I’ll show how Spencer Pratt’s clash with Hollywood figures highlights his outsider appeal, lay out the response he gave to Lisa Rinna, present the material cited about Karen Bass’s past, include Pratt’s campaign style comparisons to Donald Trump, and close by noting how his background and strategy play into the LA mayoral race.
Spencer Pratt finds himself in the familiar position of being attacked by Hollywood insiders for stepping into politics, and that backlash has become part of his appeal to voters who want change. Critics in the entertainment world have dismissed his candidacy based on his reality TV past, but those attacks only reinforce his outsider brand. Pratt leans into the contrast: he points to failures in Los Angeles governance and frames himself as a blunt, results-focused alternative. That posture resonates in a city frustrated by rising crime, homelessness, and declining public services.
When TV personality Lisa Rinna said she did not think a reality star should run the nation’s second-largest city, Pratt fired back without deflection. Pratt’s reply included a pointed line: “Hey Lisa, if you’re against me because I was on a TV show in my 20s, wait till you learn what Karen Bass was doing in her 20s…” He followed that with a clip and a claim about Bass’s past activities and associations, turning the debate from his résumé to hers. By reframing the conversation around Bass’s history, Pratt forced his critics to respond to substance rather than simply mock his entertainment background.
#SpencerPratt has responded to Lisa Rinna after telling Variety at the #AMAs that she doesn’t want to see a reality TV star become mayor of Los Angeles:
“Hey Lisa, if you’re against me because I was on a TV show in my 20s, wait till you learn what Karen Bass was doing in her 20s…”
Pratt’s message included a clip from a TV interview in which he claimed Bass supported Fidel Castro in her younger years.
Pratt’s critics in traditional Hollywood outlets called his statements “claims,” but Pratt and others point to historical material they say backs him up. Independent reporting and archival pieces document Karen Bass’s travel to Cuba in the 1970s and describe her expressed views about the island and its leaders during that era. Those items have been circulated by journalists and social commentators to challenge the narrative that Pratt is simply trading in wild allegations. The debate over those records is now part of the campaign’s public record and has prompted intense discussion about both candidates’ pasts.
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, was a devotee of Cuban communist dictator Fidel Castro. In 2020, she had to walk back her open praise for Castro as she was being considered to become Joe Biden’s VP running mate. (Biden committed to a DEI black woman nominee.)
In the 1970s, Bass traveled several times to Cuba.
In interviews and on social platforms, Pratt has also taken aim at the substance of local governance, showing short, sharp ads that aim to connect with everyday frustrations. One recent ad shows him cleaning a grimy sidewalk with a stencil and power washer to illustrate what a cleaner city might look like, a visual that plays to straightforward, no-nonsense messaging. Commentators who follow political communication have compared that tactic to the brand-building moves used by other outsiders in recent years. It’s direct, performative, and designed to make a tangible complaint into a memorable image.
Pratt’s background as a USC political science graduate gives him a degree-based counterpoint to the charge that he’s only a reality TV figure. He points to his education and to campaign work that emphasizes law and order, street-level fixes, and accountability for city officials. That blend of performance and policy talk is unusual for Los Angeles politics, where many campaigns stay safely insider-focused. His willingness to mix theater and messaging creates attention that mainstream candidates rarely generate without heavy media scaffolding.
Many Hollywood voices will keep criticizing him, insisting their cultural status translates into political authority, but Pratt’s strategy refuses to yield ground to that logic. He treats celebrity smears as proof of his outsider status rather than as disqualifying attacks, and that stance appeals to voters tired of polished, predictable politicians. Whether he can convert media skirmishes into steady electoral support remains an open question, but his campaign has clearly changed the conventional dynamic in this race. The fight over narratives—who gets to define competence and who gets forgiven for youthful choices—will be central as Los Angeles decides its next mayor.
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