Spencer Pratt speaks out before Los Angeles mayoral primary next week

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt is opening up on his campaign and what he sees as the major issues afflicting Angelenos ahead of the mayoral primary on June 2.

In an interview with ABC News' Diane Macedo which aired Friday, Pratt criticized his primary opponents, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles city council member Nithya Raman, and spoke out on what he says was the city's mishandling of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and homelessness.

Asked what he would do differently if a similar wildfire threat came about again under his leadership, Pratt spoke to what he saw as priorities regarding fire safety to proactively avoid another disaster.

He also criticized Bass' decision to leave Los Angeles before the wildfires started.

Bass, who was attending a diplomatic trip to Ghana when the fires broke out, discussed her absence at a recent mayoral debate, saying, "It was one of the worst moments of my life to not be here when my city needed me."

Pratt, who is a registered Republican running an independent campaign, is locked in a very tight race with Bass and Raman, according to a UC Berkeley-L.A. Times poll released Thursday.

The poll found 26% of likely voters supporting Bass, 25% supporting Raman and 22% supporting Pratt.

"I don't go off of any polling," Pratt said when asked about his thoughts on the sampling.

He suggested his voters are too busy to answer polling questions. "My voters are busy trying to keep their family safe," he said, adding, "I would say that's, if anything, it's a cute little poll."

The Los Angeles mayoral primary is a nonpartisan primary, where candidates run campaigns unaffiliated with parties. Throughout his campaign, Pratt has garnered attention from several high-profile Republican figures including President Donald Trump.

Pratt is running as a clear outsider in a field of more than 10 candidates, which includes two front-runners, alongside Pratt: Bass, the incumbent who has held public office for over two decades, including a stint in Congress, and Raman, a current city councilwoman elected in 2020.

If any candidate garners more than 50% of the primary vote, they would be declared the winner of the election.

Among the crowded field, only Bass, Raman and Pratt qualified for a televised debate held on May 6.

Bass is running on her own record, one that includes the damaging fires, but also includes her efforts to address homelessness by creating "affordable and temporaryhousing," her newly established Office of Community Safety to address crime in LA, and her attempts to combat "escalating ICE raids."

Raman, a city council woman since 2020, is running a progressive campaign focused on affordability, building new housing, city infrastructure maintenance, safety, and addressing homelessness, where she has a stated goal to "reduce the number of people sleeping in tents and encampments by at least 50% by the 2028 Olympics."

If no candidate receives over 50% of the vote in the June 2 primary, the top two candidates will advance to the general election in November.

In the Friday interview with ABC News, Pratt highlighted how he would tackle homelessness and drug addiction.

"They need mandatory treatment like any addict to get off of fentanyl or super meth. It's not empty beds," Pratt said about addiction and homelessness, adding, "When we reallocate our tax money to public safety, to have a functioning city, it'll be a lot easier to keep Angelo's safe."

"Right now, Angelos are not safe," Pratt said.

He continued, "I'm actually the compassionate one. All these people go, 'Oh Spencer, he hates homeless.' No, I hate them dying in their own feces," he said.

Pratt, who is yet to receive an endorsement from any sitting member of the Los Angeles City Council, said he is not after their approval.

"I don't want to be a politician," he said. "The only endorsement I seek and have are moms and animal lovers."

Pratt said he would work with anyone, including a new governor and president, "who wants to make L.A. the No. 1 city in the world."

Asked if he would work with ICE in his role of mayor, Pratt said the mayor would not be able to due to California's sanctuary law status, adding, "I'm going to make the streets so safe the federal government is not going to need to come to L.A., because they're going to be like 'Wow this mayor has these streets safe and clean.'"

He listed the CDC and DEA as federal agencies he would work with to achieve his goal, adding, "I want all communities to feel safe in Los Angeles. I am the mayor that's gonna be the safety mayor."

Pratt, a former reality television star, said he pivoted to politics after losing his home in the Los Angeles fires of 2025.