Former reality TV star Spencer Pratt opened up about his run for mayor of Los Angeles and his plans to bring change to the city in an exclusive interview with CBS News.
Pratt, 42, is polling second in the race to be mayor of the second-largest city in the United States. If elected, he would be the first Republican mayor of Los Angeles since 2001, when Richard Riordan left office after two terms.
Pratt, who has no prior political experience, told CBS News’ Adam Yamaguchi that he believes his “common sense” attitude will appeal to voters: “I don’t do the politician talk, and I think it’s refreshing to people to hear somebody speak from the heart, be authentic.”
When Yamaguchi asked Pratt about a recent UCLA poll that found 40% of voters are still undecided, Pratt said those results indicate Los Angeles is ready to vote out incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, who was heavily criticized for her response to the city’s devastating wildfires last year. Pratt was among the celebrities who lost their homes to the Palisades Fire.
Pratt told Yamaguchi he doesn’t go off of those polling numbers because he doesn’t think his voters are picking up calls from pollsters, but said: “What it shows is that Mayor Bass has the worst record in LA history.”
Pratt, Bass and Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman faced off in a heated debate earlier this week. Pratt, who first made a name for himself as the resident villain on MTV’s “The Hills,” said the forum and his campaign have allowed viewers to see him in a new light.
“People know when I was a reality villain, I was doing it to get paid. It was strategic. I was working with producers,” he said. “I’m being very strategic to win and save LA, but there’s no strategy when you’re standing in an Airstream on your burned out town. You can’t fake that.”
When asked about comparisons to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who upset former Governor Andrew Cuomo to become the leader of the largest city in the country, Pratt said that like Mamdani, he has promised change, though they differ wildly on policies.
“The one thing I connect with is I know he promised his voters (buses) will be free, and I’m promising my voters the metro, Metro buses, the Metro trains, they will be free from urine, feces, stabbing, attacks,” Pratt said. “So that’s kind of similar. We both had free things for public transportation.”
He continued: “But you know, I think he connected with people because they felt like change. They wanted change. That message would never connect here because we’ve already been doing the socialist experiment pretty much for six plus years, and it’s failed here in Los Angeles. So I think my message is, why it’s resonating on social media, is it’s the truth. It’s authentic. It’s from my heart. I didn’t want to be a politician. I’m standing in what happened because of failed politicians. That’s why I’m here.”
Pratt also compared himself to former President Barack Obama, noting that Obama was a “community organizer” before his Senate term, and that he had “no experience running the whole entire country” before his presidential bid.
“When people have passion and they care and they have common sense and they have humility to know ‘I don’t know everything,’ but what I do know is all these very smart, successful people in Los Angeles want to get around me, get behind me, and make sure that LA is the number-one city in the world,” Pratt said.
The Los Angeles mayoral election will take place on June 2. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, then the two leading candidates will advance to a runoff on Nov. 3.
Watch the full interview with Pratt above.
