Spencer Pratt’s independent bid to make the Los Angeles mayoral runoff hangs in the balance nearly a week after Election Day.

With the jungle primary leaving incumbent Democrat Mayor Karen Bass already ruled to have advanced to a November runoff, Pratt’s margin over Democrat City Councilmember Nithya Raman has slimmed to just 1% with a few thousand ballots left to make up the difference.

Pratt led Raman by just 7,494 votes in the latest AP elections tally with 78% of the vote counted to date. Bass remained in first place with 235,180 votes (34.8%), while Pratt had 184,596 votes (27.3%) and Raman had 177,102 votes (26.2%).

Los Angeles County continues to count ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received by Tuesday, June 9, drawing the attention of the Republican National Committee. The election results must only be counted within 30 days and certified by July 10.

CALIFORNIA’S SLUGGISH VOTE COUNTING RIPPED ACROSS THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM: ‘EXTREMELY EMBARRASSING’

«The California primary ended on June 2, 2026; yet California is still counting ballots,» the RNC website tracker counting the seconds since polls closed reads.

«The state’s election system is a complete joke. The RNC is tracking every hour it takes California to finish the count.»

The latest ballot update gave Raman another boost, as she picked up 23,514 votes in the latest batch, more than double Pratt’s 10,336-vote gain. That cut Pratt’s lead by 13,178 votes in a single day and pushed the contest for second place into uncertain territory.

Pratt posted a meme to X decrying the ongoing ballot count in the race.

«Me trying to figure out how votes get counted in LA,» he wrote Saturday night.

Los Angeles Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt had become a viral sensation with his campaign ads, but pundits now expect his upstart campaign to unseat a Democrat mayor is going to come to an end. (Highfive/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Under California’s top-two primary system, if no candidate wins more than 50% of the votes, the two highest vote-getters advance to the general election. The AP reported that Bass advanced to the runoff after finishing first in the crowded mayoral primary, while Pratt and Raman continued battling for the remaining November spot.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., pointed to California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom when discussing the delayed results.

«The question to the rest of the world is what happened to California elections? Well, I’ll tell you, it’s Gavin Newsom,» McCarthy told Fox News’ «Sunday Morning Futures.» «When Gavin Newsom was elected governor of California, you knew who was elected in a day to two days. Now it takes more than weeks, almost a month.»

«Why did we get here?» McCarthy continued. «Gavin changed a number of election laws in which you want to see is what did he do and why did he cause it?»

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The slow count has drawn heightened attention because later-counted ballots have steadily cut into Pratt’s lead.

Longtime Democrat strategist Michael Trujillo told The California Post on Saturday that the trend pointed to a likely runoff appearance for Raman, calling the late ballot counting «normal» for California and telling critics to «go back to where you came from.»

«I was always a little jealous of east coast elections getting so much attention in the media and on this app, yeah nevermind,» he wrote on X. «The stupidity from these out of state analysts and reporters and the bots and fake accounts it brings to what is really a very NORMAL process happening in Los Angeles and California is annoying.

«Go back to where you came from, thanks.»

Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman might wind up No. 2 to fellow Democrat Mayor Karen Bass and advance to the November runoff. (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

SPENCER PRATT SEIZES ON HOMELESSNESS REMARKS BY KAREN BASS, BLASTS DEMOCRAT FOR FAILURES

Conservatives on X are decrying the probability of Pratt being shut out of the runoff.

«Spencer Pratt is likely going to be overtaken by far left Nithya Raman today,» Robby Starbuck wrote on X. «This graph shows the count on Election Day through last night. «Nithya did this by suddenly winning 1st in every new ballot drop.

«North Korean ‘elections’ have more self respect. Even they’d find it absurd for 3rd to suddenly jump to 1st place in every ballot drop DAYS after an election. It’s just ludicrous.»

That post also brought the attention of X owner Elon Musk.

«The reason ID is banned in California (and New York) elections is to enable large-scale fraud,» Musk claimed on X, replying to Starbuck’s post. «When you combine no ID and mail-in voting, fraud is de facto legalized.»

SCOTUS CONSERVATIVES SIGNAL READINESS TO CURB LATE-ARRIVING MAIL BALLOTS

Starbuck noted the historic run Raman’s count has made.

«ChatGPT can’t find a single example of a 3rd place candidate surging, days AFTER Election Day, to overtake 2nd place,» he wrote Sunday morning. «It couldn’t find 1 example in all of American history. That’s what’s happening with Nithya Raman & Spencer Pratt.

«Los Angeles has 3rd world country elections.»

Democrats merely point back to an overwhelming edge in registered Democrat voters versus Republicans, even if Pratt is running as an independent.

«IF SOMETHING CAN BE EXPLAINED BY A CONVOLUTED CONSPIRACY THEORY—OR SIMPLE MATH—THEN MATH ALWAYS WINS,» Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., wrote on X. «LA Registered Voters. Approximate number of Dems: 1,224,737 Approximate number of Republicans: 326,292.»

RNC RAILS AGAINST CALIFORNIA’S LATE MAIL-IN BALLOT COUNTING AMID NATIONAL LITIGATION: ‘IT IS ABSURD’

Americans «want to see election integrity,» McCarthy told host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday.

«They want to see transparency and they want to see timely reporting: We had that in California,» McCarthy, a former Republican House member in the deep-blue state, said. «We were very liberal in the rules about absentee ballots, but we had accountability.»

