Spencer Pratt wasn’t supposed to get this far.
A reality television star with no traditional political background forcing a runoff in one of the bluest cities in America should make every political consultant in the country stop and ask the same question: What are voters trying to tell us?
The answer is obvious. They’re tired of being told not to believe what they see with their own eyes.
For Democrats, Los Angeles should be a five-alarm warning. Simply having a “D” next to your name is no longer enough, not even in cities where Democrats have dominated for decades.
For years, too many big-city politicians have governed as if reelection were guaranteed. They’ve enjoyed the perks of power while residents have been left dealing with the consequences. Living amongst the homelessness crisis and open drug use, rising concerns about crime, animals suffering in heartbreaking conditions, and neighborhoods that feel like they are moving in the wrong direction.
But what has angered voters the most isn’t just that these problems exist. It’s that, too often, the people in charge seem more interested in explaining them away than in fixing them.
That’s where Pratt found an opening.
His campaign made a connection with the people because before promising solutions, he did something many politicians refuse to do: He admitted there was a problem. He didn’t tell frustrated residents their concerns were exaggerated or that everything was fine. He met them where they were.
Critics immediately attacked him for having “no political experience,” but that argument doesn’t hit the same way it used to. When voters are unhappy with the results delivered by career politicians, telling them someone has spent decades inside the same system they’re frustrated with isn’t exactly the winning message people think it is.
Experience matters, but results matter more.
And Republicans should not watch what happened in Los Angeles and learn the wrong lesson. This is not proof that voter frustration automatically translates into Republican victories. It doesn’t.
The same message applies to the Right: You have to earn votes.
A Trump endorsement remains the most powerful force in Republican politics, but it is not a campaign strategy by itself. Candidates cannot simply put “endorsed by President Trump” on a mailer, avoid the hard conversations, and expect voters to show up — especially not right now.
Americans are struggling. They are worried about grocery and gas prices, housing costs, and whether the American dream is slipping further out of reach. They are watching billions spent on conflicts overseas while wondering why life feels more expensive at home.
Voters want to know that the person asking for their vote understands what they are living through.
Trump’s political rise was built on recognizing something the establishment missed: millions of Americans felt ignored, talked down to, and forgotten. Candidates who want to benefit from that movement need to remember what created it in the first place.
It was never just about a name. It was about making people feel heard.
That is the real lesson from Los Angeles.
Democrats cannot assume blue cities will stay blue simply because they always have. Republicans cannot assume a red wave arrives because of endorsements, slogans, or frustration with the other side.
Voters are done handing power to anyone who thinks they are entitled to it.
The political ground is shifting. Party loyalty is weakening. People are more willing than ever to cross traditional lines when they believe someone is actually fighting for them.
The candidates who win the future will not be the ones who tell voters what they should care about. They will be the ones brave enough to admit what voters already know.
***
Vanessa Santos is a political communications specialist and the president and CEO of Renegade DC.

Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt

What You See Is What You Get: What Trump And Spencer Pratt Have In Common

California

California Elections

DW Opinion

Populism

President Trump

Spencer Pratt

Trump Voters

The Senate GOP Conference is touting a poll that found Trump 2024 voters overwhelmingly back the United States providing offensive weapons to help Israel strike Iranian military targets and strongly support Israel’s military actions.
The Gray House poll surveyed 450 Trump voters on June 15-16. Thirty-five percent of voters were 65 or older; 33% were ages 50-64; 26% were 30-49, and 7% were 18-29. Sixty percent were male and 40% were female.
The poll found nearly 80% of Trump voters backed the United States providing the offensive weapons. In addition, the poll found 72% of voters supported the United States taking its own military action targeting Iran to prevent the Iranian regime from developing nuclear weapons. A whopping 80% of voters felt that Iran is a destabilizing force that sponsors terrorism, threatens U.S. allies, and undermines American interests throughout the region; 72% said Iran was a serious threat to the United States’ national security.
According to the poll, Israel’s strikes on Iran are backed by 83% of Trump voters; 86% supported giving Israel defensive weapons to protect itself from Iranian attacks; 91% agreed that the United States should provide Israel with intelligence for the same reason.
Seventy-three percent of voters felt that a diplomatic deal with Iran could be trusted, and it was likely that Iran would attempt to develop nuclear weapons in secret.
On a different issue, 85% of voters supported Israel’s military actions in Gaza following the brutal October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre of more than 1200 Israelis.
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Our new national polling of Trump 2024 voters shows overwhelming support for Israel’s actions against Iran and strong backing for a major U.S. role:
• 73% say Iran cannot be trusted to honor any diplomatic agreement • 72% support direct U.S. military action if necessary to… <a href="https://t.co/d5zpZHibnA">https://t.co/d5zpZHibnA</a>
&mdash; Landon Wall (@LandonWall_) <a href="https://twitter.com/LandonWall_/status/1934755573976727872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;
President Donald Trump’s record of support for Israel is unmatched by any other president. He has moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty of the Golan Heights, and brokered the historic Abraham Accords.
Prominent Evangelical Christian leaders from a movement that has staunchly supported Trump over the past decade have praised the president for his unyielding stance on Iran. Dr. Mike Evans, founder of Friends of Zion, told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/evangelical-leaders-praise-trumps-continued-support-israel-amid-war-iran">Fox News Digital</a>, “The Trump strategy is brilliant because he’s giving Iran a way out, but he’s not taking it off the table that the U.S. will bomb Iran. Quite the contrary, he’s made it very clear that if Iran does anything to attack U.S. bases in the Middle East or Americans, they will have hell to pay.”
Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel, stated in the days preceding the Israeli strikes on Iran, “I do not think President Trump will allow himself to be played by Iranian negotiators or American isolationists. When it&#8217;s all said and done, I believe President Trump is willing to do what it takes to ensure Iran is defanged either by enabling our strongest ally, Israel, to defend itself or otherwise.&#8221;
After the strikes, Hagee added, &#8220;We must stand with Israel today and every day. Iran’s future as an evil force in the Middle East is now in question. Only the people of Iran can take the country back. But Israel has opened the door for them and given the world room to breathe. Now the U.S. must take its seat at the head of the international table and stand alongside the only American ally in the free world willing to do what is necessary to protect the free world.”

