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Hilton loses lead in governor’s race, Pratt’s hold on 2nd place collapsing as vote counting rolls on

June 6, 2026 | | Print Article

Updates in California’s election results skewed against Republicans advancing were deemed “third world country stuff” as observers suggested, “You are witnessing a hoax in real time.”

Days after voters turned out for the state’s jungle primary, the top two finishers for the gubernatorial race and the Los Angeles mayoral election remained unknown. What was known was that the prospects for Steve Hilton heading to Sacramento and Spencer Pratt leading City Hall were looking bleaker by the minute as unfavorable ballot drops threatened to bump them from the podium.

After more than 50% of the vote had been tallied in the hours after polls closed Tuesday, Hilton was ahead of former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, while Pratt sat in a comfortable second behind incumbent LA Mayor Karen Bass (D).

By Friday, Becerra had overtaken Hilton and was projected to advance to the November election, while the conservative commentator’s future remained in question as Democratic Socialists of America-backed billionaire Tom Steyer crept closer to second place.

Similarly, highly favorable batches of ballots suggested DSA Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman had the potential to overtake Pratt for second place in the mayoral election, with betting markets giving her a 95% chance of doing just that.

HuffPost’s Yashar Ali broke down numbers in the mayoral race, showing out of nearly 60,000 votes in a recent ballot batch, Raman had almost 39% of the vote compared to Bass with 34% and Pratt at less than 18%. “Pratt’s lead over Raman now stands at 20,672 votes, down from 33,076 before this update.”

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Likewise, OutKick writer Ian Miller shared figures with the percentages and shrinking gap, expressing, “Pretty hard to see how he advances now, so LA will be choosing between two far-left failures. Good stuff.”

Reacting to that post, conservative filmmaker Robby Starbuck argued, “The math here defies reasonable logic. I see no reasonable way the 3rd place candidate suddenly starts beating #1 and #2 4 days after the election. This is third would country stuff we’re watching.”

As had been reported in the wake of election night, Pratt’s second-place position leading Raman by roughly 10% had left him feeling “very confident that I’m gonna continue to work hard, learn everything I need to learn, build my teams, show all the experience I’m gonna surround myself with cause that’s a concern people have. We have five months to put the best team the city could ever dream of around me.”

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On the gubernatorial side, Hilton’s initial first-place position found him promising “Change is coming to California, and it’s long overdue.”

Speaking with the California Post, political strategist Michael Trujillo argued, “Barring some mathematical surprise, today’s results suggest that Nithya Raman is likely headed to the runoff.”

“The larger question people should start asking is whether Los Angeles wants a Democratic Socialists of America-backed controller, city attorney and mayor. Is the city ready for that level of influence from a single political movement?” he added.

Friday, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli suggested a different question was paramount as he had announced multiple investigations were underway to ensure voter fraud was not at play in the once-Golden State.

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Meanwhile, One American News Network host David Pollack warned of a likely narrative to come from the left as results shifted in favor of an all Democrat general election and said, “You’re going to hear a lot of liberals in the media tell you that mail in ballots favor democrats so this is totally normal…but is it totally normal for mail in ballots that come in after Election Day to overwhelmingly favor the third place candidate that didn’t perform nearly this well until after the Republican beat her?

“You are witnessing a hoax in real time,” he added. “Trust your gut. Ignore the left wing narrative.”

Kevin Haggerty
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