Raman overtakes Spencer Pratt in razor-thin race, AP count shows, but race remains uncalled
Nithya Raman, a Los Angeles City Council member, has pulled ahead of Spencer Pratt, the reality television star turned political candidate, in the latest Associated Press vote count for Los Angeles' mayoral race, though the news organization has not officially declared her the second-place finisher.
Pratt, a Republican who had led earlier in the day, now trails Raman, a Democrat, by more than 3,000 votes, a margin of roughly 0.4 percentage points, according to the AP tally. The race is officially nonpartisan.
Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, has already secured a spot in the runoff as she campaigns for a second term. She is waiting to learn which challenger will join her on the November ballot.
Los Angeles uses a nonpartisan primary system in which, if no candidate wins an outright majority, the top two finishers advance to a general election. Bass led the field from early returns, leaving the contest for second place as the central question in the weeks following Election Day.
Ballot counting continues in Los Angeles County as officials process votes postmarked on or before Election Day and received by June 9. County election workers face a July 2 deadline to finalize official results, and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber is scheduled to certify the results by July 10.
California's extended count has drawn unusual national attention, including from the Republican National Committee, which has maintained a website clock tracking the time elapsed since polls closed. "The California primary ended on June 2, 2026; yet California is still counting ballots," the site reads. "The state's election system is a complete joke. The RNC is tracking every hour it takes California to finish the count."
Pratt and other Republicans have publicly criticized the length of the count. Election officials and voting experts, however, say the timeline is driven primarily by state law: every active registered voter in California receives a mail ballot, ballots postmarked by Election Day may arrive up to seven days later, and workers are required to verify signatures and process late-arriving envelopes individually.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, placed blame for the delays on Gov. Gavin Newsom in an appearance on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures." "The question to the rest of the world is what happened to California elections?" McCarthy said. "Well, I'll tell you, it's Gavin Newsom. When Gavin Newsom was elected governor of California, you knew who was elected in a day to two days. Now it takes more than weeks, almost a month."
"Why did we get here?" McCarthy continued. "Gavin changed a number of election laws in which you want to see is what did he do and why did he cause it?"
The slow count has become an unlikely subplot in a race that had already drawn attention for Pratt's unusual candidacy. The former "The Hills" star mounted an insurgent campaign, challenging Bass directly in debates and drawing headlines for his blunt critiques of the incumbent's leadership on homelessness, public safety and the city's overall direction.
Raman, a progressive who represents parts of the San Fernando Valley and the city's eastside on the City Council, entered the race as a more traditional candidate but with a base of grassroots support. Her apparent surge in the count, if it holds, would represent a notable shift for a council member who has sometimes clashed with more moderate members of her own party.
As of the latest AP update, no winner had been projected in the second-place race, and the thin margin leaves room for further movement as additional ballots are processed. Both campaigns have indicated they are monitoring the count closely.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.