As California mail ballots continue to be counted, Trump-backed Spencer Pratt falls behind in Los Angeles mayoral race

President Donald Trump and other Republicans criticized California’s election process after updated vote tallies left Spencer Pratt trailing in the Los Angeles mayoral race for the second-place slot that would send him to a November runoff. The complaints centered on claims of wrongdoing tied to California’s slow vote-counting schedule, a process driven largely by vote-by-mail ballots being processed over several days.

In Los Angeles, the top-two threshold is determined by the results of a June 2, 2026 nonpartisan primary. Mayor Karen Bass, seeking a second term, was first in the vote totals as officials continued updating the count, while Nithya Raman, a Los Angeles City Council member, and Pratt, a media personality, competed for the remaining runoff berth.

By Sunday afternoon, with Los Angeles County reporting 83.2% of the expected vote, Bass had 250,871 votes (34.68%). Raman had picked up enough votes to take a narrow lead over Pratt, with Raman at 27.12% of ballots counted and 3,113 votes ahead of Pratt, who had 26.69%. NBC Los Angeles reported that the shift ended several days in which early updates had shown Raman behind Pratt. Additional updates were expected Monday as more ballots remained to be processed.

The evolving vote count became part of a broader dispute about California’s election delays after Trump publicly alleged that Democrats were cheating to affect the outcome of statewide and Los Angeles contests. In a report dated June 4, the Los Angeles Times said Trump posted on social media that federal prosecutors were investigating, while state and election officials rejected the allegations as unsupported. The same report said Trump provided no proof for his claims and did not identify specific cases or evidence.

Separately, federal officials moved from allegations to investigative activity in response to the overall dispute. The Associated Press reported on June 5 that the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said it had opened multiple election fraud investigations related to California elections and sent a prosecutor to the county’s vote-counting center. AP reported the announcement came after Trump’s public claims, and that the federal action did not provide details publicly about what conduct would be investigated.

State election administration remained focused on completing the count and preparing for certification. California’s vote-by-mail rules allow ballots to be counted after Election Day if they meet postmark and receipt timelines, a design that AP described as contributing to a delayed tally in Los Angeles and other counties. The Los Angeles Times’ live results reporting said certification would occur in early July, when the state’s Secretary of State certifies results, while AP reported that the top-two race for the runoff was still too early to call earlier in the week. As vote counting continued, the practical effect of the allegations and the public attention was that the Los Angeles mayoral race remained in flux until the final certified vote totals determined whether Raman or Pratt advanced to the November runoff against Bass.