No, Spencer Pratt Did Not Finish Third in the LA Mayoral Primary — The Claim Is Entirely Fabricated

A claim has been circulating that Spencer Pratt, best known as a cast member on MTV's The Hills, finished third in a Los Angeles mayoral primary with roughly 25.5% of the vote. This is false. There is no credible evidence that Pratt ran for LA mayor in any election cycle, let alone placed third.

The most recent LA mayoral primary took place in June 2022. According to the Los Angeles Times and official results from the Los Angeles City Clerk, the race was dominated by Karen Bass, who received about 37% of the vote, and Rick Caruso, who received about 24%. Those two candidates advanced to the general election. Spencer Pratt does not appear in any official results.

Ballotpedia's comprehensive candidate list for the 2022 race also makes no mention of Pratt as a serious or minor candidate. Wikipedia's entry on Pratt confirms he is a television personality with no documented history of running for public office. No news outlet covered a Pratt mayoral campaign because, as far as all available records show, one never existed.

To be fair to the strongest version of this claim: celebrity politicians are real. Donald Trump, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and others have made successful jumps from entertainment to elected office. That makes a story like this feel plausible at first glance. But plausibility is not evidence, and in this case every verifiable source points the same direction — this did not happen.

This kind of claim spreads quickly because it lives in a believable gray zone. It is specific enough to sound like real reporting — a candidate name, a vote percentage, a placement — but vague enough that most people won't immediately know it's wrong. If you see a political claim with suspiciously precise numbers about an unfamiliar candidate, check the city clerk's official results or a source like Ballotpedia before sharing.