Vice President Vance on Monday cast doubt on the results of the Los Angeles mayoral primary, labeling the outcome as “pretty shady” after a surge of mail-in ballots pushed Republican reality TV star Spencer Pratt out of contention, setting up a November runoff between two Democrats.
In an interview with Fox News’s Jesse Watters, Vance pointed to the apparent inconsistency between early returns and the final tally. “The problem here with this whole thing is, how is it that you had, you know, Karen Bass was in first place, Spencer Pratt was in second place, and then this other woman was in third place,” he said, referring to current Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman. “You would expect these mail-in ballots to kind of meet that same basic pattern where, you know, number one would get the most votes, number two would get the second most votes, and so on.”
Vance went further, alleging that the timing and processing of ballots appeared suspect. “But somehow we find ourselves in a situation where number one, they’re still receiving ballots, not just counting ballots, Jesse, they’re still receiving ballots, and number two, the way that they’re coming in just so happens to work out such that the Republican is getting kicked out of the final two, so it’s a Democrat versus Democrat runoff, that seems pretty shady to me,” he added.
The primary results show Bass and Raman advancing to the general election, as no candidate secured more than 50% of the vote. Pratt, a controversial figure known for his reality TV career, was initially in second place but fell to third as mail-in ballots were tallied over the weekend. Raman’s surge in the count ultimately knocked Pratt out of the runoff.
Republican suspicions about the integrity of the California primary have been building, with President Trump earlier calling the election “rigged” and abruptly ending an NBC News interview when pressed on the allegations. However, election experts note that the shift in results is consistent with voting patterns in heavily Democratic Los Angeles, where mail-in ballots tend to favor progressive candidates. Registered Democrats in Los Angeles County outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 million, making it a deeply blue stronghold.
Bass, the incumbent, and Raman, a progressive councilmember, will now face off in November. The runoff pits two Democrats against each other in a city where the Republican Party has struggled to gain traction. Political analysts have pointed out that the mail-in ballot trend favoring Raman was widely anticipated, given the Democratic electorate’s preference for voting by mail.
Vance’s remarks add to a growing chorus of Republican skepticism about election processes in blue states, echoing Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud. The vice president’s comments also come amid broader GOP efforts to tighten voting laws and increase scrutiny of mail-in voting procedures.
The LA mayoral race has drawn national attention as a bellwether for Democratic trends in urban politics. Some commentators have suggested that Pratt’s initial strong showing signaled voter discontent with the Democratic establishment, but the final outcome reaffirmed the city’s Democratic dominance.
