Karen Bass leads L.A. mayoral primary, projected to reach November runoff

Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass led the Los Angeles mayoral primary Wednesday with 35% of votes after more than 60% of expected ballots were counted, and ABC News projected she will advance to a November runoff.

The race drew 14 candidates and centered on wildfire recovery, homelessness, public safety and affordability — issues that have defined Los Angeles in recent years and will carry into a November general election.

With more than 60% of expected ballots counted, Bass held 35% of the vote, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. Reality TV star Spencer Pratt trailed at 30%, and Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman was third at 22% in the 14-candidate nonpartisan contest.

Should Bass maintain her lead, history would be on her side: of the 10 Los Angeles mayors who sought second terms since 1925, only two were denied reelection — John C. Porter in 1929 and James Hahn in 2005, according to ABC7 Los Angeles.

Bass has pointed to her Executive Order No. 1, which streamlined affordable housing approvals, and her Inside Safe program, which she says achieved two consecutive years of reductions in street homelessness. Her campaign also cited fire cleanup it described as the fastest in U.S. history and a homicide rate it projects as the lowest since 1968. At a campaign event, Bass drew a line between her record and work she said remains unfinished. "The city I've been in my whole life, the city that I love, I feel we have accomplished a lot, but we're not done," she said. "Until every Palisadian is back home. I will not rest until L.A. is affordable, until one paycheck is enough and families don't have to double up or triple up."

Pratt entered the race after the Palisades Fire destroyed his home, positioning himself as a voice for change. "We have no other choice, so it's pretty simple," he told supporters, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. "We can't do four more years of Karen Bass." He had announced his candidacy by declaring: "Business as usual is a death sentence for Los Angeles, and I'm done waiting for someone to take real action."

Raman, who has served on the city council for five years, built her campaign around the pace of basic municipal services. "It gets harder and harder for me to look at them in the face and to say, 'I can't fix your streetlight for a year,'" she said, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. "I don't think that's an acceptable answer."

The top two finishers in Wednesday's nonpartisan primary will face each other in a November runoff, with the winner serving as Los Angeles mayor for the next four years.