Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass holds the lead in a field of rivals looking to claim victory in the city’s mayoral race this fall, according to a new poll.
The poll from Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics showed Bass holds 30% of voters’ support, followed by reality television star Spencer Pratt at 22% and Councilwoman Nithya Raman with 19%. Support for Bass increased by 10 points since March, Pratt by 12 points, and Raman by 10 points, while the percentage of undecided voters dropped from 51% to 16%, according to the survey.
Bass, a Democrat, faced intense scrutiny from a slew of rivals looking to oust her during last week’s first mayoral debate of the election cycle.
Pratt, one of five viable contenders heading into the June 2 primary and a Republican, particularly captured attention at the debate for going after Bass, giving rise to GOP hopes for a conservative LA mayor. Polymarket put Bass’s odds of winning at 45%, Raman’s at 38%, and Pratt’s at 18% following the debate.
“Another performance like that, and he has a real chance,” Jeff Burton, a former senior National Republican Congressional Committee official, previously told the Washington Examiner.
Republicans have highlighted that Los Angeles is home to some of the highest rates of drug use in the United States and holds some of the country’s largest homeless populations.
Bass’s handling of the 2025 fires also remains important to voters, particularly after accusations she requested edits to the official Palisades fires report to soften criticism of the city’s response to the crisis, which claimed 31 lives. Bass’s office has faced questions about why some of the state’s largest water reservoirs were empty when the disaster sparked, why the LAFD’s budget was cut shortly before the crisis occurred, and why rebuilding efforts have stretched on after the fires caused billions in damage and torched thousands of structures. It takes over half a year for developers and survivors whose homes were burned down to receive permission to rebuild in Los Angeles County, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) office.
During the debate, Bass defended her record.
“I think that I deserve a second term, and I’m going to fight for that because we have made significant progress in a variety of areas,” she said. “For example, homelessness was going up year after year, and under my watch, it is the first time we’ve had a decrease in street homelessness. While it went up in the country 18%, it came down in Los Angeles 17.5%.”
The latest poll indicates Bass’s campaign holds a critical edge weeks ahead of the primary. But allies-turned rivals have sought to paint her as a highly vulnerable candidate. Raman sent shockwaves through the city when she entered the mayoral race against Bass earlier this year, despite previously endorsing the incumbent. At the time, Raman said Los Angeles is “at a breaking point.”
KAREN BASS EXITS LA MAYOR FORUM DAYS AFTER HEATED DEBATE AGAINST SPENCER PRATT
“I do think Angelenos have really given us a lot of faith, voted for more taxes to address important housing issues, address homelessness, to address some of our biggest crises,” she said. “And if we don’t show results to them, I think we will lose them.”
The Emerson College/Inside California Politics poll surveyed 1,000 California voters from May 9-10 with a margin of error of approximately 3 percentage points.