Spencer Pratt may be the candidate who benefited most from NBC and Telemundo Los Angeles’ double-header debate night on Wednesday when three LA mayoral candidates and seven California gubernatorial candidates clashed on stage.
Pratt, a second-generation Angeleno and Palisades Fire victim, surprised many during the debate, eloquently and passionately explaining his campaign platforms – improving LA’s handling of wildfires, strengthening public safety, eradicating homelessness – against LA Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman.
Prior to the debate, many associated him with MTV’s “The Hills,” a reality TV show that aired between 2006 and 2010. But now, Pratt no longer describes himself as a reality TV star.
“When you vote for Spencer Pratt on your ballot today or tonight, it’ll say Spencer Pratt, community advocate because that’s how I identify,” Pratt said.
Why Pratt thinks he’s like Obama
Shortly after NBCLA’s mayoral debate, Pratt raised some eyebrows by drawing parallels between him and former Pres. Barack Obama, who worked as a community organizer years before running for the U.S. Senate and eventually for president. The mayoral candidate stood by his comparison despite having less experience in community advocacy than Obama.
“I have two awards from my community. Pres. Obama actually didn’t even have awards when he was a community organizer,” Pratt said. “He was able to become a senator and then a president for eight years or so. I feel like him, and I have the same experience.”
Feeling more excited about the mayor’s race following his better-than-expected performance on the debate stage, Pratt said he thinks his messages resonated with voters and viewers because he’s “telling the truth.”
“My only goal is to just be true and authentic,” he said. “People are tired with politicians lying about what we see everyday in LA and what we feel.”
Pratt admitted that prior to the Palisades Fire in 2025, he was not very interested in local politics despite having a bachelor’s degree in political science from USC.
“I was a naive, tax-paying citizen,” he said. “I always believed that you pay your taxes, the firefighters will show up, LAPD will show up, your water comes out of the sink”
But after his home that he shared with wife Heidi Montag, another reality TV personality, and his parents’ home were destroyed in the wildfire, he said he began questioning everything. Pratt said his mother is still struggling with grief after losing the home and everything inside it, adding that she couldn’t even get her passport when flames ripped through their neighborhood.
“After you lose everything because of the failures at city leadership, you realize how important local government is.”
Getting Rick Caruso’s permission to run
Pratt said his anger and frustration over the LA city’s handling of the Palisades Fire intensified as he said no one was being held accountable for “criminal negligence,” specially after the Los Angeles Fire Department’s after-action report, which showed the city had multiple operational failures and lacked preparedness.
Even after the LA Times reported that Mayor Bass wanted to alter the after-action report to divert the blame – the allegation that Bass vehemently has denied – Pratt said he grew more upset that “nothing was happening.”
When Mayor Bass announced she’s seeking a second term, at the time, unopposed, Pratt said he picked up the phone and called billionaire developer and former LA mayoral candidate Rick Caruso.
“I said, ‘I’m going to run after Mayor Bass if you’re not doing this.’ And he obviously made up his mind. He said, ‘Go after Bass,’” Pratt said.
Caruso did not announce whether he’s endorsing Pratt for LA mayor as of Friday.
Pratt as the ‘angry LA white guy?’
While his interest in public office began in the aftermath of the wildfire, Pratt insisted that he’s not running just because of his anger toward LA city officials and their response to the fire; he argued the city’s inactions are connected to other problems that are plaguing the city, including homelessness and public safety.
While accusing Mayor Bass of inflating her record of reducing homelessness, Pratt claimed homelessness and drug use are connected, adding drug addiction treatments must be enforced.
“We need, as a functioning city, to take these people, put them into medical treatment, help them get sober, then go get them a bed, then help them get back into society and give them opportunities,” Pratt said.
A study by the medical journal JAMA network found about 37% of the homeless in California reported using any illegal substance regularly. The survey looked at 3,200 unhoused adults in eight California counties between October 2021 and November 2022.
Pratt also strongly rejected the description that he’s just the “angry LA white guy” as noted in a column, saying everyone in the city is angry.
“I am an angry, as they will say, Angeleno, running to get LA to be the number one thing,” he said.
Pratt says he’s not ‘MAGA’
After Councilmember Raman called him publicly a “MAGA candidate” during the debate, Pratt reminded voters that the mayoral race is nonpartisan as the office is supposed to represent all Angelenos.
He even said he’s surrounded by Democrats, including his family, and he meets with Democrats everyday on the campaign trail.
“I do not represent a party. I don’t have a campaign manager, I don’t have campaign consults. There’s no political party backing me,” he said.
He pledged that he will “never do” national politics as he just wants to focus on fixing his hometown.
Is Pratt ready for a serious job?
The LA mayor’s office requires the leader to navigate over 50 different boards and commissions, along with some 50,000 employees, including LAPD officers, and their unions.
Pratt, who has never held a public office, may not fully grasp the enormity of the job, but he pledged to surround himself with the “started people in the world” because, he said, the city clearly does not “have the smartest people in the world running the city.”
“I get how serious this is because I live the consequences of (Bass and Raman’s) failures,” the candidate said. “They drive around in motorcades and live just this little communist champagne, social life. They don’t live the consequences of their actions.”