Donald Trump

Trump Voters Overwhelmingly Support U.S. Helping Israel Against Iran, Poll Finds

Global Politics

Iran

Israel

Politics

Poll

Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/mara-gay">editorial board member</a> Mara Gay pronounced that she was “disturbed” when she saw numerous American flags on pick-up trucks, claiming the message was white people telling others, “This is my country. This is not your country. I won this.”
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/MaraGay?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MaraGay</a> of the <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nytimes</a> admitted that the sight of &quot;dozens of American flags&quot; is &quot;disturbing&quot; to her. <a href="https://t.co/8kE1kJEptV">https://t.co/8kE1kJEptV</a>
&mdash; MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) <a href="https://twitter.com/newsbusters/status/1402289062199840770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Host Mika Brzezinski prompted Gay by surmising that a commission looking into the events of January 6 would be vital, then segued into calling former President Trump “a threat to our democracy to this moment.” She stated:
<blockquote>Post-Trump, there needs to be an investigation that looks into how we got here, and that’s why the January 6 commission would have been so important or looking into the events that led up to January 6, Mara Gay. Because I’m not just talking about the week before, I’m talking about the months before, and even the years before. And it may be that the one way that perhaps there can be an explanation to the American people who were hornswoggled or misled in any way by this man who is a threat to our democracy to this moment.</blockquote>
Gay responded, “I think this is another area where Democrats really need to get serious about talking about what this threat is. I think you said it really well, Joe, a minute ago, where you talked about the need to stop being surprised by all of this and start taking it seriously.”
Gay then posited that Democrats should simply ignore the GOP and proceed on their own: ‘“You know, it’s really concerning to me that the Democrats haven’t just gone ahead at this point and said, ‘We’re doing this on our own’ in terms of getting a commission together to explain to the American people how we allowed the insurrection to take place in the Capitol. I think that really needs to move forward swiftly.”
Then Gay turned to her position that many Americans refuse to “share the democracy with others” because they see “American-ness” as the same as “whiteness”:
<blockquote>You know, the reality is here that we have a large percentage of the American population — I don’t know how big it is, but we have tens of millions of Trump voters who continue to believe that their rights as citizens are under threat by simple virtue of having to share the democracy with others. I think that as long as they see “American-ness” as the same as one with “whiteness,” this is going to continue. We have to figure out how to get every American a place at the table in this democracy but how to separate “American-ness,” America, from “whiteness.” Until we can confront that and talk about that, this is really going to continue.</blockquote>
Gay crescendoed to her feelings of being disturbed when she saw American flags:
<blockquote>I was on Long Island this weekend visiting a really dear friend. I was really disturbed; I saw dozens and dozens of pick-up trucks with explicatives (sic) against Joe Biden on the back of them; Trump flags, and in some cases just dozens of American flags, which is also just disturbing, because essentially the message was clear. It was, “This is my country. This is not your country. I won this.&#8221;</blockquote>
She concluded:
<blockquote>And so until we’re ready to have that conversation, this is going to continue. What really is concerning to me as well is it’s not just Democrats in Congress; I think there’s a large percentage of Americans, even from my colleagues in journalism who are invested in some way in pretending that this isn’t the threat that it is. That is the real concern, because the Trump voters who are not going to get on board with democracy, they’re a minority; you can marginalize them long-term. But if we don’t take the threat seriously, then I think we’re really all in bad shape.</blockquote>
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NYT/MSNBC’s <a href="https://twitter.com/MaraGay?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MaraGay</a>: In Long Island last weekend, I saw “dozens of American flags,” which was “just disturbing” <a href="https://t.co/RhGdqqJope">pic.twitter.com/RhGdqqJope</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1402218237048279041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2021</a></blockquote>
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In July 2019, Gay <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nyt-editorial-board-member-attacks-cruz-over-ryan-saavedra">attacked</a> Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) after he had referenced the legendary orator Frederick Douglass. In a <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1146953662121615366">Twitter thread</a>, Cruz had corrected activist Colin Kaepernick over a misleading post about Douglass by the former quarterback on the 4th of July.
Gay responded on Twitter: &#8220;Frederick Douglass is an American hero, and his name has no business in your mouth.&#8221;
Cruz replied, &#8220;Let’s see. You’re on the editorial board of the NYT. You respond to any view you don’t like, not with facts or reason, but w/ ad hominem attack. And you seem dismayed that I linked to Douglass’s entire speech, so readers can judge for themselves. You represent your employer well.&#8221;
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Let’s see. You’re on the editorial board of the NYT. You respond to any view you don’t like, not with facts or reason, but w/ ad hominem attack. And you seem dismayed that I linked to Douglass’s entire speech, so readers can judge for themselves. You represent your employer well. <a href="https://t.co/c8168yiCgY">https://t.co/c8168yiCgY</a>
&mdash; Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1147243735505391616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
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American flag flying in the wind

WATCH: Dozens Of American Flags ‘Disturbing,’ Trump Voters See ‘American-ness’ As ‘Whiteness’: NYT Editorial Board Member

