was polling as high as she was. I liked a lot of what Spencer Pratt had to say. But at the end of the day, he has no experience running one of the biggest cities in the United States,” 19-year-old Ian Sullivan, who voted for low-polling candidate Adam Miller, told The Post.
Sullivan said he lost his home in the fires.
“I grabbed family photos, my cat and my dog and got out. What happened with the fires definitely impacted how I voted,” he said.
Other voters echoed the sentiment about the incumbent, noting that they wanted a “change-up from Karen Bass.”
Meanwhile, voters backing Raman pointed to affordable housing, homelessness solutions, and progressive policies as key reasons for their support. Younger voters appeared more likely to support Raman.
“I think Spencer Pratt is leveraging what happened to him during the fires to garner support. He’s using a lot of AI in his campaigning, and I really oppose AI,” 18-year-old Samuel Chae, who voted for Raman and lives in West L.A., told the Post.
Chae, who is a student, said he was affected by the fires because he had to attend school elsewhere and believes “a lot of people around here are voting based on the fires,” pointing to Pratt’s surge in the polls. However, he said he supported Raman over Pratt.
“A lot of people need to examine his policies,” Chae said, adding that he is not a big fan of the incumbent either.
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