Here is the honest top line before anyone gets ahead of themselves. As of this early update, Los Angeles County has not posted any vote totals for the Los Angeles mayor race. Not one. The official county results feed, checked around 5:16 PM Pacific (7:16 PM Central), shows Spencer Pratt, Karen Ruth Bass, Nithya Raman, and the rest of the mayoral field all sitting at zero votes with zero precincts reported. So if you see numbers floating around, they are not coming from the county. Polls close at 8 PM Pacific, and the first real batch comes after that. The LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk laid out the election-night schedule this way: It’s important to know that counting ballots and reporting results does not end on Election Night. All Vote by Mail ballots cast by Election Day and received within seven (7) days from Election Day will be accepted, processed, and once verified, counted. All Conditional Voter Registration (same-day registration) and Provisional Ballots cast on Election Day are processed and added to the tally once they are cleared. Reporting Results on Election Night First Results 8:30pm – 8:45pm Vote by Mail ballots cast before Election Day Ballots cast at a Vote Center before Election Day Remaining Results: Ballots cast at a Vote Center on Election Day When Vote Centers close, Election Workers will complete their closing procedures and then deliver their ballots to Sheriff’s Deputies at a designated Check-in Center. Sheriff’s Deputies then transport ballots from the Check-in Center to the Ballot Processing Center to be processed and counted. One of the biggest problems that Karen Bass and Nithya Raman have created for young Angelenos is the cost of living. Affordability is crushing us. Here’s my plan to make LA life more affordable for you, and put more $$$ in your pocket. We cannot afford another 4 years of Karen. pic.twitter.com/7ZNipMD7kH — Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) June 2, 2026 The same official feed lists 5,891,851 registered voters countywide and 2,175 precincts countywide. That is the scoreboard before any of the boxes get filled in. Turnout is the part that is already moving. And it is moving up. According to LAist, Los Angeles County had 711,333 processed ballots as of the morning of June 2, about 12% of registered voters, with 95% by mail and 5% in person. That is a heavily vote-by-mail electorate, which matters for how the night unfolds. The county’s own registrar gave a fresher snapshot in the afternoon. Per CBS Los Angeles, Dean Logan said just before 2 PM Pacific that more than 100,000 voters had turned out in person and nearly 1 million vote-by-mail ballots had been returned. Logan also said turnout was running 2 to 3 points ahead of the comparable 2022 gubernatorial primary and could land in the mid-30 percentile range. That points to a serious primary, and people showed up. "I'm winning…outright…there's a tsunami of votes coming from all the people who are done with politics as usual."@spencerpratt says he's going to get over 50% of the vote in L.A.'s Mayor's race tonight & there will be no need for a runoff. "All those people I have they're… pic.twitter.com/OpHjgSZBJi — Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) June 2, 2026 Here is how the results are expected to land once the clock hits 8 PM Pacific. The first batch should include vote-by-mail ballots received before June 2. After that comes early vote-center ballots, and then Election Day in-person votes. That order is why early leads can shift. The first dump is a mail-heavy crowd, and the later piles can look different. Now the part everyone actually wants, which is whether Pratt has a real shot. The polling says this is volatile, not settled. The late UC Berkeley-LA Times poll had Bass at 26%, Raman at 25%, and Pratt at 22%, with a margin of error around 3%. That is not a runaway. That is a three-way knife fight for two runoff slots. FOX 11 reported an Emerson College/Inside California Politics poll from May 9-10 that had Bass at 30%, Pratt at 22%, Raman at 19%, and undecided voters down to 16%. That poll also showed Pratt jumping 12 points from March, which is why tonight has the feel of something bigger than a celebrity vanity run. Cygnal’s May 15-18 survey showed another version of the same trend: Bass at 25%, Pratt at 22%, Raman at 18%, and 19% undecided on the initial ballot. After messaging exposure, Cygnal had Pratt and Bass tied at 25%, Raman at 19%, and undecideds down to 16%. That swing is the whole story. A race with that many movable voters is a race nobody owns yet. The other trend is the mood of the city. Cygnal found 58% of likely nonpartisan primary voters said Los Angeles was on the wrong track, compared with 30% saying it was headed in the right direction. The top issues in that survey were cost of living, homelessness, city corruption, housing affordability, and infrastructure. Those are exactly the lanes Pratt has been trying to hammer. And there is a rule that decides the night. If no candidate clears 50%, the top two finishers advance to a November runoff. In a crowded field with that much undecided, an outright majority is a tall order. The more likely outcome is a fight for those two runoff slots. So watch the order the batches drop, watch whether anyone gets near 50%, and watch the gap between the second and third candidates. Pratt being on the ballot and competitive in a major-city mayor primary is the headline. Whether he banks a runoff slot is the question the next few hours answer. Until the county posts something, the only honest score is zero to zero. We will update as the real numbers come in after polls close. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

