Where Bass Is Winning

AT A CAMPAIGN EVENT LAST WEEK, Mayor Karen Bass looked out at a few dozen immigrant rights activists assembled in front of television cameras and asked them to recall the day last summer when federal agents in tactical gear stormed through MacArthur Park. That military-aided immigration crackdown was, Bass said, one of the worst moments not just in L.A. 's history, but in the country’s. 

It may have been a terrible moment for the city, but it was a powerful crucible for Bass herself. In the bruising aftermath of the Palisades fire, the mayor’s public image had taken a beating; her response to the raids thrust her back into the national spotlight, this time with praise.  

But, Bass warned at her event last week, President Trump’s heavy-handed immigration tactics are far from over. If reality star Spencer Pratt is elected mayor, his administration could create more fear and uncertainty in the Latino community, without a word of protest from the mayor’s office when raids continue, Bass cautioned. Pratt, a Republican, has vowed to cooperate with the Trump administration’s enforcement actions.  

In the final days before the June 2 primary, Bass and her campaign allies have been working hard to court the Latino vote. In part this is simple math: More than 35% of L.A.’s electorate is Latino and any path to victory requires substantial Latino support. But the voting bloc is especially crucial this election cycle for the beleaguered mayor, as her popularity has sagged among many other groups amid deep voter dissatisfaction over homelessness, city services, and the response to the Palisades Fire. Latino voters have been a bright spot; polls show the mayor has a wide lead over her rivals with this group. 

With current polls suggesting Bass is leading the pack of candidates — but almost certainly won’t win the majority necessary to avoid a November runoff — independent groups supporting the mayor’s reelection have increasingly decided to put money and energy into turning out Latino voters.  

Historically, Latino voters have not gone to the polls in high numbers in primary elections. But Julie Chávez Rodríguez, the former campaign manager for 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, is working to change that on June 2. Chavez Rodriguez is managing the campaign for an outside group called Unidos con Karen Bass for Mayor 2026 that is spearheading a canvassing operation in five council districts that cover swaths of the San Fernando Valley, the Pico Union area and east and southeast L.A. The group is trying to boost awareness of the drop in crime in L.A., the fact that homelessness has decreased for two consecutive years under Bass and her plans to increase affordable housing.    

“The mayor has really high name recognition, but folks didn't know a lot about what she had accomplished,” said Chávez Rodríguez. “We have seen a lot of energy and enthusiasm from Latino voters, most recently in the “Yes on 50” [redistricting] campaign. The opportunity for her is to capitalize on that increased enthusiasm and continue to grow her support with Latinos.”

On Saturday, another independent expenditure committee led by the Central City Association of Los Angeles, a downtown business group, dropped $750,000 from Airbnb on new Spanish-language digital ads casting Bass as “defending our communities.” 

A third independent expenditure committee sponsored by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor sent out Spanish-language mailers highlighting Bass’s pushback against the Trump administration and her efforts to provide direct cash assistance to Angelenos impacted by the immigration raids. That message is highlighted in Bass’s television ads, which chronicle how she “clashed with Trump’s ICE agents.” 

As a politician, Bass tends to be cautious about invoking her private life. But she has spoken about her 11-year-old grandson's fears after ICE agents made arrests outside his school last year. She is also sometimes joined by her Latino family on the campaign trail. (The mayor’s late ex-husband was the son of Mexican immigrants and her children and grandchildren, several of whom live with her in the official mayoral residence, are Latino.)

Other candidates are also doing outreach to Latino voters, of course. Councilmember Nithya Raman, who polls show is vying with Pratt for second place to advance to the November runoff, has been running ads in Spanish and hosting events like a recent “hora feliz con Nithya.” Adam Miller, who told the L.A. Times that his campaign was targeting Latino voters who may have already decided not to support Bass, has been courting business leaders in Boyle Heights. 

But as Pratt surges in the polls, Bass has been increasingly highlighting his association with the Make America Great Again movement, suggesting he would make immigrant communities more vulnerable.

“Donald Trump has given her an opening that she probably otherwise would not have had,” said Mike Madrid, a California Republican strategist and the author of “The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority is Transforming Democracy.” “She has a record of standing up and opposing this stuff when her likeliest opponent is a MAGA ally — and Donald Trump is leaning in and saying “Yeah, I support him.” 

For his part, Pratt has been critical of Bass’s confrontational approach to ICE — calling it “open defiance of federal law for political gain” that has created “confusion, tension and instability.”

“When I’m mayor, I will work directly with the federal government to enforce the law in a firm but humane way — with a clear focus on public safety,” Pratt said during an event filmed and posted on social media by “The Hollywood Fix.” “Violent criminals will be removed from our streets and law-abiding, hardworking families will live without fear.”

And at the May 6 mayoral debate, Pratt said people need not worry about a repeat of the federal immigration raids. “ICE won’t be coming here” because “everybody they’re supposedly looking for, they’re going to be in jail when I’m mayor,” he said. (The majority of those arrested by ICE last June had no criminal history, an L.A. Times analysis found.) Pratt did not respond to a request for comment.

Standing alongside Bass at Friday’s event, Angelica Salas, the president of the CHIRLA Action Fund, said Pratt is “not supporting our community.”

“Many people who contribute, who labor, who pay taxes, they are part of this city. And we suffer the consequences when people become confused and enamored with reality TV stars,” she said.

Maeve Reston is a national political reporter who has covered politics for more than two decades at publications including the Washington Post, CNN, and the Los Angeles Times.