Spencer Pratt Is Running for Mayor of Los Angeles. He’s Polling 2nd in a 14-Candidate Race & Joe Rogan Endorsed Him.
Spencer Pratt rose to fame as the villain on MTV’s The Hills from 2006 to 2010. He and his wife Heidi Montag were widely despised for manipulating storylines and leaning into it. He has a political science degree from USC.
After the show ended he built a crystal business called Pratt Daddy, selling pendants marketed for healing and protection energy. By the early 2020s he’d settled into a quiet life in Pacific Palisades, the neighborhood where he grew up. He sold crystals online. He fed hummingbirds every day. He raised his 2 sons, Gunner, 8, and Ryker, 3, with Heidi. He was, by all accounts, done being famous.
The Palisades Fire started on January 7, 2025. It was the rekindling of an earlier arson blaze, the Lachman Fire, set on January 1 by a suspect later charged federally. It smoldered underground for 6 days before extreme Santa Ana winds reignited it. Pratt’s home was destroyed. His parents’ home nearby also burned. His father had smoke inhalation issues. His entire crystal inventory burned with the house.
He documented the aftermath on Snapchat and TikTok, including sifting through the ashes of his property. He and Heidi have remained displaced more than a year later, saying they can’t yet afford to rebuild. He’s repeatedly called the disaster “preventable criminal negligence,” citing empty reservoirs, low hydrant pressure, poor brush clearance, and delayed LAFD response.
Exactly one year later, on January 7, 2026, Pratt announced his candidacy at a rally in Pacific Palisades titled “They Let Us Burn,” organized by the Palisades Fire Residents Coalition. “I never wanted to be mayor,” he’s said. “But once you uncover everything, these people in charge should have resigned.” His platform is classic outsider: audit billions spent on homelessness NGOs (which he calls the “homeless industrial complex”), restore emergency preparedness and reservoir capacity, fully fund the LAPD, expose corruption in city contracts, and implement a “treatment-first” approach to street homelessness.
As of early April 2026 polling, Pratt has surged into 2nd place in the crowded 14-candidate field, occasionally trailing only incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, with roughly 40% of voters still undecided. His support comes largely from frustrated homeowners, small-business owners, and voters disillusioned with the city’s handling of the fire and the ongoing homelessness crisis. Joe Rogan openly said he’d vote for Pratt on episode 2483 of The Joe Rogan Experience, recorded April 15, 2026.
Heidi appears with him at many campaign stops and co-hosts their podcast The Fame Game. The hummingbirds came back to the scorched hillside. He still feeds them.
His sister Stephanie Pratt has been vocal in her opposition, calling a vote for Spencer “a vote for stupidity” and claiming the run is mostly a publicity vehicle for his memoir, The Guy You Loved to Hate: Confessions from a Reality TV Villain, published by Simon and Schuster. Critics questioned his residency after the family temporarily relocated to Santa Barbara County post-fire, but the city clerk certified his candidacy. Some political observers initially dismissed the bid as a stunt, but his viral fire-recovery videos and blunt criticism of Bass and Governor Newsom have forced them to take it seriously.
The nonpartisan primary is June 2, 2026. Under Los Angeles rules, the top 2 vote-getters advance to a November runoff. His campaign website frames the entire effort as “disinfecting the city with light.”