The Los Angeles mayoral primary is on the board, and the early picture is exactly the kind of chaos the LA establishment did not want. Republican outsider Spencer Pratt is running close to Democratic incumbent Karen Bass and progressive City Councilmember Nithya Raman, with all three bunched inside the polling margin of error heading into Election Day. No official vote totals exist yet. As of the early evening check, Los Angeles County’s official results page was still in pre-results mode and listed every mayoral candidate at 0 votes and 0.00%. That is normal. The county does not release anything until the first Election Night bulletin drops. I don't even need to make campaign ads anymore. Karen and Nithya just keep making them for me. pic.twitter.com/Ey724YZv51 — Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) May 31, 2026 Here is the setup that has national attention. President Trump has publicly praised Pratt, turning an officially nonpartisan city race into a MAGA-versus-LA-establishment fight. Pratt, a former reality TV figure, is running as an outsider against Bass and Raman. Under California’s top-two system, the two highest vote-getters advance to November unless one candidate clears 50% outright. Nobody is expected to clear 50%. So the real question is which two names survive to the fall. CBS LA put the polling picture in stark terms on Election Day: In what might be her final political campaign for public office, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass looks to secure a second term as her leading opponents, Councilmember Nithya Raman and political newcomer Spencer Pratt, hope to unseat her in June's primary election. In California, only the top two vote-getters, regardless of political affiliation, will advance to the November election unless a single candidate captures more than 50% of the electorate. Leading up to Election Day, the trio appeared deadlocked in a tight battle for voters, with Bass holding a slim 26% lead, Raman close behind at 25% and Pratt at 22%, according to a May 28 UC Berkeley-LA Times poll, which cited a margin of error of around 3%. "I haven't seen a race this close in decades, especially for the city of Los Angeles. Everybody is tied within the margin of error," campaign strategist Luis Alvarado told CBS LA several days before the election. In the two months leading up to the primary, UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs poll found that 40% of likely voters remained undecided, with director Zev Yaroslavsky calling the election "a wide-open race." However, the more recent UC Berkeley-LA Times poll found that a majority of undecided voters have chosen sides, with the undecided share dropping to 10%. A three-point lead with a three-point margin is not a lead. It is a coin flip with three faces. The undecided trend matters too. An earlier UCLA Luskin poll found 40% of likely voters still undecided, while the later UC Berkeley-LA Times poll put the undecided share at 10%. That means most voters had finally picked a side right before the count. In a race this tight, that late movement is the whole ballgame. Now for the part that confuses people watching the official page refresh over and over. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk explained how the results bulletins would roll out: REPORTING ELECTION RESULTS Our commitment to transparency and accountability extends to every facet of the electoral process, and the reporting of results is no exception. It’s important to know that counting ballots and reporting results does not end on Election Night. All Vote by Mail ballots cast by Election Day and received within seven (7) days from Election Day will be accepted, processed, and once verified, counted. All Conditional Voter Registration (same-day registration) and Provisional Ballots cast on Election Day are processed and added to the tally once they are cleared. See the post-Election night results update schedule on the next page. Find Election Results at RESULTS.LAVOTE.GOV. Reporting Results on Election Night First Results8:30pm – 8:45pmVote by Mail ballots cast before Election Day Second Results8:45pm – 9:00pmBallots cast at a Vote Center before Election Day Remaining Results: Ballots cast at a Vote Center on Election Day Process and Timing: When Vote Centers close, Election Workers will complete their closing procedures and then deliver their ballots to Sheriff’s Deputies at a designated Check-in Center. Sheriff’s Deputies then transport ballots from the Check-in Center to the Ballot Processing Center to be processed and counted. All ballots cast at the Vote Center on Election Day will be counted and reported. Once all ballots are counted, we will release the Semi-Final Results. So the first drop is mail ballots cast before Election Day. The second drop is early Vote Center ballots. Election Day in-person ballots land later, after deputies transport them to the processing center. Watch the order. An early mail-heavy lead can shift as same-day ballots and the seven-day mail window get counted. That is why a candidate sitting in third at 9 p.m. is not finished, and a candidate sitting in first is not safe. For Pratt, the math is simple. He does not need to win the first bulletin. He needs to finish in the top two when the count settles. A second-place finish would put a Trump-backed Republican into a November runoff in one of the bluest cities in America. That alone would be a political earthquake for the LA establishment. The official county results page is the place to watch as the bulletins land. