Reality TV stars have been fixtures of Los Angeles for decades, but now there’s a chance one could run the city. Spencer Pratt — who appeared in The Hills, among other series — may not succeed in his mayoral bid, but his candidacy has produced a social media campaign that is taking apart the progressive rot long embedded in LA’s politics.

Even East Coast-based outlets, such as the Free Press, are titillated by the prospect of a Pratt mayoralty. Some conservatives think he can win the race by uniting MAGA supporters, Democrats and Independents who recognise the city’s decline. While it is a non-affiliated race, Pratt is a registered Republican, and some commentators see his prospective victory as a sign of an imminent conservative earthquake in California. That is, if Republicans win the Governor’s Mansion as well.

Pratt has plenty of material to work with. He portrays himself as a Batman-like figure fighting a city establishment that has presided over the proliferation of homeless encampments, mediocre schools and cracked streets. He has a good grip on the deeper problems within state infrastructure that contributed to these problems. Unsurprisingly, he singles out a rapidly declining entertainment industry, in which employment is down 30% since 2022.

On a personal level, Pratt also connects with voters on some key issues in the city. He used to live in the Pacific Palisades, an idyllic parcel overlooking the ocean. But his house, and most of his neighbourhood, burned down in the 2025 LA wildfires, which look increasingly like a masterclass in incompetence at the city and state level. He compares his current abode — a trailer on the site of his former house — with the luxury of Getty House where Mayor Karen Bass resides, or with the vastly expensive home occupied by socialist Councilwoman Nithya Raman.

This strategy may prove effective, given how obvious the city’s decline is. This year’s record-low Quality of Life Index, a metric compiled by UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, marked a huge drop from a decade ago. LA suffers from the highest level of poverty among the biggest American cities. In some parts of town, the lights don’t even work because thieves have pulled out copper wires. And all this can be yours if you can afford to live in a city with some of America’s highest housing costs.

Will these problems aid Pratt’s candidacy? Parallels can be seen with Richard Riordan, the last Republican mayor of LA, who ran in the aftermath of the devastating 1992 riots in the city. Riordan, however, could count on a Republican base — then roughly one-quarter of city voters — which on election day constituted one-third of the electorate. Today, that percentage is down to about 15%.

Riordan also appealed to middle-income voters, largely white, Asian and Latino. But the middle class, particularly those with families, has been exiting the city for decades. Over the past 20 years, the LA region has lost 750,000 people under 30 — the biggest percentage decline among all large US counties.

Today LA, like its longtime rival New York, is increasingly dominated by highly organised public unions. They appeal to the same constituency of overeducated, underpaid single professionals who elected Zohran Mamdani in NYC. In both cities, espousing anti-Trump views and opposing ICE outweigh matters such as decent public services or economic growth. On the positive side, Pratt is rallying those who despair over the decline of one of the world’s great cities. Whether there are enough people who believe that may prove to be the critical factor.

---

Joel Kotkin is a Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Civitas Institute, the University of Texas at Austin.

joelkotkin

---