Ex-reality TV star and MAGA-backed Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt angrily conceded the race Friday in a combative video in which he derided, and appeared to threaten, the women who finished ahead of him.

Nearly four days after The Associated Press projected Councilmember Nithya Raman will advance to the November general election to face incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, Pratt announced that “the campaign portion of my mission to save Los Angeles is coming to a close, and I’m moving on to the next, more interesting phase.”

With 99% of ballots counted as of Friday, the AP put Pratt in third place, with just more than a quarter of the vote — 3.5 percentage points behind Raman and nearly 9 points behind Bass.

Saving LA – Phase III pic.twitter.com/9n9wv1tonZ

— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) June 12, 2026

Pratt initially stood in second as returns came in on primary night, but his lead over Raman steadily narrowed as mail-in ballots were counted. By Sunday, she had overtaken him by less than 1 percentage point.

President Donald Trump and other MAGA supporters suggested Pratt’s apparent reversal of fortune proved fraud, but elections experts say it is California’s voting system, coupled with the city’s small Republican voter base, that explain his third-place finish.

What, exactly, Pratt’s next chapter in civic life will consist of is unclear. But if his Friday announcement is any indication — he called Bass and Raman “dumb and dumber” and “corrupt communists” — it will include continued attacks on his former opponents. And contrary to Pratt’s pledge that he would leave the city if he lost, he suggested he will instead stay put in LA.

“A lot of dim-witted jerks thought I was in this for a grift, that I was going to roll up and leave town if I didn’t get into City Hall,” Pratt said in the video. “Hey, morons, I didn’t get in this for political power. I got in this to expose this corrupt machine, and nothing has changed.”

Addressing Bass and Raman, Pratt added: “I will be lighting you up every single day, and now I don’t have to worry about offending CNN viewers. I don’t have campaign laws hamstringing me now. It’s war.”

Filled with expletives and images of fires, violence and homeless encampments, Pratt’s video channels the same angry populism he ran on. His Republican supporters — including Benny Johnson, Trump administration official Richard Grenell and the chair of the LA County GOP — cheered his final message as a candidate.

Best known for his role as Heidi Montag’s bad boyfriend on MTV’s “The Hills,” Pratt launched his surprise mayoral campaign in January, a year after his family home burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire. While his platform initially focused heavily on what he and his supporters characterized as the failures that led to the damage caused by the fires, Pratt expanded his campaign to focus on forcing homeless people off the streets, cleaning up alleged “fraud” in the city’s finances and saving abused dogs on Skid Row.

With his massive online following and social media savvy, Pratt catapulted himself from long-shot candidate to one who earned Trump’s support and managed to outraise both Bass and Raman.

In the video, Pratt also said he possesses “some recordings of one of your exalted candidates doing and saying something that would make her resign in shame.”

A spokesperson for Raman’s campaign declined to comment to MS NOW on Pratt’s message. Spokespeople for the Bass campaign did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.

The post Spencer Pratt concedes LA mayoral race with combative message appeared first on MS NOW.

The United States military said it completed its latest round of strikes on Iran on Tuesday following the earlier downing of a U.S. helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command announced.

The Associated Press reported that Iran said it retaliated with attacks in Bahrain and Kuwait and claimed it targeted a military base in Jordan that hosts U.S. forces. Jordan later confirmed that it had shot down five missiles.

Central Command said the U.S. strikes were launched “at the Commander in Chief’s direction” at 5 p.m. ET, in response to the downing of the helicopter.

During the strikes, U.S. fighter jets targeted Iranian air defense systems, ground control stations and surveillance radar sites involved in threatening U.S. forces and commercial shipping in the region, CENTCOM later reported in a statement.

“The operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters,” the command’s statement said. An earlier post to X described the strikes as proportional “to unjustified Iranian aggression.”

Military officials warned U.S. forces to “remain vigilant and postured” to defend against further threats in the region.

Kuwait also said its air defenses were activated after Iran said it targeted the Gulf nation in retaliation over the U.S. airstrikes.

President Donald Trump earlier blamed Iran for downing the helicopter and said it was a “necessity” for the U.S. to respond. But a U.S. official who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity said the helicopter went down after colliding with an Iranian drone. It is unclear if the collision was intentional, the AP reported, and CENTCOM earlier said the cause of the incident is under investigation.

Two service members on the helicopter were rescued by a drone boat, and Trump said they were “safe and uninjured.”

ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl said he was on the phone with Trump when CENTCOM announced the strikes, and that Trump doubled down on his earlier stance, saying, “This is a response to what they did with our helicopter last night, and I believe the response should be very strong, very powerful, and that’s what this one is.”