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk had the mayoral contest staged this way before the first returns: Statewide Direct Primary ElectionJune 02, 2026 Election StatisticsStatisticCountTotal Registrations5,891,851Total Precincts2,175 Voter TurnoutStatisticCountPercentVoted0.00% Remaining Eligible Voters5,891,851100.00% Ballot DistributionStatisticCountPercentVote by Mail Ballots0.00% Vote Center Ballots0.00% Results as of 05/26/2026 16:54:13. Results are representative of Los Angeles County only. Remember to refresh this page to ensure that you have the latest results. Ballots cast in Vote by Mail precincts are counted in the first bulletin. These tallied Vote by Mail precincts are reflected in the “Precincts Reporting” figure. There are 865 Vote by Mail precincts. The voter registration figure reflects registrations 29 days before the election. Voters who registered after this date will have their vote counted. LOS ANGELES CITY PRIMARY NOMINATING ELECTION Mayor Candidate(s)VotesPercent ADAM MILLER (N)0.00% ANDREJ A. SELIVRA (N)0.00% ANDREW K. KIM (N)0.00% ASAAD ALNAJJAR (N)0.00% BRYANT ACOSTA (N)0.00% JOHN LOGSDON (N)0.00% JUANITA LOPEZ (N)0.00% KAREN RUTH BASS (N)0.00% NELSON CHENG (N)0.00% NITHYA RAMAN (N)0.00% RAE CHEN HUANG (N)0.00% SPENCER PRATT (N)0.00% SUZY KIM (N)0.00% TISH HYMAN (N)0.00% Bottom line for tonight: ignore the first ten minutes of noise, watch whether Pratt holds the top-two line as different ballot types come in, and remember that LA counting runs for days, not hours. If Spencer Pratt is still standing in second when the dust settles, the story stops being a poll and starts being a runoff.

As you most likely know by now, DNI Tulsi Gabbard will be resigning at the end of the month to take care of her husband Abraham as he battles a rare form of bone cancer. It’s just heartbreaking for their family. But, Tulsi remains in a positive spirit. Today, she posted a video message on social media ahead of Abraham’s surgery thanking supporters who are sending prayers and best wishes their way. Watch her video here: Tulsi Gabbard and Abraham Williams have been married for over a decade. They are obviously close and very much in love. Newsweek provided some more background on their relationship: Gabbard and Williams’ paths first crossed while Gabbard was campaigning in 2012 for a Hawaii seat in the House of Representatives. They got married in 2015. Williams, a cinematographer, has largely stayed out of the political spotlight. His diagnosis, however, became central to Gabbard’s decision to leave public service. He appeared beside her in Instagram photos and campaign imagery years before she became the DNI. Williams volunteered as a photographer on her congressional campaign and shot many of the images that helped introduce her to voters. Williams shares Gabbard’s love of the outdoors. The couple bonded over hikes, long walks and even a pickup volleyball game on their first date, but it was their shared connection to the ocean that ultimately brought them closest. They own property in Leander, Texas, according to documents reviewed by Newsweek. Please continue to pray for Abraham as he goes through treatment and Tulsi as she supports him through all this. May he recover fully and swiftly! What are your thoughts? This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

In the wake of reports about a contentious phone call between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even some of the US president’s most ardent critics are acknowledging that he seems to be on the right track. Trump reportedly took issue with Netanyahu’s strategy of escalating the war in Lebanon, and longtime Democratic strategist David Axelrod was among those who credited him for intervening in a potentially positive way. The Hill provided this report: Two U.S. officials and a third source briefed on the call told Axios that Trump referred to Netanyahu as “crazy” and yelled, “What the f— are you doing?” during the call. When asked about the reported conversation by CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront,” Axelrod said, “It doesn’t sound like a very friendly call.” “Look, I think that the president — his analysis is not wrong. I think — you know — Bibi Netanyahu has done tremendous damage, in my view, to Israel and to Israel’s standing in the world. And, this war — I think what Trump’s really mad about, if you believe the reporting in The New York Times on this … Bibi had a lot to do with talking the president into thinking this was a good idea, and that’s what he’s really mad about.” “What he’s mad about is Bibi has created a huge political problem for him, because the economy is the thing that is on the minds of Americans, and he has made it worse,” Axelrod added. The call between the two world leaders sparked plenty of headlines and social media chatter this week: Trump straight-up telling Netanyahu, “I’m saving your ass, the world hates Israel because of this,” and “What the f*** are you doing?” — that’s the