The vote counts have finally solidified in the nationally watched race for Los Angeles mayor, and projections suggest that Mayor Karen Bass will face off against Councilmember Nithya Raman in the November general election. Anyone familiar with the city’s overwhelmingly Democratic voter-registration numbers or who perused some of the better polls before the primary would not be the slightest bit surprised by this result.
However, Republicans are outraged because Raman’s late surge in mail-in tallies pushed out MAGA darling and reality TV star Spencer Pratt. President Donald Trump alleged election cheating with even less evidence than he had about his own 2020 defeat. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters: “Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it is impossible to prove.” So the conspiracy is so deep that there’s no evidence supporting it.
Even more preposterous, Rod Dreher, the conservative pundit who lives in Europe, argued on X: “The problem is that many, many, MANY of us simply cannot believe it.” Apparently, their feelings matter more than facts. How can American democracy remain healthy if conservatives and Republicans won’t accept the results when their candidates lose — even candidates who never had a realistic chance of winning? This corrodes faith in our democratic system.
We can walk through the rebuttal, not that it will matter to these folks. His popularity on X aside, Pratt was never a serious candidate in the real world. He was certainly no Richard Riordan. He touted Trumpian rhetoric in a city that voted overwhelmingly against Trump. The Democratic political machine preferred having Bass run against likely-loser Pratt rather than Raman, who may give the mayor a run for her money. In a system where approximately 90% of voters cast ballots by mail, Election Day totals are outliers that, for obvious reasons, tilt in an older, more conservative direction. Of course, the mail ballots tilted left.
Furthermore, the onus should be on those alleging election crimes — not on public officials who seem to have conducted the election in a professional manner. By the way, Pratt’s main appeal was highlighting Bass’ incompetence during the wildfires. So it’s not surprising the main protest candidate would come from her left flank in a Democratic city. We’ll be looking closely at Raman’s mixed record, but she did offer serious critiques of current city governance.
Yes, California officials helped create this mess by creating a vote-by-mail system with lax deadlines that allow ballots that were mailed on Election Day to be counted a full week later. The goal was to expand participation, but the slow-counting system only energizes conspiracists who don’t understand how it all works. We like mail-in voting, but there’s no reason state officials can’t re-jigger the deadlines so votes are counted in a timely manner. Nevertheless, the main problem lies with those making baseless claims based on their feelings.
The Los Angeles election and reaction to it actually spotlights the failure of Republicans. Instead of grooming a knowledgeable, reform-minded candidate who had a real chance, they opted for a TV villain who imitated an unpopular president. Instead of learning the right lessons, they leaned into election denialism. It’s all so depressing because Los Angeles — and California, in general — needs new ideas that deviate from the failed progressivism its Democratic leaders keep offering.