Los Angeles mayoral election: Bass leads tight race

LA mayoral race tightens as Bass faces fierce fundraising rivals

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is up against three well-financed challengers in the June 2 primary, with reality television star Spencer Pratt and Councilmember Nithya Raman leading the pack in fundraising since the start of the year.

Pratt, whose home was destroyed in the 2025 Palisades fire, has raised nearly $540,000 for his campaign since Jan. 1, according to figures reported this week to the city's Ethics Commission.

Raman, who joined the race in February, has brought in $530,000 in contributions through the April 18 filing period, much of it from writers, producers and others in the entertainment industry, the city's numbers show.

Bass reported taking in nearly $495,000 since Jan. 1. She began fundraising for reelection in 2024, however, and still has nearly $2.3 million in cash on hand.

A fourth candidate, tech entrepreneur Adam Miller, reported that he lent his campaign $2.5 million. He also took in about $200,000 in donations, reports show.

Miller has been lagging far behind Bass, Raman and Pratt in public opinion polls, which also show a large percentage of voters undecided.

Dan Schnur, a politics professor at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine University, said the fundraising reports show the three highest-polling candidates evenly matched heading into the final weeks of the campaign.

"There's no meaningful difference in the amount of money the top three candidates have raised," he said. "The fact that Bass hasn't raised more than her challengers as the incumbent should be of some concern to her campaign."

The numbers also demonstrate that Pratt has become a "legitimate top-tier candidate," Schnur said.

"The odds are still against him winning in a deep blue city, but he has the potential to make a significant impact on the race," he said.

The mayor's race is nonpartisan, but city voters have generally elected Democrats to the job.

Because Raman and Pratt entered the race late, they still trail Bass significantly when it comes to the total amount raised. Since launching her reelection bid, Bass has brought in more than $2.8 million, records show.

Once publicly funded matching funds are added in, the mayor's campaign has collected about $3.7 million. Raman has already received about $612,000 in matching funds, putting her total proceeds above $1.1 million.

Money is far from the only factor in a mayoral race. In 2022, billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent more than $100 million of his own fortune while running for mayor, only to lose to Bass by just under 10 percentage points.

Still, the money being raised by the major mayoral candidates will be critical as they seek to purchase television advertising, social media ads and other campaign essentials.

If no single candidate wins more than 50% in the June 2 primary. the top two vote-getters will advance to a Nov. 3 general election.

Bass has been running for a second four-year term while seeking to overcome high disapproval numbers, with voters expressing dissatisfaction over her handling of housing production, homelessness and other issues.

On Friday, Bass announced she is spending more than $1 million on a new 30-second spot that will appear on television and digital platforms. In the ad, she touted reductions for two straight years in street homelessness and talked up her willingness to fight back against federal immigration raids.

At the same time, Bass acknowledged the discontent being expressed by Angelenos.

"I haven't always got it right," she said in the ad posted to YouTube. "There's more work to do."

Most polls have shown Bass with a slight lead over Raman and Pratt, who have hovered in second and third.

More than a quarter of Angelenos were still undecided last month, according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, co-sponsored by The Times. In that poll, Bass was at 25% support, with Raman trailing at 17% and Pratt behind her at 14%.