Los Angeles labor spends money promoting the republican candidate to have weaker candidate run against mayor Bass

Recently, it appeared that the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which is supporting Ms. Bass, was trying to elevate Mr. Pratt by spending $221,000 on an ad aimed at burnishing his profile among Republican voters rather than impugning him. While there are far fewer Republicans than Democrats in the city, if most of them coalesced around Mr. Pratt, he could receive more votes than Ms. Raman.

Political experts said Ms. Bass’s allies were likely trying to ensure that she didn’t have to run against another Democrat in the general election.

Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University, said that Mr. Trump’s words on Wednesday likely would help Ms. Bass immensely.

He said that Mr. Pratt was already popular with Mr. Trump’s supporters, so he didn’t need the endorsement from the president himself. But the endorsement could scare away more moderate voters, whom Mr. Pratt may need in the primary and certainly would need in a general election. Mr. Pratt has downplayed his Republican registration and avoided associations with MAGA in the race for mayor, a nonpartisan seat.


https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/us/spencer-pratt-trump.html