Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt appears to concede the Los Angeles mayoral race Friday, saying the “campaign portion” of his effort was ending while vowing to continue criticizing the two candidates who advanced to the November runoff.
In a video posted Friday on X, Pratt said he planned to move into what he called the “next more interesting phase” of his effort “to save Los Angeles.”
“I didn’t get in this for political power,” Pratt said. “I got in this to expose this corrupt machine, and nothing has changed.”
The comments marked Pratt’s clearest acknowledgement yet that he will not advance to the general election. Earlier this week, the Associated Press projected that Councilmember Nithya Raman would face Mayor Karen Bass in the November runoff after late-counted ballots pushed Raman past Pratt in the race for second place.
As of the latest update, Raman led by Pratt by 29,550 votes, a margin of 3.48 percentage points.
Pratt led Raman on election night by around 40,000 votes but steadily lost ground as additional ballots were counted. By the time AP projected the runoff Monday, Raman held a lead of roughly 21,800 votes over Pratt.
Throughout the video, Pratt sharply criticized both remaining candidates, saying Angelenos were “stuck with two morons responsible for all their problems” and arguing that the runoff amounted to a choice between “dumb and dumber.”
“That’s not a choice. That’s the machine protecting the machine,” Pratt said.
Pratt also suggested he would continue publicly attacking both candidates and city leaders in the months leading up to the November election.
Earlier this week, Pratt appeared to question the shifting vote count after Raman overtook him. In a June 8 post on X, he noted that there had been “a net swing of more than 43,000 votes since Tuesday” and posted a screenshot showing a Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority estimate that 43,699 people were experiencing homelessness on any given night in the city, adding, “Probably nothing.”
Separately, President Donald Trump and some Pratt supporters made unsubstantiated claims about the election results after Raman moved into second place. Election experts interviewed by the SCNG earlier this week said such shifts are common in California because later-counted ballots often differ from election night returns.
In Friday’s video, Pratt also claimed he possessed a recording involving one of the remaining candidates that could force that person to “resign in disgrace,” though he did not identify which candidate he was referring to or provide evidence to support the allegation. He said he “was saving it for the general election.”
Representatives for Bass and Raman were asked Friday whether they wished to respond to Pratt’s comments. Neither campaign immediately responded. Pratt’s campaign also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Despite acknowledging the end of his campaign, Pratt indicated he intends to remain a vocal critic of City Hall.
“I’m lighting you up every single day, and now I don’t have to worry about offending CNN viewers,” Pratt said. “I don’t have campaign laws hamstringing me now. It’s war.”