The strikes come as the latest escalation in the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, which is ostensibly on a break during a ceasefire while negotiations take place. But on Sunday, Israel and Iran exchanged fire, marking the first break in the ceasefire since April.

The post U.S., Iran exchange airstrikes following downing of Army helicopter appeared first on MS NOW.

The former impeachment attorney for Texas attorney general and Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton told MS NOW’s Ana Cabrera on Tuesday that he believes Democratic nominee James Talarico is “the better candidate” in the race.

“I don’t wish Ken any ill will. I don’t harbor any resentment for the man. I just think that Talarico is the better candidate,” Dan Cogdell told Cabrera. “I think he is focused on the issues that Texans care about, and I think he’ll do a good job.”

Cogdell, who represented Paxton both in his impeachment trial and during his federal securities fraud investigation, announced Monday that he would be voting for Talarico over his former client in the November general election. He told Cabrera that while he had fulfilled his constitutional duty to represent Paxton vigorously, “the Constitution does not require me to vote for him or endorse him.”

Prior to supporting Talarico, Cogdell had been an enthusiastic supporter of Paxton’s. Last year he donated $6,500 to Paxton’s campaign, Federal Election Commission records show; in March of this year, he donated $1,000 to Talarico’s campaign.

Cogdell told Cabrera that he came to support Talarico after learning about his campaign and priorities, saying, “I believe he’s focusing on the things that Texans are concerned about,” like gun violence, education and healthcare.

“I haven’t seen Ken Paxton mention any of those things in his run-up in this election,” Cogdell said. “I believe James is focusing on those things, and I think those things are important to Texans.”

Talarico beat out Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, in the March primary to win the Democratic nomination. A former public school teacher, 36-year-old Talarico has been lauded as a rising star within the Democratic Party, and polling suggests he has a real shot at winning Democrats’ first statewide seat in Texas in decades.

Paxton, meanwhile, defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in last month’s Republican primary after securing President Donald Trump’s much-anticipated endorsement. But Paxton has been plagued by scandals, including a divorce initiated by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, who said she was filing “on biblical grounds.”

Cogdell said that he does not regret representing Paxton, adding that he’s “proud of that work.”

A spokesperson for Paxton’s Senate campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MS NOW on Tuesday.

The post Ken Paxton’s former lawyer on why he’s voting for James Talarico appeared first on MS NOW.

Los Angeles Council member Nithya Raman will advance to the November general election in the mayoral race to face the incumbent, Karen Bass, after overtaking ex-reality TV star Spencer Pratt in the primary, The Associated Press projects. 

Raman has steadily trended upward in the vote count since Election Day, and she overtook Pratt on Sunday. Monday’s vote update gives Raman a cushion of more than 20,000 votes, making her position in the top two safe, with an estimated 93% of the vote counted.

The runoff between Raman, 44, and Bass, 72, is the latest example of a younger Democrat trying to oust an older incumbent. Raman, a Harvard- and MIT-educated member of the Democratic Socialists of America who has represented LA’s 4th City Council District since 2020, launched her surprise mayoral campaign in February — less than two weeks after she endorsed Bass’ campaign for re-election.

The runoff between Raman, 44, and Bass, 72, is the latest example of a younger Democrat trying to oust an older incumbent.

She campaigned on a pledge to bring change to the city, but struggled to deliver consistent messaging during debates, where she walked back some of her more left-wing policy stances, including support for defunding the police and opposing anti-camping zones for homeless people. 

Bass previously represented LA in the California Assembly, including as speaker. She has served six terms in the U.S. House and entered the mayor’s race facing extensive criticism from Angelenos over both her handling of last year’s deadly LA wildfires — she was in Ghana when the blazes broke out — and her failure to achieve her goal of ending homelessness by the end of her first term.

She has pledged that, if re-elected, she will deliver on that goal. She has also vowed to continue standing up to the Trump administration, pointing to her confrontation with federal agents when the president deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the city last year. 

In a statement provided to MS NOW Monday night, Raman thanked her supporters and sought to cast herself as a change agent, pledging to “fight for a healthier, safer, more affordable, and more joyful Los Angeles.”

“For too long, City Hall has prioritized giving political advantage to powerful interests that fund elections. Meanwhile, working people pay the price in higher rents, depleted services, and a city that has stopped working for them,” Raman said. “If you’re as frustrated by the broken status quo as I am, I hope you’ll join our movement to build a city that works for everyone.”

Meanwhile, Bass campaign strategist Douglas Herman said in a statement to MS NOW Monday night: “A campaign against Nithya Raman, who allows encampments near schools and cuts the police force, is one Mayor Bass looks forward to winning.”