«We had cut off voter registration 30 days before the election. That helps the registrars to know who’s going to vote and the candidates,» he continued. «Now we have same day voter, and you don’t have to show ID. Gavin changed the rules where he mails ballots to everyone. So he took away the choice to Californians to vote in person or to vote absentee. Everybody gets mailed a ballot. But he didn’t clean up the rolls. So that raises doubt in people’s minds.»

McCarthy noted Raman’s Election Night disappointment was originally telling.

«When you look at the LA mayor’s race, the third place person gave it like a concession speech that night and cried, and she was getting the most votes in the last drop,» McCarthy said. «So if she didn’t even believe that she could move up, that puts in question to the whole election itself. And that’s why it brings doubt to people.»

President Donald Trump had weighed in, too, with the RNC pointing to the pending Watson v. RNC Supreme Court decision on late ballot counting due soon.

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The Watson decision might come before the end of June.

«.@POTUS is right,» the RNC’s Election Integrity unit posted on X. «That’s why the RNC has boots on the ground and is fighting in the Supreme Court to stop ballots received after Election Day from being counted. MAKE ELECTIONS SECURE AGAIN!»

A suspected Hamas terrorist, reportedly granted asylum a year from the Gaza war, was arrested by Greek police for allegedly plotting an attack on an Israeli cruise line.

The Gaza man, 37, was arrested on the Greek island of Crete on Sunday for his alleged ties to one of four suspected Hamas terrorists previously arrested in Cyprus, having traveled with him to Malaysia, where they allegedly received training in making explosives from commercially available chemical agents.

The Israeli cruise ship MS Crown Iris was the believed target of the attack before it was scheduled to arrive in Crete on Tuesday. Police did not publicly identify the man or name a target in their initial statement.

Searches in homes in both Crete and the Greek capital, Athens, turned up a number of mobile phones, a laptop, external hard drives and bank cards, The Associated Press reported.

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The suspect, an electrician who has been reportedly living in Crete for the past year and working at a hotel there after being granted asylum, will appear before a magistrate later Sunday.

The suspected terrorist had placed an online order for what police said were «chemical agents» that could be used in the manufacture of explosives, according to the report.

State broadcaster ERT, cited by Israeli and Greek media, reported that police also found laboratory equipment.

TWO CONVICTED OF TERRORISM IN DENMARK FOR GRENADE ATTACK NEAR ISRAELI EMBASSY

The case appears to be part of a broader regional counterterrorism probe. Cypriot authorities arrested two Palestinians on May 22 after intelligence led investigators to materials in two residences that police said could be used to manufacture explosives. Two more Palestinian men were detained May 29 as part of the same investigation, according to Greek police.

The Crown Iris has become a recurring flashpoint at Greek ports amid anger over the war in Gaza. Protesters gathered near the ship when it docked in Piraeus on Wednesday, June 3, and demonstrations against the vessel have followed it at Greek ports since last year.

Protesters allege that Mano Maritime, the owner of the MS Crown Iris, is profiting from the Hamas-Israel war by selling tourist services to Israel Defense Forces soldiers during breaks from active duty.

In July 2025, Greek police used tear gas and made arrests as demonstrators tried to block the ship at Agios Nikolaos on Crete.

Greek security forces were forced to protect Israeli tourists traveling on buses to board the Israeli-owned cruise ship MS Crown Iris at the port of Piraeus in Athens on June 3, 2026. (Aggelos Nakkas/AFP)

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The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have not announced formal charges against the suspect.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital ahead of Tuesday’s South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary that President Donald Trump’s endorsement has done little to boost her opponent’s standing with conservative voters, arguing that many grassroots Republicans are «very upset» with the decision.

«It’s not going over well for her with the grassroots, which is why she didn’t get much of a bump,« Mace said. «She got maybe a five point bump — not much.»

«And she’s going to be in a runoff and I think at that point all bets are off.»

Mace was referring to South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, whom Trump endorsed last week, as Mace and Trump have publicly broken in recent months.

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«It’s a dog fight,» Mace said. «We’re in it and I’m gonna fight to the death.»

Mace shared that she wasn’t shocked when Trump chose not to endorse her because of her vote in Congress to push for the release of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

«I knew it was on the line when I voted to release the Epstein files, and I’m a survivor,» Mace said. «If the price to pay for an endorsement was to not release those files, I would never pay it.»

Mace was one of four Republicans to sign a petition last year to force a vote in the House on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, legislation that urged the Department of Justice to publish all its information on its probe into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell — millions of documents.

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Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell pictured in 2005. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images)

Trump’s endorsement in the Republican primary was also in favor of South Carolina’s current term-limited governor, Henry McMaster, who has also endorsed Evette as his potential successor. Trump wrote that he expected Evette would choose the current governor’s son, Henry McMaster Jr., as her lieutenant governor.

«Pam Evette is a good friend, fighter, and WINNER, and will be a terrific Governor of South Carolina,» the president posted. «Pam has my Complete and Total Endorsement — SHE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!»

Trump’s endorsement came days before the June 9 primary and as early voting was getting underway in South Carolina.

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President Donald Trump signs an executive order directing a customs crackdown amid trade gaps in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. (Photographer: Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Tuesday’s crowded Republican primary field includes Evette, Attorney General Alan Wilson, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., businessman Rom Reddy and Mace. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff — a situation Mace predicted could reshape the race despite Trump’s backing of Evette.

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«I disagree with this endorsement,» Mace said. «And I’m going to vote for myself. I’m asking voters in South Carolina to vote for me as well on Tuesday.«