Spencer Pratt’s GOP
The reality star-turned–mayoral candidate shows what a post-Trump GOP may be like.
A brash reality TV star is once again winning over Republican voters. Spencer Pratt, a former star of MTV’s The Hills, is expected to advance to the Los Angeles mayoral runoff against Karen Bass.
Pratt is not gaining support either as a milquetoast RINO or as an economic populist. His campaign is a wildly entertaining attack on LA’s liberal elite, vagrants, and out-of-control crime. It addresses everyday issues voters face, but many politicians refuse to address, such as the homeless problem. While being a (minor) celebrity, he has a relatable story for his foray into politics. His house burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire, and the politicians responsible for the disaster are still in power and have done nothing to prevent future catastrophes. That’s why he, the ultimate non-politician, entered the arena. It’s also why many Angelenos are supporting his outsider bid in spite of his Republican registration and Trumpian associations.
He’s still a long-shot to become mayor, but he’s more viable than any registered Republican candidate in recent memory. Whether he wins or loses, the former reality TV star shows a possible future for a post-Trump GOP. It won’t be a return to the discredited GOP of the years before Trump, nor will it be a wonky vehicle for “post-liberal” intellectuals. It will stress style over ideology and memes over lectures. It will be a lot like Trump, but different from the man himself.
Many things make Pratt stand out. While he is an entertaining “troll,” he does it in his own style. Unlike many Republican candidates, he doesn’t try to copy Trump’s posting style or mannerisms. Ron DeSantis famously tried to ape Trump stylistically, rhetorically, and politically. It worked fine in red Florida, but it didn’t work on the national stage. Pratt isn’t doing lengthy rants on Truth Social, “playing the accordion” while talking, or falling back on Trumpian phrases. He’s creating his own thing. He’s made living in a trailer home a distinctive part of his brand. He’s not trying to be Trump; he’s being himself. Trump wouldn’t work in Southern California. But Pratt’s bro schtick does.
While Pratt has his own style, he’s made his name in a similar way Trump did back in the 2016 campaign. In contrast to his opponents, Pratt knows how to entertain. Whether it’s colorfully insulting his opponents on the debate stage or releasing a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air parody, Pratt knows how to draw eyeballs. He knows how to make his opponents look like the dull, out-of-touch representations of the corrupt ruling class that they are. Trump masterfully pulled off the same tactic in his first bid for office. Karen Bass and Nithya Raman are Pratt’s Hillary and Jeb. In spite of his controversial past and lack of experience, Pratt makes himself look better than his uninspiring rivals.
One of Pratt’s core issues is LA’s homeless problem. In stark contrast to his opponents, he’s not a fan of the homeless. He lashes out at the city’s leaders for allowing drugged-out “zombies” to wander the city streets uninhibited. He discusses the dangers they pose and how they’ve turned once-nice areas into nightmares. When confronted for his lack of “sensitivity” on the issue, he refuses to make any apologies. He even insists on saying it’s misleading to call them “homeless”, arguing they’re mostly drug addicts who’ve been bussed in by “scam NGOs.” None of his opponents would ever dare talk about the issue in these terms. But Pratt does, and that’s why he’s getting so much support in deep-blue LA.
It’s very Trumpian. Trump made himself stand out with a similar issue in 2016. He made immigration his issue when no other candidate would—and he did so unapologetically. He didn’t shy away from calling illegal aliens rapists and drug dealers. He was the one candidate to call for a Muslim ban following a series of deadly terror attacks in the U.S. and Europe. This was an issue that mattered to Republican and independent voters, but none of the other candidates addressed it until Trump made it a central concern. But many of the candidates, similar to Pratt’s opponents on the homeless, scolded the voters and said the real solution was to give illegals amnesty. Immigration, they solemnly proclaimed, made America great. The voters disagreed, and Trump won.
Pratt also bears similarities to Zohran Mamdani. Their actual politics are poles apart, but how they run their campaigns is similar. The reality TV star stays laser-focused on local issues rather than national ones. This was Zohran’s winning strategy in New York. Mamdani primarily talked about cost-of-living matters instead of his radical beliefs. It connected with New Yorkers and helped him defeat the establishment. Pratt and Mamdani both present themselves as charismatic outsiders who will address the issues the system refuses to tackle. Their respective issues are different, as well as their politics and styles. Mamdani is also an ideologue, while Pratt certainly is not. But their campaigns both show how outsiders can make a splash in big city elections.
Pratt, like Mamdani, recognizes that politics in the Trump Age requires a certain level of entertainment. Politicians have to adapt to the ways of our modern culture and gain voters’ interest with approaches previous politicians would’ve scoffed at. Mamdani filmed ads made for the social media age, while Pratt champions AI-generated epics about his campaign. It’s a fact members of both parties are coming to terms with. The worst crime in contemporary politics is to be boring.
But Pratt’s approach differentiates him from other Republican hopefuls. What he talks about actually matters to LA’s voters. Other entertaining candidates prefer talking about issues that make them internet stars but don’t connect with the ordinary people. The best example of this is the Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback. He’s drawn national headlines for his campaign animated by Online Right concerns and memes, with some articles predicting he could be the future of the GOP. But the numbers show a different story. Polls collected by the New York Times and RealClearPolitics show Fishback not even cracking 10 percent and often a distant third place. While his promises to ban “goyslop” from school cafeteria and tax OnlyFans accounts have won him a sizable youth following, it doesn’t seem to have connected with the Floridians who decide Republican primaries.
There’s a lot of discussion over what the GOP will look like when Trump leaves office. It’s commonly thought that it may replace the persona of Trump with a more coherent ideology of “Trumpism.” What that ideology will look like is up for debate, but prominent Republicans such as Josh Hawley are eager to share their version of it with the world. It’s assumed by these types that Trumpism without Trump will keep the coalition together through some well-articulated combination of economic populism and social conservatism.
Pratt shows a different path. It will retain Trump’s entertaining combativeness, but in a style that’s not a direct copy of the president. It won’t be particularly ideological, besides opposing leftists, criminals, illegal aliens, and the homeless. It will be pragmatic and at peace with most cultural trends. It will be online, but more focused on what appeals to Instagram users than X users. In this scenario, Trumpism will be more of a style than a cohesive ideology.
Prattism just requires national candidates to carry that forward. If he manages to win the mayoral race and turns LA around, the former reality TV star could be a White House contender. But that’s still a long shot. The main issue for Pratt as Trump’s successor is that he’s stuck in southern California, and it’s tough for a Republican to make it as a national contender from that deep-blue region. It will probably be up to others to make Spencer Pratt’s GOP a reality.
Unlike other possible futures, Prattism plays well in one of the bluest cities in the country. It might not win in LA, but it can win nationally—just like Trumpism.
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