Spencer Pratt’s Rise at Los Angeles Showcases Need for More Open Elections at New York City

It’s possible to see a superficial similarity between the rise of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Los Angeles’s mayoral insurgent, Spencer Pratt, now looming as the final election challenger to Mayor Karen Bass. Both began their campaigns with limited followings, per polls, and used social media to fuel their rise. Both can be said to have attracted votes as classic outsider change candidates.But there is a key difference: Mr. Pratt’s votes must be seen as a better reflection of the views of his city overall than were Mr. Mamdani’s in the election that launched him. The major distinction: the cities’ rules for voter eligibility.Los Angeles’s preliminary election which Mr. Pratt has just survived is open and non-partisan. New York’s primary elections, like the June 2025 Democratic primary which launched Mr. Mamdani, are closed to all except party members. In contrast to Los Angeles, they exclude the city’s nearly one million “unaffiliated,” or independent, voters — in a city in which the winner of the Democratic primary almost always becomes the next Mayor.Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt speaks during a campaign event on May 31, 2026, at Los Angeles. AP/Jill ConnellyIn surviving Tuesday’s first round of voting at Los Angeles, Mr. Pratt did not have to confine himself to the small pool of the city’s Republicans, who make up just 326,000 of 2.2 million registered voters. The preliminary election is non-partisan. Instead, he could appeal to voters of both major parties, as well as to the city’s more than 500,000 independents — a notable share of the total voters. Mr. Pratt, as the results trickle in from Los Angeles, is on track to receive some 270,000 votes to finish in second place. Mr. Mamdani, in a city with twice as many registered voters, received just 473,000 to finish first in the first round of the Democratic primary. (He ultimately topped 500,000 because votes from other candidates were transferred to him under New York’s ranked-choice system.)It is New York’s election law, not that of Los Angeles, that’s an outlier. Per the National League of Cities, 22 of the nation’s 30 largest cities hold non-partisan mayoral elections. What’s more, Gotham is the only city with a ranked-choice system — in which second and third choice votes are transferred to leading candidates as others are counted out — which also maintains a closed primary system. Keep in mind that ranked-choice is billed as a way to reduce polarization by encouraging candidates to appeal beyond their base. Perhaps so — but not in an election in which only a portion of the electorate may participate.Zohran Mamdani during the New York City Democratic Mayoral Primary Debate at NBC Studios on June 4, 2025. Yuki Iwamura-Pool/Getty ImagesThe effective disenfranchisement inherent in New York’s party-based primary system (at both the state and city levels) is of late attracting serious concern. The good-government groups Citizens Union and Common Cause have both called for open primaries in New York. “The share of unaffiliated voters in New York [state] is greater than the total number of voters in 29 other states,” Common Cause pointed out in an October 2023 report.A survey it conducted found that 90 percent of those voters would participate in primary elections — if only they could. Citizens Union, in arguing for open primaries, notes that nearly half of unaffiliated voters at New York City are younger than 40. The majority of unaffiliated voters here are minority voters; more than a third are black or Hispanic. Young voters of color are the most likely to be registered without a party affiliation. These are the voters Democrats claim they care about.The possibility of legal change looms: a charter revision commission appointed by Mayor Eric Adams has recommended that a vote on opening primaries be held. Mr. Mamdani has denounced that charter group — appointed by Mr. Adams after last November’s election when he was a lame duck. Mr. Mamdani has convened a rival charter group — and has challenged the legality of Mr. Adams’s panel. It will not be surprising if a Mamdani “reform” group protects the status quo, closed system — which launched the current mayor. The courts will likely have to decide whether Mr. Adams’s group’s recommended charter recommended changes should go to the voters.Change need not mean the end of party primaries. To guard against shenanigans such as for Republicans influencing the Democrats’ choice, a semi-open primary could add only independents, who could choose which party primary in which to vote. Nor would an open or semi-open primary eliminate ranked choice voting; San Francisco has both a non-partisan election and ranked-choice voting. So too, at Minneapolis.Democrats are given to denouncing other states for their voting laws; think here of Joe Biden referring to the laws in Georgia — an open primary state — as Jim Crow 2.0. Yet it’s deep-blue New York that’s effectively limiting the franchise by shutting independent voters out of some of the most important elections. Los Angeles reminds us this is neither typical nor inevitable.

Spencer Pratt’s Rise at Los Angeles Showcases Need for More Open Elections at New York City

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