Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman has overtaken Spencer Pratt and is projected to advance to the November mayoral runoff, the Associated Press reported on ABC News.
The AP projection published by ABC News said Raman “will be the second candidate to advance to the November Los Angeles mayoral runoff election, overtaking Spencer Pratt,” noting that Mayor Karen Bass had already secured a place in the runoff. The BBC also reported that “Raman had 28.5% of the vote and Pratt had 25.8%” as counting continued after the June primary.
ABC’s write-up emphasized that the shift came after days of ballot counting, saying Raman “steadily made gains over Pratt’s initial lead over her on primary night.” That piece framed the projection as coming from the AP Decision Desk and noted Bass had already advanced.
The BBC story placed the result in context, reporting that Pratt “had an early lead over Raman, but over days of counting she leap-frogged him,” and explaining California’s slow post-election counting process, where mail ballots can change standings as they are validated and tallied.
Raman is a Los Angeles City Council member who entered the mayoral race unexpectedly before the filing deadline, while Spencer Pratt is a former reality-TV personality turned candidate; both outlets described the contrast between Raman’s political background and Pratt’s outsider profile.
Counting procedures were highlighted by the BBC, which explained why results in California can take days: an estimated large share of ballots are cast by mail and must be sorted and validated before being counted. ABC’s report likewise cited the AP projection language when describing who would advance.
For recent polling context on Raman’s standing before late counting, see a Berkeley/LA Times poll that showed Raman leading Mayor Bass; and for campaign issues in October, see reporting on Raman’s filings about AI-impersonation ads in Los Angeles.
Sources
- ABC News — AP projection that Nithya Raman overtook Spencer Pratt and note that Karen Bass had already secured a runoff spot.
- BBC — reporting that Raman “had 28.5% of the vote and Pratt had 25.8%” and explanation of multi-day ballot counting in California.
- NBC News — live-results page using AP vote data showing the primary standings and vote shares used by U.S. outlets.
