He was a reality show villain. Can he be the mayor of one of America's largest cities?

As one of the stars of MTV's hit show The Hills in the 2000s, Spencer Pratt quickly became one of reality television's favourite villains.

But could the 42-year-old former publicist-turned Celebrity Big Brother contestant soon win himself a new role: mayor of the second largest city in America?

The Republican political outsider has risen in the polls since announcing his intention in January to run to be Los Angeles mayor, and has since become a serious contender.

A new poll released on Thursday found that Pratt was in a tight contest with two Democrats, mayor Karen Bass and city council member Nithya Raman, ahead of Tuesday's primary vote.

The primary is non-partisan, meaning that it pits all candidates against each other, regardless of party. Any candidate who wins 50% or more of the vote will win the election outright. If no-one reaches that threshold, the top two advance to November's general election.

Among the pool of more than three dozen candidates who entered the race, Bass is leading with 26% support from likely voters, Thursday's UC Berkeley-LA Times poll suggested. Meanwhile, Raman had 25% and Pratt had 22%.

Pratt's success as a Republican in such a liberal-leaning city has come after gaining widespread attention on social media through TikTok rants, reposted AI-generated videos that mock his opponents, and head-turning political adverts. His spokesperson has denied rumours that a reality show will produced if he wins the vote.

"We are going to get the golden age of Los Angeles back," Pratt says in one of his campaign adverts: rhetoric that appears to echo the Make America Great Again (Maga) slogan of a certain other reality TV star-turned politician.

Pratt entered the mayoral race a year after he lost his home in the devastating fires in the city in 2025, which were some of the deadliest and most destructive blazes in the area's history. Much of his campaign has centred on the disaster, and he has accused Bass of failing to respond to the crisis.

He has campaigned on a message of fixing a broken Los Angeles, casting the city at times as unsafe and unclean, and advocating mandatory drug treatment to help combat homelessness in the city.

But he has an uphill battle, according to Efrén Pérez, a professor who teaches political psychology at the University of California Los Angeles. The city has not had a Republican mayor since 2001 - a quarter of a century ago.

And Pratt's base and his platform are still rather narrow, Pérez says.

"I'm not saying that there isn't any validity to being a spokesperson for - and potential improver of -