Spencer Pratt is gaining major ground in the Los Angeles mayoral race, according to a new poll.
The former reality TV star had the support of 22% of voters, according to the poll released Wednesday by by Emerson College.
The independent candidate trailed only incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, who had 30% support, while socialist-linked Democrat city Councilmember Nithya Raman sat in third place with 19%.
The polling by Emerson, conducted May 9-10, found all three candidates seeing huge bumps in support as undecided voters make their pick ahead of the June 2 primary.
The number of undecided voters dropped from a whopping 51% in March to 16% in the latest poll.
In March, Bass had a comfortable lead with 20% support, while both Pratt and Raman had only half of that.
Pratt saw the biggest increase from March with a 12 percentage point bump. Both Bass and Raman increased by 10 percent.
The TV star, whom Republican voters have coalesced around, has put on an impressive run of ads that have captured a lot of attention and won significant praise for his recent debate performance that even Democrats admitted it was good.
“Unfortunately, my entire life is talking to people in the industry, but I can report that everyone was pleasantly — or unpleasantly — surprised by Spencer Pratt’s debate performance,” Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo had told The California Post.
The poll showed an age divide in the race, said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling.
Voters over the age of 60 preferred Bass more and Pratt second. Voters under 40 years instead wanted Raman but had Pratt ranked last.
Pratt also was the top choice for male voters at 30%, while women supported Bass the most at 36%.
Under the election system, the top two vote getters in June will head off to face each other in the general election, unless one candidate gets the majority of votes outright.
