Mayor Karen Bass led the Los Angeles mayoral field in an initial tally of early ballots released Tuesday evening, while former reality television personality Spencer Pratt held second place and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman ran third, setting up a potential runoff between the top two finishers in November.
Bass received 117,579 votes, or 38.07% of the early ballots counted by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. Pratt had 86,323 votes, or 27.95%, followed by Raman with 61,949 votes, or 20.06%.
Tech entrepreneur Adam Miller was fourth with 14,483 votes, while housing advocate Rae Chen Huang was fifth with 9,053 votes.
Additional election-day ballots will be counted throughout the evening, although final results are not expected for several days as county officials continue processing vote-by-mail, provisional and other outstanding ballots.
The early returns generally mirrored recent polling that showed support concentrated among Bass, Pratt and Raman, with the three candidates emerging as the race’s leading contenders.
It has been 21 years since a sitting Los Angeles mayor was forced into a runoff after a first term in office. In 2005, then-City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa defeated incumbent Mayor James Hahn, who was seeking reelection.
Hahn became the first incumbent to lose re-election in 32 years since Sam Yorty lost to Tom Bradley in the 1973 mayoral election.
Bass, who was elected in 2022 after defeating billionaire developer Rick Caruso, has said she deserves another four-year term to continue progress under her administration.
However, she’s been dogged by frustration surrounding the dual homelessness and housing crisis, dirty streets and broken street lights, and what critics described as a botched response to the January 2025 Palisades fire.
The mayor has touted implementing policies that reduced street homelessness by nearly 18%, accelerated the construction of thousands of affordable housing units, and lowered crime rates to a level not seen since the 1960s.
The incumbent has received endorsements from several labor, business, and community organizations, as well as prominent Democratic politicians such as former Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
But recent polls have shown Pratt and Raman pose a significant threat to Bass’ bid for reelection.
A poll released last week, conducted by the UC Berkeley Institute of Government Studies and co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, found that Bass held “what pollsters called a statistically insignificant lead ahead of the election,” according to The Times.
Bass had 26% support from likely voters, with Raman receiving 25% support from likely voters, followed by Pratt, who had 22% support. The figures came from a survey of 1,913 registered voters, of which 1,351 were considered likely voters.
While Bass has the benefit of being the incumbent, many residents have criticized her for being absent at the onset of the devastating 2025 Palisades Fire that resulted in the destruction of thousands of structures and killed 12 people. On Jan. 7, 2025, the day the fire broke out, Bass was in Ghana for the inauguration of President John Dramani Mahama in Accra, as part of a U.S. delegation.
She’s also been criticized for negotiating a significant pay increase for the city’s police union, boosting starting salaries, raises and retention bonuses. City workers represented by their respective unions also received a substantial pay raise.
The pay packages, critics argue, have limited the city’s ability to fund basic city streets and maintain vital programs.
Bass has defended the pay raises, citing a need for Los Angeles to stay competitive to hire and keep police officers and other city staff. She has also enacted policies to increase the repair of streets, place more solar-powered street lights, and enacted the first city infrastructure plan.
Pratt, whose home was destroyed in the Palisades Fire, announced his candidacy on the one-year anniversary of the tragedy. He has campaigned on bringing change to City Hall, going after corruption and helping to rebuild the Pacific Palisades.
He has been a vocal critic of Bass. Additionally, he has criticized the incumbent over the city’s homelessness crisis, arguing that she has not done enough.
Bass has said that Pratt has no experience as a politician. Pratt is a registered Republican, but has not self-identified as MAGA. In May, President Donald Trump showed support for Pratt, though he did not outright give an endorsement.
Raman announced her mayoral candidacy in February at the final moment before a filing deadline. Her decision took long-time allies such as Bass and members of the City Council by surprise, as weeks before the councilwoman had endorsed Bass for reelection.
Council District 4 voters elected Raman as their City Council representative in 2020, and again in 2024. Raman has said she felt compelled to run for mayor because LA is heading in the wrong direction.
As a council member, she led the city in approving a Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance in 2021, which was later strengthened in 2024. She also led the city in updating the Rent Stabilization Ordinance to lower annual rent increases, among other policies she supported.
Raman has faced criticism from Bass and Pratt.
Raman was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America-Los Angeles in her council seat races. The group, however, did not endorse Raman for mayor, though DSA-LA has recommended her to their members. DSA-LA was split between the councilwoman and mayoral candidate Rae Chen Huang, but ultimately the group decided not to outright endorse either candidate.
The councilwoman has criticized Bass’ signature program, Inside Safe, for being too costly. Raman has said she will take on homelessness through a data-driven approach, and focus on strengthening time-limited housing subsidies as means to place homeless people into permanent housing, among other initiatives.
Raman also said she would introduce policies to spur the creation of new housing and boost what she described as “gentle density” into single-family zoned neighborhoods.
Housing advocate Huang and Miller are among the top five candidates, according to recent polls, trailing behind Bass, Pratt and Raman.
Huang is a community organizer, minister and a member of the DSA. She serves as deputy director of Housing NOW! California. She has been campaigning on progressive policies, strengthening tenant protections, implementing policies to boost the construction of affordable housing units, and allocating dollars to expand alternative models for crisis response.
Miller is CEO of the nonprofit Better Angels, and founded Cornerstone OnDemand. He touts himself as a political outsider, and a leader in the private and public sector. He has highlighted his “7×7 plan” to fix Los Angeles.