--- title: These Strange A.I. Videos Boosted Spencer Pratt's Campaign—and May Be the Future of Politics description: Pratt's insurgent campaign for L.A. mayor promoted provocative videos made by fans that helped spread his message. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/06/04/-these-strange-a-i-videos-boosted-spencer-pratt-s-campaign-and-may-be-the-future-of-politics-/ author: Rebecca Schneid article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-06-03T20:47:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-06-05T14:55:42.511Z article:section: Politics og:title: These Strange A.I. Videos Boosted Spencer Pratt's Campaign—and May Be the Future of Politics og:description: Pratt's insurgent campaign for L.A. mayor promoted provocative videos made by fans that helped spread his message. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/06/04/-these-strange-a-i-videos-boosted-spencer-pratt-s-campaign-and-may-be-the-future-of-politics-/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt538da64ca725760c/6a2093b4b60cee94433f42c6/GettyImages-2278837697.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GettyImages-2278837697.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Strange A.I. Videos Boosted Spencer Pratt's Campaign—and May Be the Future of Politics twitter:description: Pratt's insurgent campaign for L.A. mayor promoted provocative videos made by fans that helped spread his message. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt538da64ca725760c/6a2093b4b60cee94433f42c6/GettyImages-2278837697.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Strange A.I. Videos Boosted Spencer Pratt's Campaign—and May Be the Future of Politics ## Video: How Spencer Pratt became an unlikely contender for L.A. mayor [Watch (HLS stream): How Spencer Pratt became an unlikely contender for L.A. mayor](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GYipqgim.m3u8) (1:18)  _Published 2026-05-28. Need a temp check on just how angry votes are right now? Look to California, where former reality show villain Spencer Pratt is actually within striking distance of winning a nomination for Mayor of Los Angeles. In his version of this very-online script, he’s the hero coming to save the day—literally, replete with a Batman-styled cape in one viral video and Luke Skywalker-caliber sword skills in another. In one of those only-in-politics moments, the MAGAverse is rallying behind Pratt, a 42-year-old registered Republican, in hopes he can be the next Mayor of the nation’s second-largest city, a kind of West Coast counterpoint to Zohran Mamdani in New York. Yet their cheering may instead help seal the re-election of the deeply unpopular incumbent, Karen Bass._  by [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/)  ## Rebecca Schneid Reporter Jun 3, 2026 8:47 PM UTC  Los Angeles Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt is seen speaking with the media outside Don Antonio's restaurant on June 02, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. California held its primary elections on June 2nd, which includes the primary for Mayor of Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt is seen speaking with the media outside Don Antonio's restaurant on June 02, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. California held its primary elections on June 2nd, which includes the primary for Mayor of Los Angeles.HIGHFIVE—Bauer-Griffin—GC Images  by [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/)  ## Rebecca Schneid Reporter Jun 3, 2026 8:47 PM UTC While Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass drew enough votes in Tuesday’s primary to advance to a runoff, first-time candidate [Spencer Pratt](https://time.com/article/2026/05/21/spencer-pratt-trump-los-angeles-mayor-endorsement/) was still duking it out with City Councilmember Nithya Raman on Thursday for the second spot on the Nov. 3 ballot. Whether Pratt makes it to the runoff or not, his insurgent bid may mark a sea change in political campaigns, largely around how he and his supporters employed provocative, and often effective, [AI ads](https://time.com/7331883/how-ai-will-transform-democracy/) to spread his message. **Read More:** [How AI Could Drive the 2026 Midterm Elections](https://time.com/7321098/ai-2026-midterm-elections/) Pratt, a Republican, was once a reality star villain—gracing televisions in MTV’s _The Hills_ in the 2000s and eventually competing in the British version of _Celebrity Big Brother_ twice with his wife, Heidi Montag. He launched his bid for mayor earlier this year with no prior political experience. The 42-year-old’s improbable campaign gained traction on social media in part through AI ads created by supporters and promoted by Pratt, who has more than a million followers on X. In one particularly viral video, Pratt is depicted as Batman fighting crime in a Gotham-esque dystopian L.A.