After losing his home last year in the Palisades Fire, Spencer Pratt has been a vocal critic of Los Angeles leadership. Now the reality star is running for mayor, saying he wants to bring change.
“Business as usual is a death sentence for Los Angeles, and I’m done waiting for someone to take real action. That is why I am running for mayor,” Pratt said at a gathering on Wednesday, Jan. 7, the one-year anniversary of the fire.
He joined other residents in L.A.’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood for a “They Let Us Burn” rally, marking the anniversary.
Related: Uber Driver Charged With Starting LA’s Deadly Palisades Fire
Pratt, 42, posted video of his speech on social media and called Jan. 7, 2025 the “worst day of my life.”
At times emotional, the TV star said he and wife Heidi Montag lost all of their possessions during the fire. Pratt blamed city leaders and California Gov. Gavin Newsom for not doing enough to prevent the devastating fire.
The fire claimed 12 lives and destroyed 6,837 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE).
“We are standing here because our state and local leaders let us burn,” Pratt said. “While our lives were literally burning to the ground, Mayor Karen Bass was in Ghana.”
Bass was in Africa at the time, as part of a U.S. delegation attending the inauguration of Ghana’s president when the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire in Altadena erupted on Jan. 7.
Altadena is led by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, not Bass, who has faced sharp criticism for traveling abroad just as a historic wind storm closed in on the L.A. area.
She quickly returned home once the fires started, and told Fox 11 that then-fire chief Kristin Crowley had not warned her the city was at grave risk of wildfires because of the winds.
“That type of preparation didn’t happen. If that had. I wouldn’t have even gone to San Diego, let alone leave the country,” Bass told the station.
Pratt has been critical of Bass and hopes to unseat her in the November election. But that’s a tall order considering he has no political experience and is a registered Republican.
Politico reported this week that just 15 percent of L.A.’s 2.2 million registered voters are Republicans. Bass and her three predecessors — Eric Garcetti, Antonio Villaraigosa and James Hahn — were all Democrats and had years of experience in local and state politics.
While the L.A. mayoral election is nonpartisan, all Democrats would have to do is run ads labeling Pratt “conservative” or “right wing” and his campaign would suffer.
The Bass team has already dismissed Pratt’s comments.
“It’s no shock that in advance of his imminent book release, a reality TV ‘villain’ who once staged a fake divorce to boost ratings and spent the last summer spewing post-fire misinformation and disinformation to pump up his social media following, would now announce he’s running for Mayor,” her campaign strategist Douglas Herman told TMZ.
Pratt rose to prominence on MTV reality show The Hills alongside Montag. The two dated on the show before marrying and have two children. The celebrity couple has appeared on Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars, I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here, British version of Celebrity Big Brother and other reality shows.
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