Reality star Spencer Pratt has lost the race for Los Angeles mayor, with left-wing city council member Nithya Raman advancing to face incumbent Karen Bass, US media projects.
Raman’s win was declared nearly a week after the election in California. Bass swiftly secured enough votes, but counting continued to be tallied to find whom she would run against to lead the nation’s second most populous city.
The winner of November’s race will lead the city as it grapples with homelessness and housing affordability.
Pratt had an early lead over Raman, but over days of counting she leap-frogged him. With the latest results, she had 28.5% of the vote and Pratt had 25.8%.
Counting votes in California – and in LA – can take weeks, as the state boasts the nation’s largest population and has 23 million registered voters. An estimated 80% of the state’s votes are cast by mail and those ballots need to be sorted, validated and counted.
The second candidate advancing in governor’s race has not yet been called in the 2 June primary election. Former Biden health secretary Xavier Becerra has advanced to the November election but it’s still too close to say whether he will face British-American former TV host Steve Hilton, a Republican, or billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, another Democrat.
The delays spurred complaints from US President Donald Trump, with allegations – without proof – of fraud.
Pratt, who is best known for his role on MTV’s The Hills, remained confident that he would be victorious, writing earlier on Monday that, “there’s still hundreds of thousands of votes outstanding, and LA officials have given us the next 3 weeks to count! Let’s git-r-dun!”
In Los Angeles, a mayoral candidate who gets 50% or more votes wins the election outright. Since no candidate reached that threshold, the top two candidates will advance to the general election in the fall.