Spencer Pratt brings dose of reality to LA mayoral race

Before last January, Spencer Pratt was best known as the early aughts agitator to the girl next door on MTV's reality television hit "The Hills."

He catapulted to superstardom after teaming up with now-wife Heidi Montag to pester Montag's ex-BFF Lauren Conrad, who first rose to fame on "Hills" predecessor "Laguna Beach." (Conrad later became an ultra-private Kohl's designer and mother of two.)

In a 2018 throwback video, MTV highlighted Pratt's Top 6 "Hills" meltdown moments, all of which involved confrontations with women.

Then, a year after the Palisades wildfires ravaged Southern California, destroying his home, Pratt, 42, announced his bid for Los Angeles mayor.

Two decades after "The Hills" premiered in 2006, Pratt, by the afternoon of June 3, was ranking second behind incumbent Karen Bass in the city's jungle primary. He has garnered a similar vote total so far to businessman Rick Caruso, who finished with about 36% in the 2022 runoff against Bass, but ultimately lost by nearly 10 points.

Equipped with a decadeslong playbook for demanding attention, Pratt emerged as a serious contender to unseat Bass, a former congresswoman who faced heat over her handling of the Los Angeles fires. She was on an international trip to Ghana as treacherous fire conditions brewed.

And it is seemingly his real-life experience that made him a conservative firebrand. He has cast the city's leadership as inept, unable to deal with rising costs, drug usage and homelessness rates. Alex Burns, a Politico journalist, suggested that Pratt may be the heir apparent to President Donald Trump. Pratt boasts support from former co-stars Kristin Cavallari and Brody Jenner, but, notably, not from his old reality-show frenemy Conrad. The coming months will show whether he can turn his mayoral hopes into reality.

USA TODAY repeatedly contacted Pratt's campaign requesting an interview. Pratt's team has yet to make him available for an interview.

Notorious reality TV villain

Among the most notable reality TV programs in history, "The Hills" was a successor to MTV's "Laguna Beach." Conrad, Cavallari and their fellow alumni starred earlier this year with their Laguna Beach High School cast and classmates in a buzzy 20-year reunion special set in the seaside Orange County enclave.

After leaving school, Conrad and Cavallari starred on the Pratt-fueled "Hills," a spinoff that followed the lives of the provocateur, his now-spouse Montag, Caitlyn Jenner's youngest son and other twentysomethings pining for A-list Hollywood fame – and one another.

Known jointly with his spouse as "Speidi," the pair made tabloid headlines for eccentric personal choices: At 23, Montag was splashed across the cover of People magazine in 2010, revealing she had undergone 10 plastic surgery procedures in a single day.

In 2010, Pratt's departure from "The Hills" was shrouded in controversy. He competed on other reality programs, such as "Celebrity Big Brother" and "Marriage Boot Camp," but failed to garner the same level of public interest as his former costars.

Conrad is the most famous of the bunch, and Cavallari, who married and divorced NFL quarterback Jay Cutler, launched a successful jewelry line and starred in an E! show about her life in Nashville. Pratt and Montag helmed MTV's short-lived "New Beginnings" reboot of "The Hills," which followed the couple, Jenner and lesser-known stars. But they never successfully reclaimed the dramatic pop culture stature they'd had in their early 20s.

Can reality TV's king of shock surprise Karen Bass?

And then came the Palisades Fire.

"In one January 2025 post on Instagram, Pratt was planted in front of the couple's decimated home, wearing a T-shirt with the cover of Montag's 2009 single "Body Language" on the front. "Please stream any of @heidimontag music on any platforms it will make a huge difference! Thank you," he wrote, using Montag's 2010 single "Look How I'm Doin."

Montag's 2009 song and 2010 album "Superficial" then hit No. 1 on iTunes, 15 years after their release. Following the announcement of his mayoral bid on Jan. 7, Pratt immediately slammed Bass, calling himself her "worst nightmare." The shock factor he brought from 20 years of reality TV has ruffled feathers and invited a national response. Even Trump himself has weighed in on the race. "I heard he's a big MAGA person," Trump said during a press gaggle. "He's doing well."

Shortly after announcing his mayoral campaign, Pratt began promoting his personal memoir, "The Guy You Loved to Hate: Confessions from a Reality TV Villain," released Jan. 27. Like Trump, he has borrowed from popular culture to bolster his campaign. He is reportedly filming a show that follows him behind the scenes of the race against Bass.

A late April ad titled "THEY NOT LIKE US," a reference to Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar's Grammy-winning song aimed at genre rival Drake, took issue with Bass and Nithya Raman's homes.

In the ad, Pratt purports to live in an Airstream trailer, but told TMZ, "I have never told anyone I lived there" after the outlet reported he lived in the opulent Hotel Bel-Air.

Pratt delighted Republicans during a raucous mayoral debate in early May (He referred to Bass as an "incredible liar").

While appearing on Fox News' "Gutfeld" last month, he said he hated the incumbent mayor. "These people let my house and my mom's house burn down," Pratt said.

On the night of the primary election, holding hands with Montag, the mayoral candidate posed in glossy paparazzi-style photos. "LA is coming back," he captioned the photo.

Contributing: Taijuan Moorman