{"id":23567,"date":"2026-06-03T15:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/karen-bass-advances-to-general-election-in-los-angeles-mayoral-contest\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T15:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:22:10","slug":"karen-bass-advances-to-general-election-in-los-angeles-mayoral-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/karen-bass-advances-to-general-election-in-los-angeles-mayoral-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Karen Bass advances to general election in Los Angeles mayoral contest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman polling neck-and-neck<\/a> less than a week before primary day.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> — 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Pratt, 42, was a surprise candidate when he announced his intention to run for mayor in January. The registered Republican and former reality TV villain<\/a>best 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 leaders<\/a>and even President Donald Trump himself, though Pratt rejects any affiliation with the MAGA movement.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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<\/a> — 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.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Check back for updates. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}