{"id":2480216,"date":"2026-06-29T10:59:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T10:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2480216"},"modified":"2026-06-29T10:59:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T10:59:25","slug":"spencer-pratt-in-los-angeles-spearheads-wave-of-reality-stars-running-for-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/spencer-pratt-in-los-angeles-spearheads-wave-of-reality-stars-running-for-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer Pratt in Los Angeles spearheads wave of reality stars running for office \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n        <iframe id=\"instaread_iframe\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Audio Article\" style=\"display:block\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n    <\/p>\n<p>A new wave of celebrities are appearing on ballots across the country, showing just how far a famous face can carry a candidate to office with no political experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bSpencer Pratt, a reality television personality, is in <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/data-nerds\/5909321-spencer-pratt-karen-bass-los-angeles-mayoral-race-maine-iowa-midterms-live-discussion\/\">second place<\/a> in the Los Angeles mayor\u2019s race.<\/p>\n<p>Another reality television star, Luke Gulbranson, has announced his run for a U.S. House seat in Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Paul \u201cThe Situation\u201d Sorrentino, a star from MTV\u2019s \u201cJersey Shore,\u201d has also mulled a run for New Jersey governor in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bThen, of course, there\u2019s the most famous face of all: President Trump, whose political star rose after he starred on the highly rated reality show \u201cThe Apprentice,\u201d where each week he fired a contestant.<\/p>\n<p>The second Trump administration even features several television alums, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who was a former MTV reality show star; Dr. Mehmet Oz, an Oprah Winfrey regular who for years hosted \u201cThe Dr. Oz Show\u201d; and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who endured body slams and more on WWE\u2019s wrestling programming.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bRichard Longoria, an associate professor of political science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, said name recognition carries these candidates far.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cName recognition is a very big deal; it\u2019s an important predictor of who\u2019s going to win,\u201d\u00a0said Longoria, who authored \u201cCelebrities in American Elections: Case Studies in Celebrity Politics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenerally speaking, we find over and over again candidates with more name recognition are more likely to win, so that, of course, is very beneficial to celebrities. They\u2019re well known, so this gives them some advantages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u200bAt the same time, he said that the \u201cnormal laws of politics\u201d still apply to these candidates.<\/p>\n<p>\u200b\u201cFundraising matters; it\u2019s still very difficult for them to beat an incumbent,\u201d he said, adding that in his research, he\u2019s found that celebrities aren\u2019t very good at capturing donors.<\/p>\n<p>\u200b\u201cTypically, big money donors, people that are typically involved with campaigns financially, they\u2019re not looking for outsiders, so this is actually not conducive to them doing well with fundraising,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bLike any other candidate, the TV celebrity candidate needs to have something that resonates with voters.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bPratt, a former star of \u201cThe Hills,\u201d announced he was running in January as a Republican candidate for LA mayor after he lost his home in the 2025 wildfires. He criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D)\u00a0and Democratic LA mayor Karen Bass, saying officials \u201clet us burn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In advertisements, Pratt used AI to deliver eye-catching videos that showed Bass in makeup like the Batman villain \u201cThe Joker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pratt has also shared frustrations about the city\u2019s homelessness and drug issues in a way that has connected him to voters.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bThe Associated Press showed Pratt in second place Friday afternoon, with 29.4 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n<p>\u200b\u201cI actually think the reason he caught on here in Los Angeles is because people are just not seeing progress as quickly as they would want, and the reasons why it\u2019s not happening fast are boring and convoluted,\u201d said Jordan C. Brown, a Democratic political strategist.<\/p>\n<p>Brown said people are \u201cdesperate to try something else\u201d in order to see changes in their communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bGulbranson is trying to make his jump from the show \u201cSummer House\u201d to the U.S. House as a Democratic candidate in Minnesota. He announced his campaign in April for the state\u2019s 8th Congressional District to challenge the Republican incumbent, Rep. Pete Stauber.<\/p>\n<p>\u200b\u201cIt\u2019s time for Congress to work for the people again \u2013 not special interests, not party politics, and not the president,\u201d he wrote in a post on Instagram that cited rising gas and groceries prices, problems with healthcare, and loss of jobs in Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bSorrentino told News12 that he has his sights set on the governor\u2019s seat in New Jersey in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>\u200b\u201cI\u2019d like to save lives for the next three to five years with Archangels Centers,\u201d he said of the treatment facilities he co-founded. \u201cI\u2019d like to have an Archangel Center in every 50 states, and after that, you know, I will introduce everybody to Governor Situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u200bHe said he couldn\u2019t say which party he\u2019d run under yet but that \u201cthe residents of New Jersey would like no property tax.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u200bDr. Heavenly Kimes, the star of the show \u201cMarried to Medicine,\u201d recently conceded after losing the Democratic primary last month for the House seat that represents Georgia\u2019s 13th Congressional District.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bWell before Trump, there was a \u00a0precedent to these candidacies in all levels of politics.<\/p>\n<p>The pop star Sonny Bono went from singing to mayor of Palm Springs, Calif., and then served as a member of the U.S. House.<\/p>\n<p>Arnold Schwarzenegger went from acting to the governor\u2019s office in California, while former President Reagan was a professional actor for decades before he jumped into politics.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bElaine Kamarck,\u00a0senior fellow in governance studies and the director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution, said these celebrities need to actually like politics and government to be successful.<\/p>\n<p>\u200b\u201cIf they follow it, they want to know stuff about it, they have some ideas, they want to make it better from one perspective or another,\u201d she said<\/p>\n<p>\u200bKamarck pointed to Reagan serving as president of the Screen Actors Guild and Trump\u2019s consistent interest in politics as two examples of celebrities who had dabbled in politics and leadership before running for office.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bStill, some feel fewer celebrities should be running for office \u2014 or at least must have a good reason to jump into the race.<\/p>\n<p>\u200b\u201cI don\u2019t think that we ought to give credence to someone\u2019s aspiration to run the country unless they can credibly demonstrate both the skills that they have, as well as the strong ideas that they have. It\u2019s I think a reflection of the superficial conversations and culture that permeates so much of what ought to be a much more serious criteria,\u201d said Brett Bruen, a former diplomat and National Security Council official under the Obama administration who now runs the firm Global Situation Room.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bBrown said he has had celebrities approach him about a potential political run, and the first question he asks them is, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u200b\u201cIf they don\u2019t have a really, really good answer, I\u2019m like, you shouldn\u2019t run,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI just think there\u2019s never really a campaign that works without a really tight answer to that question.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source thehill.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new wave of celebrities are appearing on ballots across the country, showing just how far a famous face can carry a candidate to office with no political experience. \u200bSpencer Pratt, a reality television personality, is in second place in the Los Angeles mayor\u2019s race. Another reality television star, Luke Gulbranson, has announced his run [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2480217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2480216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Spencer-Pratt-in-Los-Angeles-spearheads-wave-of-reality-stars.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2480216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2480218,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480216\/revisions\/2480218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2480217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2480216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2480216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2480216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}