Jun. 3, 2026, 2:00 AM EDT

Incumbent mayor Karen Bass will proceed to the Nov. 3 general election in the Los Angeles mayoral race, the Associated Press projected early Wednesday morning.

Bass emerged as the leader of the crowded field of more than a dozen candidates after a feisty battle the past few months that led to former reality TV star Spencer Pratt and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman polling neck-and-neck less than a week before primary day.

As of early Wednesday morning, the Associated Press had yet to project a second candidate who would advance to the general election in the all-party primary in which the top two vote-getters move on.

Bass, the 72-year-old incumbent, has a long record in politics: Before being elected LA mayor in 2022, she represented Los Angeles in the California State Assembly, eventually becoming speaker, and served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. She entered the mayor’s race facing extensive criticism from Angelenos for both her handling of last year’s deadly LA wildfires — she was in Ghana when the blazes broke out — and her failure to achieve her goal of ending homelessness by the end of her first term.

Bass has campaigned on her experience, which includes standing up to the Trump administration when the president deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the city last year, and a pledge to deliver on her promise to end homelessness.

Pratt, 42, was a surprise candidate when he announced his intention to run for mayor in January. The registered Republican and former reality TV villainbest known from the MTV show “The Hills,” has no political experience, but became a vocal critic of Bass and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom after his family home burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire last year. Since launching his populist campaign centered on critiquing the city’s Democratic leadership and cracking down on homelessness and crime, Pratt has earned the backing of MAGA leadersand even President Donald Trump himself, though Pratt rejects any affiliation with the MAGA movement.

After a strong televised debate performance last month, Pratt’s fundraising surged. All in all, he has raised $3.7 million since January, compared to the $3.2 million Bass has raised over the past two years, according to the latest campaign finance filings.

Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who has represented LA’s 4th council district since 2020, launched her surprise mayoral campaign in February — less than two weeks after she endorsed Bass’ campaign for re-election.

Raman, 44, earned comparisons early on to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani due to her DSA roots and her pledge to bring generational change to the city if elected. But as the race progressed, she walked back some of her more left-wing policy stances — such as defunding the police and opposing anti-camping zones for homeless people — and polling suggested Raman and Pratt would be fighting for second place on primary day.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.

Jun. 3, 2026, 12:53 AM EDT

Republicans have not lost a gubernatorial race in Iowa since George W. Bush was president.

So the anxiety within the GOP as voters went to the polls Tuesday was, on its face, hard to explain. But the projected defeat of Rep. Randy FeenstraTrump’s endorsed candidate, in the GOP primary for governor was an early sign of just how unpredictable voters may be in Iowa this year.

In the two decades since a Democrat last won the governorship, in 2006, Iowa has gone from presidential battleground to reliably red-state terrain, carried three times by Donald Trump. In most election cycles, that record would all but guarantee a comfortable race for Republicans this fall — even in a year when momentum is building on the left.

Not this year.

What happened in Iowa on Tuesday was a clear test case of just how far the president’s blessing and the sway of partisan identity can carry a candidate over the finish line. Trump’s endorsement has essentially been the gold standard in Republican politics, often making the difference between a candidate being a contender or becoming a has-been. Sometimes, though, Trump simply sides with the candidate who seemed to be the most likely to be the primary winner.

His nod to Feenstra days before Iowa’s gubernatorial primary, however, carried the marks of a late-breaking rescue mission — especially given that other rivals were well positioned as Iowans headed to vote. Democrats have had to deal with none of those worries on their end: State Auditor Rob Sand has run effectively unopposed for months, free to focus on the general election and that alone.

“Rob Sand is, he’s a very dangerous candidate, he’s running against both parties,” said Bob Vander Plaats, a conservative evangelical leader in the state. While he backed GOP candidate Adam Steen, Vander Plaats had concerns about Feenstra. “I really believe Randy gives us our biggest, biggest risk of having Rob Sand be governor,” he said ahead of Tuesday’s primary.

Even with Trump’s endorsement, Feenstra fell short in the GOP primary. The Republican congressman conceded the race Tuesday night to opponent Zach Lahn, making for one of the few times this year that Trump’s endorsed candidate has been rejected by Republican voters.

Feenstra entered the race as the front-runner. Back in 2020, he helped both national and Iowa Republicans when he defeated deeply controversial Rep. Steve King in a Republican primary — a victory that catapulted him to Washington. With a low-key approach and national connections forged in Congress, he appeared primed to help his party hold the state and continue its gubernatorial-race dominance; federal filings show that earlier in his campaign he moved more than $1 million from his congressional campaign to boost his statewide ambitions.

But the primary bruised him. While Sand glided toward November, Feenstra spent the spring fending off a crowded field.

“I feel pretty comfortable saying that we can beat anybody that they put against us,” Sand told reporters Tuesday. “I think most Iowans recognize that the state’s going in the wrong direction.”

In a five-way Republican race, Feenstra’s most formidable challenge came from Lahn, who tried to claim the “outsider” lane. Lahn lent his campaign more than $2 million and drew support from the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action organization and an arm of the Make America Healthy Again movement — the kind of backing that can scramble expectations in Republican circles.

Trump noticeably sat out the race until late last week, when he posted an endorsement on social media touting Feenstra. Despite all that, even after Trump endorsed the congressman, Lahn said last weekend he did not believe Feenstra could beat Sand this fall.

“Rob Sand has run a campaign that he’s been out with the people for a very long time, the complete opposite of what Randy Feenstra’s done,” Lahn said in an interview. “This is what’s at stake. If Randy Feenstra’s the  nominee on June 3, it affects every other race for Republicans in the state. That’s how important this is. It affects the U.S. Senate race, the House races, some of which will be in razor-thin margins.”

Ahead of polls closing Tuesday night, Feenstra campaign spokesman Billy Fuerst claimed in a message that “Randy Feenstra earned President Trump’s complete and total endorsement to be the next Governor of Iowa because President Trump knows that Randy is the only proven conservative who can defeat Extreme Liberal Rob Sand and keep Iowa red.”

Electability is often a concern in competitive primaries. But the aftermath in Iowa may prove especially difficult for Republicans. While the Iowa governor’s race is important to the state, it also could have an outsize influence on congressional control as well. A strong performance by Sand could prove pivotal in also helping Democrats as they try to win the state’s open U.S. Senate this fall, as well as to potentially flip as many as three congressional districts.

Given the narrow control Republicans have in the House, those seats could become incredibly important. And while winning the Senate race is more of a long shot, it is one of just a few that Democrats realistically have a chance of winning in the fall as they try to overcome a difficult picture to take back the Senate.

All of this means that after a few cycles where its national importance has faded, Iowa could become a tipping point for either Republicans maintaining sway for the final two years of Trump’s time in power or seeing it slip away.

Either outcome may depend on just how much Sand stresses Republicans in Iowa as he runs on a message that picks at partisan politics generally and that tries to bring back some relatability back to a Democratic Party whose reputation as caring about ideology over economic woes has become alienating in pockets of the Midwest and in key battleground states.

“[Sand’s] got the wind at his back right now, because he’s not being attacked relentlessly like he will be after the primary,” said David Kochel, an Iowa Republican strategist. “I think once this race defines and once you kind of can show that he is part of a national Democratic brand, I think it gets a lot tougher for him to win a state like Iowa.”