Councilmember Nithya Raman initially looked poised to capitalize on that anger. The progressive candidate, who in previous elections received endorsements from the Democratic Socialists of America, entered the race with considerable momentum. Pundits began asking: Is Raman Los Angeles’s Zohran Mamdani? But Raman has struggled to consolidate support from the city’s progressive electorate while also expanding beyond it. Her uneven debate performance left an opening for Pratt, and a recent appearance with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker didn’t do much to move the needle in her direction.
“If I’m not gonna get elected mayor because I never apologized to LC, I’ll take that. So you can put that in bold…people can die on the streets because LC got more millions because I boosted our show and I took the fall as the full villain, and she got to be the poor damsel and deny it.”
Pratt, meanwhile, has proven surprisingly adept at converting frustration toward the status quo into a political coalition. His biggest base of support is on the Westside and in the Hollywood Hills, where many residents traditionally expect little from City Hall and rarely think of themselves as dependent on government services. But when the fires tore through the Palisades and surrounding neighborhoods, destroying homes and upending lives, it was one of the few moments when they desperately needed government to work—and many believe it didn’t. (Multiple lawsuits brought by fire victims against the city and state are proceeding, and seem to serve as proof that Pratt’s claims of government incompetence and inaction have at least some merit.)
At the same time, the steady encroachment of homelessness and crime into some of Los Angeles’s wealthiest neighborhoods has fueled a broader sense that the city is slipping out of control, creating fertile ground for Pratt’s insurgent message.
Through AI-generated videos that he’s reposted, and an endless stream of social media clips portraying Los Angeles as chaotic, mismanaged, and in decline, Pratt has built a digital grievance machine with a cast of recurring villains: Bass, Democratic Socialists, bureaucrats, nonprofit service providers, “fentanyl zombies.” The ads and social media posts have helped fuel a fundraising surge for Pratt. Campaign filings released this month showed Pratt raising roughly $2.7 million between April 19 and May 16—nearly 10 times more than Bass during the same period. Some of Pratt’s rivals gripe about the AI-generated ads that Pratt has amplified. While campaigns usually spend fortunes producing and placing television spots, some of Pratt’s supporters churn out a steady stream of viral AI-generated videos that he reposts to millions of views, giving him what opponents argue amounts to free advertising.
