Democrat Karen Bass, the current mayor of Los Angeles, has already earned a spot in the November runoff.
As late-arriving votes are still being counted, progressive city council member Nithya Raman is now in a position to join her after surpassing reality TV star Spencer Pratt for second place.
Raman surpassed Pratt with 28.6 percent of the vote compared to his 25.8 percent, according to the Associated Press on Monday night, with about 93 percent of the votes counted.
As mail-in ballots were being processed, Raman’s earlier lead had tightened the contest for the second runoff spot.
According to polling, Bass’s chances of winning vary depending on who she faces, with Raman seeming more likely to prevail in a head-to-head match.
As of 12:04 p.m. ET on June 8, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office reported that Bass had received about 34.7 percent of the vote.
With about 27.1 percent of the vote, Raman is currently in second place, surpassing Pratt, who has dropped to about 26.7 percent, a difference of about 3,000 votes.
Raman, a progressive member of the Los Angeles City Council, has garnered support for housing policy and homelessness reform.
Pratt, on the other hand, entered the race as a political outsider despite being a Republican.
In addition to criticizing Bass’s response to the Palisades wildfire, which resulted in the loss of his home, he has run on a platform of public safety.
Shortly before the election, a UC Berkeley–LA Times poll revealed Bass just ahead in a closely packed field, with the incumbent mayor at 26 percent, Raman at 25 percent, and Pratt at 22 percent—all within the poll’s margin of error.
However, the poll indicated that Raman would be ahead of Bass in a hypothetical head-to-head contest with 32 percent to 28 percent of registered voters.
According to the same survey, the current mayor would defeat Pratt 47 percent to 29 percent in a hypothetical contest.
It is even less clear how the race might turn out, though, as both matchups revealed a sizable portion of voters who were unsure or who said they would choose neither.
According to prediction market Kalshi, Raman’s chances of winning the race have also improved.
According to the website, Bass has a 59 percent chance of winning, Raman has a 40 percent chance, and Pratt has a 1 percent chance.
Bass has a 56 percent chance of winning, Raman has a 41 percent chance, and Pratt has a 1 percent chance, according to another prediction site called Polymarket.
In addition to criticizing postal votes for a long time, President Donald Trump has made repeated, unsupported claims that delayed ballot processing in Democratic-leaning states permits electoral manipulation.
The president has once again become enraged over California’s slow vote count, claiming on Truth Social that Democrats are attempting to “steal” the mayoral and gubernatorial elections in Los Angeles by using “the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”
In Los Angeles County, mail-in ballots that were marked by election day are still being accepted and tallied, so the final vote count may change over the course of several days and weeks.
Regardless of party affiliation, the top two finishers will advance to the November runoff after the counting.
Within hours of the polls closing on June 2, Bass had already secured her spot.
Trump also recently posted about the Save America Act, noting that it requires all voters to show photo ID; all voters must show proof of U.S. citizenship; restrictions on mail-in ballots; no men in women’s sports; and no transgender surgeries for children.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom defended the insanely slow pace of counting ballots from California’s primary elections as critics claim the process reeks of corruption and fraud.