Pratt’s fast rise, social media savvy and massive online audience also seemed to make it more difficult for Raman to break through in the primary. He outraised both Bass and Raman since launching his campaign in January.

But some strategists predicted Pratt’s backing by MAGA, and President Donald Trump himself, would ultimately help catapult Raman to second place in deep-blue LA.

Indeed, Pratt’s lead over Raman steadily narrowed since primary night as mail-in ballots came in — a fact that Trump and other MAGA allies baselessly alleged proved “fraud” in the race. On Tuesday, Pratt led Raman by 9 percentage points; by Sunday night, she had overtaken him by less than 1 percentage point.

Spokespeople for Pratt’s campaign did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s requests for comment after the results were called Monday night.

The post Raman to advance in Los Angeles mayor’s race, taking on Bass in November appeared first on MS NOW.

UPDATE (June 8, 2026, 9:25 p.m. ET): Los Angeles Council member Nithya Raman will advance to the November general election in the mayoral race to face the incumbent, Karen Bass, after overtaking ex-reality TV star Spencer Pratt in the primary, The Associated Press projects.

President Donald Trump and some of his top allies are repeating a familiar but false refrain: An election is “rigged,” as evidenced by their preferred candidate’s poor performance.

This time, their focus is on ex-reality TV star and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt.

On the night of the Tuesday primary, Pratt maintained a 9-point lead over his closest challenger, LA Council member Nithya Raman, leading his supporters to believe he would proceed to the November runoff against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. But as mail-in ballots trickled in throughout the week, Pratt’s lead over Raman steadily narrowed, and by Sunday night, she had overtaken him by less than 1 point, with more than 80% of votes counted, according to The Associated Press. (The AP has not yet projected the second-place finisher to proceed to the runoff as of Monday afternoon.)

To Trump and his MAGA allies, a democratic socialist’s surge over a registered Republican with no political experience in a deep-blue city can only be indicative of one thing: fraud.

“No way this could have happened. Rigged Election!” Trump wrote on Truth Social early Monday morning.

A few hours later, Trump followed up with another Truth Social post.

“Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had. 3rd World Nation. Rigged Elections!” he wrote.

Far-right activist Laura Loomer, a close ally of the president, told her 1.9 million followers on X on Saturday that the election “is being stolen from [Pratt] in real time!”

Benny Johnson and Elon Musk have also reposted several right-wing accounts suggesting Raman’s rise must be the result of fraud. Meghan McCain, who is a conservative commentator but also a frequent Trump critic, also injected doubt into the election results.

But election experts are not surprised by Raman’s slow rise as vote counting continues.

Why California vote counting takes so long

A poll released by the University of California, Berkeley, and the Los Angeles Times in late May suggested Pratt and Raman would be competing neck-and-neck to proceed to the runoff, and several strategists long predicted Pratt — a registered Republican backed by MAGA — would face an uphill battle in the blue city.

The mechanics of how Angelenos’ votes are counted also explain Raman’s rise: California elections officials have 30 days from Election Day to come up with the vote count, and mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and received up to seven days after the election are eligible to be counted. (If mail-in ballots are missing signatures or have signatures that do not match those on file, state law requires election officials to contact voters to verify their signatures, adding more time to the process.)

Results posted on election night are based on in-person ballots cast at voting locations, both on Election Day and before, as well as mail-in ballots received before Election Day, according to the California secretary of state’s office. Subsequent counts include votes cast by provisional ballots, ballots from voters who registered and voted on the same day and the mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within seven days of the election.

“This is not unusual,” Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, told MS NOW on Monday regarding the shifting results in the race.

Yaroslavsky pointed to the 2022 LA primary, when Republican turned centrist Democrat Rick Caruso was ahead of Bass on primary night before she pulled ahead a week later. In the November runoff, Bass ultimately beat Caruso by nearly 10 points. Nearly 85% of voters also voted by mail in that primary, contributing to the delay in Bass’s rise.

“It’s clear, it has always been the case, that Republicans and more conservative voters vote early, [and] working people, more progressive people vote late,” Yaroslavsky said.

And with more votes still to be counted, Yaroslavsky predicted Raman’s lead over Pratt would expand even further.

‘No evidence’ of cheating

Dean Logan, LA County’s registrar-recorder and county clerk, told CNN on Sunday that officials have “no evidence or examples” of cheating in the mayoral race.

“I think what we’re seeing, unfortunately, is carrying out of a narrative that has become the game play in national politics in the United States, and that is prior to the vote count being completed, take shots at the process, so if the outcome turns out different than what you want, you don’t accept that, you challenge the process,” Logan said.