American Flag

New York Times

Whiteness

A second county in Georgia has found a memory card with thousands of votes that had not been uploaded into the system used in the state. The majority of the votes were for President Donald Trump.
&#8220;Gabriel Sterling in the Secretary of State&#8217;s Office describes what happened in Fayette County: There were votes that had been scanned and were on a memory card, but the issue was that they hadn&#8217;t been uploaded,&#8221; 11Alive News <a href="https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/elections/georgia-election-updates-live-blog-nov-17/85-148b8ce3-60aa-4133-be3b-3b92c9632a36">reported</a>. &#8220;He said it was more easily discoverable than the issue in Floyd County, because they were able to see that the number of people who were checked in on the early voting file in Fayette was higher than the number of people there was in the county&#8217;s reported vote total.&#8221;
Fayette County is a county that Trump won by 19 points in 2016 and is up by 6 points in this election, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-georgia.html">The New York Times</a>.
Daily Beast reporter Sam Brodey wrote on Twitter: &#8220;GA elections spox @GabrielSterling says the ongoing election audit confirmed 2,755 previously uncounted votes in Fayette County 1,577 for Trump 1,128 for Biden Biden&#8217;s statewide advantage in GA now down to 12,929.&#8221;
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Just now: GA elections spox <a href="https://twitter.com/GabrielSterling?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GabrielSterling</a> says the ongoing election audit confirmed 2,755 previously uncounted votes in Fayette County 
1,577 for Trump 1,128 for Biden
Biden&#39;s statewide advantage in GA now down to 12,929
&mdash; Sam Brodey (@sambrodey) <a href="https://twitter.com/sambrodey/status/1328808472796934148?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Yesterday, thousands of additional votes were found on a memory card that had not been uploaded in Floyd County, where Trump is leading by more than 40 points.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-georgia-recount-reveals-2600-uncounted-ballots-in-pro-trump-county">reported</a>:
<blockquote>The recovered votes may also help out GOP Sen. David Perdue, who is roughly 14,000 votes away from securing 50% of the vote in his bid for reelection and avoiding a runoff against Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff.
“It’s very concerning,” Martin said. “But this doesn’t appear to be a widespread issue. I’m glad the audit revealed it, and it’s important that all votes are counted.”
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said the votes were missed because election workers failed to upload a memory card containing the votes into a ballot counting machine. The Floyd County discrepancy does not appear to be a widespread issue, the office of the secretary of state said.</blockquote>
&#8220;Sterling, who oversaw the implementation of the new statewide election system for the state, said that the unofficial breakdown of ballots was 1,643 for Trump, 865 for Biden and 16 for Libertarian Jo Jorgensen,&#8221; The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-gets-nearly-twice-as-many-votes-as-biden-out-of-2600-ballots-found-in-georgia-calls-grow-for-election-official-to-resign">reported</a> separately. &#8220;The mistake happened because election officials reportedly missed uploading a memory card containing the votes to a ballot counting machine.&#8221;
Local reporter Jamie Dupree noted that he would be seeing a different reaction from people if the votes were found in Fulton County, which is a deep blue area.
&#8220;And we have a second county in Georgia where all the votes were not counted. Fayette County voted 53-46 for Trump,&#8221; Dupree said. &#8220;Just a thought again today&#8230;.that if this was Fulton County finding uncounted votes, my Twitter mentions would be melting down. But when it&#8217;s two GOP counties (Floyd &amp; Fayette), well it&#8217;s just a shrug of the shoulders.&#8221;
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Just a thought again today&#8230;.that if this was Fulton County finding uncounted votes, my Twitter mentions would be melting down. But when it&#39;s two GOP counties (Floyd &amp; Fayette), well it&#39;s just a shrug of the shoulders.
&mdash; Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) <a href="https://twitter.com/jamiedupree/status/1328814019684298753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
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This story has been updated to include more information.

