LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass advanced to the November runoff election for Los Angeles mayor.
The Associated Press called Bass’s advancement after 1:30 a.m. ET on June 3. Reality TV star Spencer Pratt and Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman lead 11 other candidates in the race for runner-up.
The runner-up will face Bass in the runoff election on Nov. 3.
Bass campaigned on issues including affordability, public safety, and homelessness. Pratt focused his campaign on crisis management, fiscal responsibility, government reform, public safety, homelessness, infrastructure improvements, support for small businesses, and oversight of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Raman’s platform emphasized ending homelessness, expanding housing, protecting renters, improving public safety and transportation, environmental protection, immigrant rights, animal welfare, and support for small businesses.
Both Raman and Pratt have criticized Bass for her response to recent wildfires sweeping Los Angeles. Pratt’s home was destroyed in the Pacific Palisades fire in 2025.
A distinctive feature of Pratt’s campaign was the widespread use of artificial intelligence-generated videos created by supporters.
One of the most widely viewed videos opens with scenes of Los Angeles engulfed in flames, with Bass as a Joker-like villain and Pratt as a Batman-style hero promising change. In another, Bass is portrayed as Darth Vader from Star Wars, and in a third, she appears as the villain Thanos from Marvel’s Avengers franchise.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush praised the Joker-themed video in a May 5 post on X, calling it “maybe the best political ad of the year.”
Bass has publicly criticized the AI-generated videos.
“Actually, I think it’s a very dangerous trend,” she said during a May 13 interview with CNN.
She argued that some of the imagery, including scenes showing tomatoes thrown at her character in the Joker video, resembled blood and contributed to an increasingly hostile political atmosphere.
Bass warned that portraying political opponents as villains could influence unstable individuals and escalate tensions.
At the same time, she acknowledged that many voters are frustrated with current conditions and that Pratt has tapped into those concerns by presenting himself as a solution to the city’s challenges.
“I think that plays into people’s desperation, and I think oftentimes we look for someone superhuman to save us,” Bass said. “The reality is it never happens. Those are fictional characters.”