Yaroslavsky agreed, telling MS NOW, “What the president is basically saying is, ‘When I win, it’s legit, when I don’t win, it’s fraud.’ That’s not the way it works.”

Logan told CNN the outcome would be clear within “days,” adding, “I know it’s frustrating, but this is really about making sure that every eligible ballot in this election is counted and counted correctly.”

In the meantime, other conspiracies are circulating, including some promoted by Pratt himself.

Pratt suggested on Sunday night, for example, that the approximately 43,000 votes Raman gained between Tuesday and Sunday came from homeless people. In another social media post on Sunday, Pratt wrote: “They’re not the only ones who know where to find votes.”

Spokespeople for the Pratt campaign did not immediately respond to questions from MS NOW on Monday seeking clarification about the candidate’s claims.

Other conservative influencers have also falsely said Raman “conceded” the race at her primary night rally. But as MS NOW covered in real time, Raman did not concede the race. Instead, she warned her supporters that it would take time for the votes to be counted and that they may not get a favorable outcome.

“Tonight may not give us a final answer on this race. Many thousands of votes will be counted in the days ahead, and we may not get an answer we like,” she said.

In a statement provided to MS NOW on Monday, Raman said, “We are encouraged by the latest vote count and remain grateful to the thousands of Angelenos who have powered this campaign.”

The post Trump says ‘not possible’ for Pratt to fall short in ‘rigged’ LA mayor’s race. He’s wrong. appeared first on MS NOW.

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday struck down the $100,000 fee imposed last year on H-1B visas for highly skilled workers.

In a 42-page ruling in response to a lawsuit brought by 20 Democratic states, Judge Leo Sorokin, an Obama-appointed judge, agreed with the plaintiffs who argued the fee imposed by President Donald Trump’s executive order in September amounted to an “unauthorized tax.”

Created by Congress in 1990, the visas allow 65,000 highly skilled workers born outside the U.S. to work in the country per year, for up to six years. The visas have long been a target of immigration opponents, who allege it takes high-paying jobs from skilled Americans — a claim unsupported by research.

The plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit alleged Trump’s new policy would contribute to a shortage of teachers, medical professionals and academic researchers.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling from MS NOW on Monday afternoon.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Fallon Gallagher contributed reporting.

The post Federal judge declares Trump’s $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas unlawful appeared first on MS NOW.

Republican Steve Hilton will advance to the general election in California’s gubernatorial race, according to The Associated Press.

The former Fox News personality will now face Democrat Xavier Becerra, President Joe Biden’s health and human services secretary, in November for the seat of outgoing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Becerra was leading the field when the AP reported Friday that he would go on to the general election. As of Tuesday when about 88% of the votes had been counted, Becerra had 27.9% of the votes counted, while Hilton came in second with 24.9% of the vote, the AP reported. Democrat Tom Steyer was running third with 22.6%.

Becerra and Hilton will now move on to the November general election.

As the counting has continued, President Donald Trump has sounded off on the process, alleging that “Dumocrats” were “trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”

Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman, a Democrat, moved into second place, pushing past reality TV star Spencer Pratt — a Republican backed by Trump — as the mail ballots were counted. Californians vote in large numbers via mail-in ballots, which can be postmarked on Election Day.

Becerra was California attorney general from 2017 to 2021 and was a member of Congress for more than 20 years. He made a late-in-the-race surge in polling at 25% in late May, after coming in at 5% in early March.

The race to succeed Newsom became wide open after former Vice President and California Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla, the state’s senior senator, chose not to run. The race was further shaken when some candidates who were gaining popularity became embroiled in scandals. Former Rep. Eric Swalwell, viewed as a potential front-runner, dropped out after facing sexual misconduct allegations, while former Rep. Katie Porter came under scrutiny over allegations that she bullied staffers.

Steyer is a billionaire and hedge fund investor who launched a Democratic bid for presidency in 2020, branding himself as a progressive climate activist.

British-born Hilton is a registered Republican who received backing from Trump. In a Truth Social post earlier Tuesday, Trump wrote that Hilton “will work with me and the Federal Government, the money will flow because I have confidence in him (but not any of the others!), and we will MAKE CALIFORNIA GREAT AGAIN.”

California has not elected a Republican governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was first elected in 2003.

The next governor of California will inherit a range of challenges, including an unstable state budget, an affordability crisis and the fallout from ongoing clashes with the Trump administration over immigration enforcement.

The post Ex-Fox News host will advance in California governor’s race, facing Becerra for Newsom’s seat appeared first on MS NOW.