Spencer Pratt and the Temptations of Populism

While driving around Los Angeles last month, I was shocked to find myself absent-mindedly humming a song from a viral campaign ad from an L.A. mayoral race. In Southern California, most of us seldom, if ever, think of the mayor of L.A., let alone the primary candidates. But this year’s election is different. Spencer Pratt, 42, gained notoriety in the late aughts on the MTV reality series The Hills. In January 2025, his house burned down in the Palisades Fire. And lately, his bid to unseat Mayor Karen Bass has been the talk of the Southland.Pratt began the race as a long shot: He’s a registered Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, and he has zero experience in government. Yet last week he was one of just three candidates to qualify for a televised debate––a debate that could hardly have gone better for him. While Bass and L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman spent much of their time highlighting each other’s failures to remedy the city’s problems, Pratt had the advantage of being the only option onstage for voters seeking change. And he stuck to his strategy of focusing on local issues, including fire preparedness, crime, homeless encampments, and misspent funds, never even broaching a subject unrelated to Los Angeles.As the June 2 primary approaches, Pratt is leaning heavily into his image as an Everyman outsider—and online, lots of pro-populist people and groups have eagerly gotten behind him. To have any chance of winning, Pratt must tap into the populist energy that is propelling him. But like a drag racer with nitro, too much of this energy will make him crash and burn.The pro-Pratt ad that’s been stuck in my head, “Spencer, Saca La Basura!,” is a salsa-inspired earworm by a group called Latinos Por Pratt (which the Los Angeles Times reports seems to consist of one person, a Cuban American lawyer). The song’s title translates as “Spencer, Take Out the Trash!” “Mayor Karen took a trip way off the map while the hills caught fire,” the first verse begin