Spencer Pratt loses ground to Democrat while Hilton maintains lead in latest California ballot batch drop

Former reality star Spencer Pratt’s lead over Councilwoman Nithya Raman in the Los Angeles mayoral contest narrowed Thursday, while Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton maintained a lead over Democratic candidates Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer.

Following the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, California’s key elections have taken on national significance, serving as critical testing grounds for the future of progressive leadership.

Pratt, a registered Republican, remains behind incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass for a chance to advance to the November general election. Bass has already secured enough votes to advance.

With 163,549 votes in Los Angeles' latest tabulation, Pratt maintains a near 6% lead on Raman, who has 130,473 votes, according to the Thursday vote count from Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and the County Clerk.

A Fox News Digital review of an archived version of Los Angeles' official vote tally shows that Raman gained over 10,000 votes in the latest count compared to under 6,000 for Pratt. At the previous count, Pratt had 157,116 votes compared to Raman's 119,809.

LA CITY COUNCILWOMAN PREVIOUSLY BACKED BY DSA RUNNING FOR MAYOR IN PRIMARY CHALLENGE TO BASS

CALIFORNIA ELECTION RESULTS STILL UNDECIDED AS LOS ANGELES BEGINS COUNTING BALLOTS

In the governor's race, Republican Steve Hilton maintained a slim lead over former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra. Hilton has 1,533,435 votes as of Friday afternoon, according to the California Secretary of State. Becerra is behind with 1,470,100 votes.

Billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer trails both with 1,139,517 votes. 

HILTON, BECERRA IN THE LEAD WITH VOTES STILL BEING COUNTED IN BATTLE FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR

Like the mayoral race, if no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes in the gubernatorial race, the top two candidates will advance to a November runoff.

While California's polls closed on June 2, it could take weeks for results to be final. The state did not have its official final results from the 2024 election until state Secretary of State Shirley Weber certified the election results in December, 38 days later.

A bipartisan bill has since passed in 2025 requiring "non-problematic" votes to be counted within 13 days.

The state leads the nation in mail-in ballots, with 81% of voters sending their choices by post in 2024, nearly double the national average of 43% for 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This report has been updated with statewide vote totals in the California governor's race.