L.A. Mayoral Debate canceled following Raman and Bass’ withdrawal, prompting mockery from Pratt

OAN Staff Brooke Mallory and Jenna Lee
4:29 PM – Tuesday, May 12, 2026

A televised Los Angeles mayoral forum scheduled for Wednesday was officially canceled after far-left Councilmember Nithya Raman followed Mayor Karen Bass’ lead in withdrawing from the event.

The Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA and the League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles confirmed on Monday that the cancellation was necessary once it became clear the major candidates would not be participating.

After Bass withdrew last week, the forum collapsed entirely when Raman followed suit and exited the lineup on Monday. This sequence of departures effectively neutralized the event, as the loss of the two primary contenders rendered the remaining schedule untenable for organizers.

Spencer Pratt, a registered Republican who has leveraged his mayoral campaign to attack the “hypocrisy” of the two incumbents, also ultimately declined to participate on Friday, citing a scheduling conflict. Nonetheless, in what viewers called a “standout performance” that widely exceeded expectations, Pratt garnered significant praise following the most recent televised debate.

“Wow, the moderator asked a simple yes or no question in the LA Mayor’s Debate. Should noncitizens be able to vote in local elections? Spencer Pratt: ‘No.’ Karen Bass: Word salad. Nithya Raman: Word salad,” argued Townhall columnist Dustin Grage, after last week’s debate.

Viewers and political analysts concluded that the former reality TV personality-turned-political hopeful secured an apparent victory as he faced off against the incumbents.

“With only two candidates remaining, the event partners have agreed not to proceed,” read an email sent out by the Institute, which had planned on co-sponsoring the debate with the League of Women Voters.

 

Bass withdrew from the scheduled debate late last week by citing a trip to Sacramento to allegedly secure state funding for homelessness initiatives and recovery efforts in relation to the 2025 Palisades fire. Following Bass’s exit, Raman followed her lead early on Monday, similarly announcing that she would no longer participate.

These successive departures prompted organizers to cancel the televised Los Angeles mayoral forum, leaving only businessman and tech entrepreneur Adam Miller and community activist Rae Huang as the remaining participants from the original roster.

“We’re disappointed that Mayor Bass cancelled her participation in the debate. We welcome opportunities for debates with all the candidates in the future,” Raman’s campaign told the California Post.

 

Expressing her disappointment over the cancellation, Huang took to X on Monday to criticize the last-minute withdrawals. She argued that the candidates’ sudden exits revealed a pattern of slimy behavior, suggesting that they were unwilling to engage with the public unless doing so provided a clear political advantage.

Miller echoed that frustration, writing in an X post: “If you can’t be bothered to show up for a debate, why should voters think you’ll ever show up for them as Mayor?”

Following the news that Bass and Raman had withdrawn from the debate, Pratt also criticized the move as a strategic avoidance of public scrutiny. He argued further that the incumbents were unwilling to defend their records on stage or answer to the public unless it served their political interests.

Scheduled to air live on Fox 11, the debate was anticipated to be the final high-profile forum for the leading mayoral candidates before the June 2^nd primary election.

As the last major opportunity for voters to compare the frontrunners in a broadcast format, the event held significant weight in the closing stages of the campaign.

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