Former reality TV personality Spencer Pratt has emerged as a surprising contender in the Los Angeles mayoral race (a city of nearly four million that has not elected a Republican mayor in 25 years), capitalising on widespread frustration over the city's handling of the January 2025 Palisades Fire, which destroyed more than 13,000 homes and left large swaths of the city unbuilt over a year later. His campaign has been amplified by a wave of AI-generated videos circulating on social media — not officially produced by his campaign but frequently reshared by Pratt — that cast him as a heroic outsider battling a corrupt Democratic establishment, with one depicting him as a Batman-like figure confronting caricatures of Mayor Karen Bass, Governor Gavin Newsom, and former Vice President Kamala Harris. Recent polls show Pratt trailing Bass by anywhere from three to 14 percentage points ahead of the June 2 primary, though his fundraising has vastly outpaced hers, and strategists say the race is already a landmark case study in how artificial intelligence is reshaping political campaigning.