TOPSHOT-US-VOTE-TRUMP-NORTH CAROLINA

Second Georgia County Finds Thousands More Votes, Majority Are For Trump

Georgia

On Sunday evening, engaging with Washington Post political reporter Dave Weigel on Twitter, MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes made abundantly clear what he thinks of President Trump&#8217;s voter base, sneering that they are &#8220;white men without a four-year degree, and disposable income enough to buy a boat.&#8221;
Weigel precipitated Hayes&#8217; condescending remark by tweeting, &#8220;All those years scouring diners for Trump voters when longform writers could have been chilling on boats.&#8221;
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All those years scouring diners for Trump voters when longform writers could have been chilling on boats.
&mdash; David Weigel (@daveweigel) <a href="https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1295205165025419269?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Hayes laughed, &#8220;no but actually! It&#8217;s a better representation of the base, for real.&#8221;
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no but actually! It&#39;s a better representation of the base, for real.
&mdash; Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1295205350325530627?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Weigel followed: &#8220;I keep trying to make this point but don’t want to be patronizing. The Florida man with a HS degree and a pile of disposable income really is a perfect Trump supporter.&#8221;
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I keep trying to make this point but don’t want to be patronizing. The Florida man with a HS degree and a pile of disposable income really is a perfect Trump supporter.
&mdash; David Weigel (@daveweigel) <a href="https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1295205827343679488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Hayes summed up: &#8220;correct: white men without a four-year degree, and disposable income enough to buy a boat are genuinely the Trump base.&#8221;
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correct: white men without a four-year degree, and disposable income enough to buy a boat are genuinely the Trump base.
&mdash; Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1295206285655396352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
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In August 2019, after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/04/mass-shootings-el-paso-texas-dayton-ohio">two mass shootings</a>, one in Dayton, Ohio, and another in El Paso, Texas, killed over 30 people,  Hayes <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/emma-fantuzzo/2019/08/06/msnbcs-chris-hayes-president-poses-existential-threat-america">attacked Trump</a>, saying he had cultivated a &#8220;racist ideology&#8221;:
<blockquote>Even before the mass murders this weekend, even before this white supremacist committed what is being treated as an act of domestic terrorism, it has been clear from the first moment that Donald Trump came down that escalator four years ago, and particularly clear in the last few weeks as Donald Trump stood idly by as a crowd at his rally chanted &#8220;send her back,&#8221; the President’s cultivation of racist ideology and his racist definition of what the U.S. is for, pose an existential threat to what the country&#8217;s nature should be.</blockquote>
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Also in August 2019, after a guest on his show called for people to show up with “pitchforks and torches” at the home of wealthy Trump donor Stephen Ross, who had held a fundraiser for Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, Hayes agreed.
Ross, the chairman and majority owner of The Related Companies, which owns Equinox and SoulCycle fitness centers, was brought up by Elie Mystal, the executive editor for the “Above The Law” legal blog, who <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/msnbc-contributor-calls-for-pitchforks-and-torches-outside-of-trump-supporting-billionaires-house/">told Hayes</a>:
<blockquote>People of color are already targets under this administration. I have no problem with shining the light back on the donors who fund this kind of racialized hate. I go farther; I want pitchforks and torches outside this man’s house in the Hamptons.</blockquote>
“I’ve been to the Hamptons; it’s very nice, but there’s no reason why it has to be,” he continued. “There’s no reason why he should be having his nice, little party. There is no reason why people shouldn’t be able to be outside of his house and making their voices peacefully understood that they reject this stuff.”
“Totally,” Hayes responded. “There have been peaceful protests outside [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell’s house and I imagine there will be peaceful protests outside [Ross’s house]. Again, it’s all speech.”
“Trump is a bigoted demagogue and we all kind of know that. These people should be ashamed of supporting him. Right? Like, at this point you should basically only be able to contribute to the Trump campaign with bitcoin,” Mystal said. “But Equinox man is holding an ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ party and he’s surprised the people are getting up in his grill. We know that there is no constitutional way to put pressure on these people’s exercise of their money as speech, but there’s darn sure social pressure that we have barely tried. It’s time for us to start trying at least.”
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MSNBC Contributor Calls For ‘Pitchforks And Torches’ Outside of Trump Supporting Billionaire’s House<a href="https://t.co/M7sc4CFc9a">https://t.co/M7sc4CFc9a</a> <a href="https://t.co/gTjcd7CTB0">pic.twitter.com/gTjcd7CTB0</a>
&mdash; Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) <a href="https://twitter.com/FreeBeacon/status/1159643891366334465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Chris Hayes

MSNBC’s Hayes On Trump’s Base: ‘White Men Without A Four-Year Degree, And Disposable Income Enough To Buy A Boat’