Spencer Pratt Lost a Mayor's Race and Declared War on LA

How We Got Here, Briefly

Pratt launched his mayoral campaign back in January, on the one-year anniversary of the Palisades fire, which burned down his Pacific Palisades home. According to The Guardian, he framed Los Angeles as facing an 'apocalyptic moment' and centered his entire campaign around wildfire response and what he called a 'corrupt machine' running the city. That part, at least, is a coherent political argument. People are angry about the fires. That anger is legitimate.

The problem is Spencer Pratt. He is a registered Republican running in a city that hasn't elected a Republican mayor in over 20 years. He is a man with zero political experience whose most significant prior achievement was being cast as a manipulative schemer on a reality show so aggressively mid that even the nostalgia for it has nostalgia. He got Donald Trump's endorsement in May, which in Los Angeles is roughly equivalent to getting the endorsement of a parking ticket.

What Actually Happened in the Election

On Monday, progressive city councilmember Nithya Raman edged Pratt out, advancing to November's general election to face incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. So it will be Bass versus Raman in the fall, which is a race between two women who have actually held elected office and done the boring, unglamorous work of governance. No reality TV credits required.

The Guardian reports that Trump, who endorsed Pratt, called California's elections 'crooked' and made unfounded claims the race was 'rigged.' Pratt, to his marginal credit, did not contest the results in his concession video. He just declared war instead, which is somehow both less and more unhinged at the same time.

The Concession Video Is Something Else

Here is what Spencer Pratt said in his Friday video, as reported by The Guardian. He said 'the campaign portion of my mission to save Los Angeles is coming to a close.' He said he has recordings of one of the advancing candidates 'doing and saying something that would make her resign in shame,' which he was apparently saving for the general election, a race he is not in. He said he no longer has 'campaign laws hamstringing' him. And then he closed with: 'If you want to stop me, you're going to have to fucking kill me.'

This is a concession speech. This is what Spencer Pratt considers a gracious exit from a political race. He lost, didn't contest it, claimed to have blackmail material, and then threatened to be unmurdered. Somewhere in a parallel universe, there is a version of Los Angeles where this man gave a boring 90-second concession, thanked his volunteers, and went home. That is not this universe.

He also, The Guardian notes, previously told podcast host Adam Carolla in May that if Bass or Raman won, he would 'be done with trying to live in LA.' He is not leaving. Of course he is not leaving. The man who played a villain on The Hills is not going to quietly disappear just because he said he would.

The Trump Connection Is Worth Sitting With

Trump endorsed Pratt. That is a sentence. Trump, the president of the United States, looked at the Los Angeles mayoral race, surveyed the field of candidates, and decided to throw his weight behind the guy from The Hills. According to The Guardian, Trump called California's elections 'crooked' after his guy lost, which is the same playbook he runs every single time a candidate he backs doesn't win.

The pattern here is not subtle. Back a long-shot candidate. Lose. Claim the system is rigged. Repeat until democracy itself looks like a reality show elimination round. Pratt absorbed this approach completely. He just couldn't quite commit to the full denial, which puts him in the strange position of being simultaneously more honest than Trump and more threatening. He admitted he lost. He just promised not to accept the consequences of losing. The ideological inheritance is intact.

What 'It's War' Actually Means

Look, almost certainly nothing. Spencer Pratt is a former reality TV personality with no political infrastructure, no elected office, no official power, and a history of saying dramatic things for attention. The secret recordings he's teasing could be anything from genuinely damaging to a clip of someone jaywalking. His 'war' will most likely consist of social media posts and podcast appearances and showing up to city council meetings to yell. That is annoying. It is not war.

But the rhetoric still matters, and here is why. When you tell your followers that an election didn't stop you, that the only thing that could stop you is death, you are feeding a machine that has already produced real violence in this country. Maybe Pratt means it as bluster. His fans might not parse it that way. The line between theatrical villainy and actual incitement is thinner than any of these people seem to realize, and they have collectively shown very little interest in finding out where it is.