—with Bass as the Joker in white face paint. It has more than 5 million views on X. > [](https://twitter.com/charliebcurran/status/2051647381981290697) In another video, four women huddle after a pilates class. One by one, they confess to each other they are voting for Pratt. That video has been seen nearly 2 million times on X. > [](https://twitter.com/dsonoiki/status/2056032010859409544) There were plenty of other pro-Pratt videos, including one based on A Christmas Carol, and another featuring Pratt as a lightsaber-wielding Jedi battling Bass as Darth Vader. “The beauty of these videos is that they take a narrative and they turn it into a very snackable, digestible story,” Karen North, professor of communication at USC Annenberg in Los Angeles, tells TIME. “You can take his rhetoric, and you turn it into a trope that is so familiar and so easy to understand—the good versus evil, or Batman versus the Joker and people really do,in a glance, understand his message.” North argues that Pratt’s meteoric rise is not _because_ of these AI videos, but rather the effective way in which he criticized the city’s handling of last year’s [Palisades fires](https://time.com/7205487/california-wildfire-palisades-fire-photos/), in which Pratt’s house was one of many that burned down. His storytelling, she says, has allowed him to express his clear message about how he believes L.A.'s leadership failed him, and the city as a whole. “You can only imagine when you look at the voters, how angry a lot of people are out here,” she says, referencing the Los Angeles [fires](https://time.com/7206723/california-wildfire-victims-palisades-eaton/) and the aftermath. The appeal for using this kind of AI for political messaging is, in part, because it is much cheaper than traditional advertisements, North says, but also because there is a belief that some social media sites may be artificially boosting AI content. “Things that are created by AI are suspected to have a boost on some of these platforms, like TikTok and the places where a lot of this Spencer Pratt content is getting a lot of visibility,” she continued. “So you have something created mechanically that's then recognized by another mechanical tool to promote it.” President Donald Trump—who [endorsed Pratt](https://time.com/article/2026/05/21/spencer-pratt-trump-los-angeles-mayor-endorsement/) and said he’d “likes to see him do well”—has also [embraced](https://time.com/7327317/trump-ai-video-political-weapon/) AI images and videos, often reposting them on his Truth Social account. Last year, TIME spoke with experts who warned that Trump’s use of AI-generated videos could usher in a new era of political messaging—especially when candidates try to reach Gen Z voters. “It’s part of this larger conversation around where the Gen Z voters see themselves,” Cayce Myers, professor of communication at Virginia Tech, told [TIME](https://time.com/7327317/trump-ai-video-political-weapon/). “ Gen Z is very different from older generations, and they also seem to have a greater appetite for that kind of commentary, that kind of visual commentary.” He and other experts also see this moment as indicative of how the strategies once relegated to websites like Reddit have drifted into the political sphere: “I think that we’re in a political space where the appetite for political content that would in previous generations be seen as distasteful is now palatable,” he said. ## Super PACs deploying AI ads across the country The L.A. mayoral race is far from the only race being infiltrated by artificial intelligence. In last month’s heated Republican primary between U.S. Rep. [Thomas Massie](https://time.com/article/2026/05/18/kentucky-thomas-massie-trump-revenge-epstein-files/) and Ed Gallrein in northern Kentucky, both sides decried the surge in AI-generated ads from super PACS. In one of these ads, Massie, a prominent Trump critic who [lost the primary,](https://time.com/article/2026/05/19/massie-trump-kentucky-house-republican-primary-gallrein/) was accused of “cheating on the America First” movement and being in a “throuple” with Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. The ad included an AI-generated depiction of Massie escorting the two women into a room. Massie has said he believes older voters’ susceptibility to such AI videos played a role in his loss. “There were a lot of misinformed, uninformed voters,” Massie [said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgmyPcafYX4) on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last week. "It was actually very effective on the Boomers." 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