Nithya Raman edges out Spencer Pratt to face Karen Bass in LA mayoral runoff

Nithya Raman, a progressive Los Angeles city council member, has advanced to the November runoff for LA mayor, edging out former reality TV villain Spencer Pratt for the chance to face incumbent mayor Karen Bass. Pratt, who decided to run for mayor after his Pacific Palisades home burned down in the 2025 wildfires, held a lead over Raman for days. But as ballot processing from last week’s election continued, the city councillor pulled ahead. Bass, who is seeking another term leading America’s second largest city,learned on 2 June’s primary election night she had secured enough votes to make it to the November election, but the race for second remained close for nearly a week. With many Democratic voters hanging on to their ballots until the election’s final days and California’s notoriously thorough, but slow, processing time for ballots, the results of some of the biggest races in the state remain unclear. In the governor’s race, voters are waiting to learn whether Republican Steve Hilton or Democrat Tom Steyer will advance to run against former Biden cabinet official Xavier Becerra. Becerra advanced to the general election on Friday. But misinformation about the integrity of California’s election and conspiracy theories about vote rigging has proliferated while the state awaits results. On Friday, Trump walked out of an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press after making false election claims and calling the state “crooked” and alleging there was “cheating”. …