Nithya Raman, a progressive member of the Los Angeles City Council, surpassed reality-TV star Spencer Pratt in the Los Angeles mayoral primary Sunday, after a surge in her vote count put her in second place.
Five days after the election, officials continue processing hundreds of thousands of outstanding mail-in ballots to determine who will face off against Mayor Karen Bass, the incumbent, in November.
With 87% of votes counted, Ms. Bass led the field of candidates with 34.68%, followed by Ms. Raman at 27.12%, and Mr. Pratt now trailing behind Ms. Raman at 26.69%, narrowly missing a spot in the general election.
No candidate surpassed the 50% threshold that would have avoided a runoff.
These numbers are an enormous shift from last Wednesday, one day after the election, when Mr. Pratt, was in the No. 2 spot with 30.4% of the vote and Ms. Raman had 22.3%. Ms. Bass led the pack with 34.8% of the vote.
Because the mayor’s seat is formally nonpartisan, all candidates appeared on a single ballot. The November runoff will pit two Democrats against each other in one of the country’s most reliably liberal cities, with local issues expected to drive the outcome.
Mr. Pratt, responded to the results on X Sunday night, “’A net swing of more than 43,000 votes since Tuesday..’ 43,000, huh? Where have I seen that number before…? Probably nothing.”
In an earlier post on X Saturday, before Ms. Raman officially surpassed his vote tally, Mr. Pratt wrote, “Remember everyone … we are still in the lead, and we’ve got allllllll the way til July 6th to keep counting. They’re not the only ones who know where to find votes.”
President Trump called California’s vote-counting process “rigged,” telling NBC that California’s state and local election officials are “crooked.”
The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said Friday it had opened “multiple election fraud investigations” related to California’s elections and sent a prosecutor to the county’s vote-counting center.
The announcement by U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, Mr. Trump’s appointee as the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, and the visit to Los Angeles County’s ballot tabulation center showed an escalation in the president’s campaign against the Democrat-dominated state, whose notoriously prolonged vote count has been a magnet for election-conspiracy theories.
Ms. Bass, a liberal Democrat who won the mayor’s office in 2022 by defeating businessman Rick Caruso, is seeking a second term but faces a competitive challenge from Ms. Raman, who represents Los Angeles’ Fourth Council District.
Her first term has been marked by several crises. Ms. Bass drew sharp criticism for traveling abroad as devastating wildfires broke out across the region last year.
Homelessness has remained a persistent issue, though Ms. Bass has pointed to a 17.5% reduction in street homelessness as evidence of progress.
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