Former reality TV star Spencer Pratt launched a campaign to oust Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Wednesday, expressing sweeping concerns over how she handled the deadly fires that devastated the city last year.
“Let me be clear: This isn’t a campaign, this is a mission,” he said during a neighborhood rally marking the one-year anniversary of the fires. “We’re going to expose the system, we’re going into every dark corner of the city and disinfect it with our light, and when we are done, L.A. is going to be camera-ready again.”
The Hills star’s challenge to Bass’s hopes for reelection comes as the incumbent mayor has faced intense scrutiny regarding her handling of the city, including over why some of the state’s largest water reservoirs sat empty when the fires spread on Jan. 7, 2025, and why the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget was cut shortly before the crisis occurred.
This week, Bass responded to accusations that she watered down a LAFD report assessing officials’ response to the fires to paint them in a more favorable light. That report was “edited to soften language and reduce explicit criticism of department leadership,” LAFD Chief Jaime Moore conceded on Tuesday as he issued an apology for the city’s actions in the wake of the fires, which caused billions of dollars in damage and killed 31 people.
Pratt’s home in the Palisades, as well as his parents’ residence, were among thousands of structures that were torched. Rebuilding efforts have been slow in the area. The number of such projects underway is in the low hundreds, compared to over 6,000 structures that were burned in the Palisades.
In the aftermath of the disaster, Pratt used his viral social media presence to criticize officials, from Bass to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), for what he believes was their failure to stop the “preventable” fires.
“When you really see everything laid out and the whole way they’ve spun it, it was just the biggest bunch of lies. Propaganda. This was the most preventable thing that could ever have been,” he told Variety last August. “I’m literally their worst nightmare because I have nothing to lose, and all I’m ever gonna do is just post actual facts … It’s actually criminal negligence because in the Palisades fire alone, 12 people died. These people shouldn’t have died.”
Municipal races in California are nonpartisan. Pratt is a Republican-affiliate, but has emphasized a bipartisan approach to the crisis, particularly as he outreaches to the Trump administration for “answers.”
“The victims are across all the party lines, mainly Democrats, and they have been sending me a list of questions and requests to [present] to this administration,” he said. “They do not care who’s sitting in the White House. They just want answers. They want results. They want things solved.”
The mayoral primary is in June. In the Los Angeles system, a candidate can win the election outright if they receive a majority of the vote in the primary. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the primary, the top two candidates advance to a runoff election in November called the general election.
As he sought to rally support for his candidacy at the “They Let Us Burn” rally on Wednesday, Pratt warned attendees that they can’t afford to give Bass another term.
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“Business as usual is a death sentence for Los Angeles, and I’m done waiting for someone to take real action,” he said. “That’s why I am running for mayor.”
Pratt’s candidacy has been endorsed by Steve Hilton, a Republican candidate for governor.
