Spencer Pratt and ex-Fox News star Steve Hilton get terrifying reality check in California nail-biter

By NIKKI SCHWAB, CHIEF CAMPAIGN CORRESPONDENT Published: 17:33, 5 June 2026 | Updated: 17:43, 5 June 2026 The tedious process of counting all of California's mail-in ballots has left the fate of Republicans Spencer Pratt and Steve Hilton hanging in the balance.  In the Los Angeles mayor's race, the Associated Press estimated that 64 percent of the votes have been counted since Election Day Tuesday.  Pratt, a former reality TV star trying to unseat incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass after his $3 million home burned down last year in the Palisades fire, remains in second place.  Bass will advance to a November runoff, but with so many ballots left outstanding, it remains unclear whether Pratt or progressive LA City Council member Nithya Raman will be her opponent.  Raman had a slight edge compared to Pratt in 60,000 ballots counted on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the New York Times.  Mail-in voters generally trend more Democratic than Republican, which could further dent Pratt's small 7-point lead.  Pratt is a registered Republican, but none of the Los Angeles mayoral candidates are listed by political party due to California's unique rules about jungle primaries.  Meanwhile, in the governor's race, Hilton remains in the top spot, with an estimated 60 percent of the vote counted. Former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, a registered Republican who is running for Los Angeles mayor, speaks to reporters outside his election night event. Days later, it remains unclear if he'll make a runoff against incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass  Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is also playing the waiting game. He leads former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and billionaire Tom Steyer, but with so many outstanding mail-in ballots it's unclear if he'll head to the runoff  Spencer's wife Heidi was seen leaving his watch party at Don Antonio's in Los Angeles, California, after his successful night in the primary polls The London-born former Fox News star has a slight edge over the leading Democrat, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who's about six points ahead of Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer.  Despite this, because of California's large Democratic population - and the fact that more left-leaning voters appeared to vote by mail and vote by mail later in the election process - the race is still expected to be a nail-biter for Hilton.    Mail-in ballots can be counted as long as they were dropped off by 8 p.m. on Election Day.  Additionally, California has a history of taking days to count all those ballots.   President Donald Trump, who lost the 2020 presidential election to President Joe Biden due to the widespread use of mail-in ballots during the COVID-19 pandemic, has long pushed that states should do away with that voting method.  Since Election Day, he's claimed that the Democrats are cheating as the count has continued.  'Watch California, everybody!' the President posted to Truth Social Thursday night. 'Our Election process is as bad, or worse, than any Third World Country. The biggest difference is, they count their Votes much faster - They don’t wait seven days to tell you who won, rigging the Election during each and every one of them.' 'Americans are ashamed of what is happening!' the President added.  Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. Heidi Montag (left) and Spencer Pratt (right) attend an event together in March.  The President used California to push Republican lawmakers to pass the Save America Act, a voting bill that would restrict the use of mail-in ballots and expand voter ID.  Despite Republicans having majorities in both houses, the Save America Act is stuck in the US Senate due to widespread Democratic opposition and several moderate GOP holdouts.  The press office for California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited and thus cannot run for reelection, mused on X Thursday: 'Why do Republicans hate that California counts every vote?'  Hilton has grumbled at the slow pace of the count, calling the process a 'global laughing stock' by pointing out that India is able to count 600 million ballots in one day.  'We're as confident as ever that we will make the top two,' he said in an X post Thursday night.  Pratt has reacted to the wait by posting 'God always wins' Thursday afternoon. His wife, reality TV star Heidi Montag wrote, 'Never give up, never surrender!' Friday morning, though it wasn't entirely clear if she was referring to the LA mayoral election.  Montag hasn't explicitly been backing her husband's campaign on social media, instead writing cryptic posts and advertising her new music.  The day before she had posted simply, 'Croissants are magic.'   The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? 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