America First leadership we elected. No more letting allies drag us into their wars, screw up our diplomacy, and make America look… — The Ugly Patriot (@the_uglypatriot) June 2, 2026 Trump went Nicky Santoro on Netanyahu pic.twitter.com/W96VVZK6yX — Kevin Smith FBA (@kevinDAtruth88) June 2, 2026 Of course, plenty of people were skeptical of the official media narrative: Axios claims Trump called Netanyahu today, told him to stand down in Lebanon, and cursed him out: “You’re f*cking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel.” File this under things that never happened. pic.twitter.com/SCS12u0fjh — Power to the People ☭ (@ProudSocialist) June 2, 2026 In any case, Trump insists the stage is still set for talks to continue in the region, per Fox News: President Donald Trump denied reports that the U.S. and Iran are no longer engaged in peace talks on Tuesday. Trump, writing on his Truth Social account, saying conversations with Iran continued through the weekend and into this week. “Fake News Reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the U.S.A., stopped speaking a few days ago are false and erroneous. The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today,” Trump wrote. “Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ‘It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal. You’ve been doing this for 47 years, and it cannot be allowed to go on any longer!’” he added. Here’s some additional commentary on the situation: What are your thoughts? This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

Florida lawmakers on Tuesday approved a property tax overhaul proposal backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, sending a constitutional amendment to the November ballot which aims to dramatically expand homestead exemptions. “If passed, it would raise the state’s $50,000 homestead exemption to $250,000 over two years,” Axios stated. “On a 30-9 vote the @FLSenate has placed a property tax phase out plan on the November ballot,” ActionNewsJax reporter Jake Stofan said. Stofan listed these highlights: 1st year- $150K homestead exemption 2nd year- $250K exemption Beyond- Legislature will set schedule to full elimination. “Legislature pulled school property tax out of the equation and removed the state trust fund @GovRonDeSantis has pitched to backfill local budgets,” Stofan noted. “House approved the measure earlier on a 75-26 vote,” he added. On a 30-9 vote the @FLSenate has placed a property tax phase out plan on the November ballot. Highlights: 1st year- $150K homestead exemption2nd year- $250K exemptionBeyond- Legislature will set schedule to full elimination. Some changes: Legislature pulled school property… — Jake Stofan (@JakeStofan) June 2, 2026 Axios has more: Lawmakers left property taxes levied by school districts intact and imposed a five-year waiting period before people who relocate to Florida after Dec. 31 can receive the tax benefit. They also scrapped a state fund proposed by the governor that would have helped local governments pay for “core” services. The amendment could cost local governments upward of $4 billion in fiscal year 2027-28 and more than $8 billion in 2028-29. Local governments would also face restrictions on how they can spend the remaining property tax revenue, limiting it to areas such as public safety, education, infrastructure and debt obligations. Florida voters will have the final say in November, with the constitutional amendment needing at least 60 percent support to pass. Florida voters in November will get the chance to make the Sunshine State the first in the nation to end property taxes. https://t.co/g6qIlCuwLo — The Washington Times (@WashTimes) June 2, 2026 CBS News shared further: Supporters argued the measure gives homeowners relief from rising property tax bills and allows voters to decide whether local governments should receive less revenue. Opponents warned the proposal could force cities and counties to cut services or shift costs to businesses, renters and owners of non-homesteaded properties. Some lawmakers also expressed concerns about the speed of the process and the potential long-term impact on local governments. Rep. Allison Tant, D-Tallahassee, said the change will result in cities and counties cutting back or consolidating public safety and other services. “They’re worried about loss of autonomy, independence, and losing their identity,” Tant said. “They are worried about becoming wards of the state and essentially be treated like welfare recipients.” For the second day, Democrats unsuccessfully tried to amend the bill to allow water management districts use property tax revenue, to use state dollars to cover lost revenue for senior programs, law enforcement, corrections and veterans services, and to prohibit the use of public money to advertise the ballot initiative. The measure would also lower the cap on annual assessment increases for non-homestead properties, which include vacation and investment homes and commercial properties, from 10 percent to 5 percent. Starting after Jan. 1, 2027, first-time homeowners would have to display five years of residency to qualify for the new super exemption. Until they qualify, they would receive the current exemption that lifts local government and school district taxes on the first $25,000 of the appraised values of their primary properties and from non-school taxes on the value between $50,000 and $75,000.