Reality TV Star Spencer Pratt Announces Los Angeles Mayoral Bid, Vows to ‘Expose the System’

Pratt is demanding accountability from city and state leaders after he and his wife Heidi Montag lost their home in the Palisades wildfire last year.

Heidi Montag (L) and Spencer Pratt attend the Prime Video Summer Solstice Party at Santa Monica Proper Hotel in Santa Monica, Calif., on June 21, 2022. Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Prime Video

Reality television star Spencer Pratt is taking the city of Los Angeles to task, as he launches a mayoral bid one year after losing his home in the destructive Palisades wildfire.

Pratt, 42, announced his campaign for office while delivering remarks at the “They Let Us Burn” rally set up by the Palisades Fire Residents Coalition on Jan. 7.

“It’s official,” Pratt captioned the video of his speech posted on X. “I’m running for Mayor of LA. I’ve waited a whole year for someone to step up and challenge Karen Bass, but I saw no fighters. Guess I’m gonna have to do this myself.”

The rally landed on the anniversary of the wildfire in the Pacific Palisades, which burned more than 23,000 acres and destroyed 6,837 structures. Twelve people lost their lives.

Pratt gathered alongside other residents in demanding accountability from California leaders and local agencies, who they say have not made progress in creating a clear prevention plan or taking other precautionary actions.

“The system in Los Angeles isn’t struggling, it’s fundamentally broken,” Pratt told a crowd of fire survivors and rallygoers. “It is a machine designed to protect the people at the top and the friends they exchange favors with while the rest of us drown in toxic smoke and ash.”

Pratt was living in a coastal community of the Pacific Palisades with his wife, Heidi Montag, and their two children before tragedy struck.

The couple rose to fame in 2006 on MTV’s popular reality television series “The Hills,” and have appeared on other shows together, including “I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here” and “Celebrity Big Brother UK.”

Over the last year, Pratt has become a vocal critic of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, arguing that their policies have failed to protect residents and wildfire victims.

“Let me be clear, this just isn’t a campaign—this is a mission, and we are going to expose the system,” Pratt said at the rally. “We are going into every dark corner of LA politics and disinfecting the city with our light.”

Last year, Pratt and Montag sued the City of Los Angeles and the Department of Water and Power (LADWP), citing the devastation and how it was handled by the city as “an inescapable and unavoidable consequence.”

In a Jan. 6 news release, Bass acknowledged the firefighters, first responders, and those who remain displaced on the anniversary of the fire, adding she is committed to restoring the Palisades community and helping “return families home as quickly and safely as possible.”

Meanwhile, Newsom’s office on Jan 6. announced a $107.3 million housing plan geared towards communities impacted by the wildfires that will fund nine new projects with 673 new affordable rental homes.

“We are rebuilding stronger, fairer communities in Los Angeles without displacing the people who call these neighborhoods home,” Newsom said in a statement.

Pratt joins former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner and more than a dozen other candidates in the June 2 primary election to challenge incumbent Bass.

Regardless of party preference, the top two candidates who win the most votes in the primary, even if one candidate receives the majority of 50 percent or more, will move on to the general election.