Or, alternatively, Spencer Pratt is mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it anymore. But does he have the momentum to be the next mayor of Los Angeles?

On Wednesday evening, three candidates took the stage for a debate. Karen Bass, the current mayor of Los Angeles, is desperate to explain, redirect, or deflect blame for letting the city burn last year. Nithya Raman, current Los Angeles city councilwoman, is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and trying to run to Karen Bass’s left. And then there is Spencer Pratt, former reality star whose home burned down during the Los Angeles wildfires. Pratt’s candidacy has been gaining traction through incredibly clever campaign ads and his compelling personal testimony of losing his home. It should also be noted that he has a degree in political science from USC. The other candidates may want to treat Spencer Pratt like a reality show dilettante, but they underestimated him – at their own peril. And he absolutely dominated the stage.

This debate opened up with questions about the fires. Karen Bass did not acquit herself well, and Spencer Pratt absolutely slapped her down.

Pratt took aim at Bass over the lack of water available during the inferno, with fire hydrants running dry. He also accused her of failing to give the Fire Department the resources it needed to repair its vehicles.

“One thousand firefighters were available … but there was no engines available for them because of $17 million that [Fire] Chief Crowley had asked the mayor for nine weeks before, and Mayor Karen Bass denied it,” he said.

Raman also assailed Bass over the fire, the worst in the city’s history. She said the mayor is supposed to be the city’s CEO and plan for potential disasters.

“It’s the mayor’s role to be prepared and to coordinate before and during and after emergencies to ensure that the city is ready,” she said.

Bass, who was in Ghana on Jan. 7, 2025, the day the fire broke out, said her absence from the city was “one of the worst moments” of her life. But she also accused Pratt of saying things about the disaster that were “completely inaccurate.”

One of the weirder moments of the debate was when Nithya Raman accused Pratt and Bass of targeting her because she was a strong candidate. Pratt disabused her of that notion quickly.

About half an hour into the debate, Raman shifted her remarks to the audience and offered a prediction about how the night would unfold, saying Bass and Pratt would likely focus their attacks on her because, as she put it, “they want to run against each other.”

She argued that both opponents see their path to victory as going through one another rather than her, adding: “Each of them thinks that running against each other is what’s going to help them win, and they don’t want to run against me because my ideas are based on real results in my district,” she said. “I want to take this citywide. This is why this is happening today.”

“If I wanted to run against anybody, it would be the councilmember who is terrible,” Pratt replied.

In fact, Nithya Raman did so poorly during this debate that even Democrats were surprised.

Dustin Gardiner from Politico: “What really surprised me was how rough of a night Nithya Raman had.“ pic.twitter.com/2b0JPaPjp3

— Michael Trujillo (@mikehtrujillo) May 7, 2026

The assumption that Spencer Pratt was just going to be a flash-in-the-pan novelty candidate is now gone. This guy is serious, and he is talking directly TO the voters.

The moderators tried to restrain him from the beginning, nervously warning against “name-calling” and then scolding him when he called Bass a “liar”, after she said some of his claims were “inaccurate.”

They treated him like the beggar at the feast, the commoner at the royal table, like he didn’t belong.

It didn’t matter. Pratt was the strongest personality on the stage. And — in the biggest surprise at all — he looked solid, like a big-city mayor, with expertise beyond the devastating fire that motivated him to run.

Pratt has gained momentum in recent weeks, using a series of widely-praised ads to generate online buzz and fundraising. One ad shows Bass’s comfortable home, then Raman’s — and then a trailer on the ruins of what used to be his house in Pacific Palisades.

Wednesday’s debate gave him an opportunity to deliver on those attacks in person. It was a confrontation months in the making — and it delivered on expectations.

One particularly memorable exchange occurred over how to save Hollywood, given the flight of production from the city. Bass talked about making permits easier to get; Raman talked about how her husband is involved in the industry. Pratt slammed both of them for what he described as their complacency, saying they’d already had their chance, and had done nothing: “These two politicians have failed Hollywood, times one thousand.”

This is not hyperbole – @spencerpratt is the blueprint for how my generation of older millennials needs to communicate and present their ideas and campaign messaging when running for office.

He is 10/10 no notes. Absolute raw talent. Killed the debate.

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) May 7, 2026

And when questioned in the spin room later, Pratt stayed on message.

Spencer Pratt was asked whether he has the experience to run a city as large as LA.

“Look at the city right now. Look at what their experience has done.”

Pratt then brought up how Karen Bass was in Ghana while his house was burning down, and her Deputy Mayor was under house… pic.twitter.com/eI9kjq63Je

— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) May 7, 2026

And he is correct – Bass was out of the country, as we all knew. The deputy mayor was on “administrative leave” since December 2024, and later pleaded guilty to calling in a bomb threat to city hall last October. The question of “who was in charge on the ground” when the fires grew out of control is an open one, and Pratt is not willing to let that question go. After all, his home burned down, as did his parents’ home. For him, this is intensely personal. And if Los Angeles didn’t realize just how personal, they know it now.

The saying goes that you only get one chance to make a first impression. This was Spencer Pratt’s first debate, and he passed with flying colors. The question now becomes, with less than a month to go before the June 2nd primary, if the voters of Los Angeles are sick and tired of hearing excuses from Karen Bass, and promises of more of the same from Nithya Raman. If they are, then Spencer Pratt stands a chance of getting through the primary to the general election. His message is solid, and it will resonate with the “normies” that are still in Los Angeles. Spencer Pratt may be an unlikely candidate – but he isn’t going to be underestimated again.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click