LA union spends $221,000 on anti-Spencer Pratt ad — and critics say it may be helping him win

A labor union's independent expenditure committee dropped $221,000 on digital advertising aimed at sinking Spencer Pratt's Los Angeles mayoral campaign. The early verdict from voters and political observers online: the ad might be doing him a favor.

The committee behind the spot, "LA Unions Opposed to Spencer Pratt for Mayor 2026," is sponsored by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, Fox News Digital reported. Los Angeles Ethics Commission filings show the group disclosed its spending in a Form 496 filing, the standard disclosure form for independent expenditure committees in the city.

The ad urges voters to reject the Republican candidate. But the reaction on X has been anything but what its funders likely intended. Users mocked the spot as so ineffective it reads like a campaign endorsement for Pratt rather than an attack.

When the attack ad becomes the ad

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, amplified the video on X and offered a blunt assessment.

"This attack ad could well elect Pratt."

Cruz's reaction captured a broader sentiment. One X user posted: "This is supposed to be an attack ad??? Lolol." Another leaned into the irony: "Wow even @UnrigLA is running ads supporting Spencer Pratt. This is such an incredible ad supporting Spencer Pratt!!!"

The mockery raises a familiar question in political advertising: When does opposition research backfire? The ad circulated widely on X in recent days, and the organic attention it generated, much of it sympathetic to Pratt, handed the former reality television star exactly the kind of earned media that campaigns spend millions trying to buy.

Pratt's campaign gains momentum in LA mayor's race

The union-funded ad arrives as Pratt's mayoral bid has gained attention following his performance in a recent debate. He is now described as one of two top challengers facing off against incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in the nation's second-largest city.

Throughout his campaign, Pratt has emphasized homelessness, public safety, and government spending, issues that resonate deeply with Los Angeles residents who have watched their city struggle under years of progressive governance. That message appears to be connecting, and the union's decision to spend six figures trying to stop him suggests the city's entrenched political establishment sees a real threat.

The fact that organized labor felt compelled to stand up an entire independent expenditure committee, complete with a name built around opposing a single candidate, tells you something about the state of the race. Committees like this are prohibited from coordinating with candidates, the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission notes, and are commonly used by outside groups to influence elections. But the sheer specificity of the effort, naming Pratt in the committee's own title, signals that the city's political class is worried.

Fox News Digital reached out to both Spencer Pratt's campaign and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor for comment. Neither response was reported.

A pattern of Democratic miscalculation

The spectacle in Los Angeles fits a wider pattern. Across the country, Democratic-aligned institutions keep misjudging the political landscape, and their own voters. In Pennsylvania, Democrats have branded Sen. John Fetterman a "traitor" and vowed to primary him after he broke with party orthodoxy. The result? His approval among Republicans has surged, with 73 percent of GOP voters now backing the Pennsylvania Democrat.

The lesson is consistent: when the institutional left attacks someone for straying from the script, it often boosts the target's appeal with the very voters who are fed up with that script.

Meanwhile, the broader Democratic infrastructure faces its own credibility problems. House Republicans are probing ActBlue over suspected foreign donations, with staffers pleading the Fifth rather than answer questions. And in Virginia, the state Supreme Court voided Democratic redistricting maps, dealing another blow to the party's strategy for holding power.

Against that backdrop, a $221,000 ad that makes its target look sympathetic is almost too on-the-nose.

What the money reveals

The spending itself deserves scrutiny. A quarter-million dollars in digital advertising is a serious commitment, especially this early in a mayoral race. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, is one of the most powerful political forces in Southern California. Its decision to deploy that kind of money against a candidate many political insiders initially dismissed as a novelty act suggests the internal polling tells a different story than the public narrative.

Pratt visited Fox & Friends at Fox News Channel Studios in New York City on January 28, a sign his campaign is building a national media profile that extends well beyond local Los Angeles coverage. For a candidate running on homelessness, public safety, and fiscal accountability, that kind of visibility is gold, and it is the kind of thing union dollars cannot easily counter.

Independent expenditure committees exist for a reason. They let outside groups pour money into races without the messy optics of direct coordination. But the prohibition on coordination also means these committees sometimes produce ads that are tone-deaf to the actual dynamics of a race. The anti-Pratt spot appears to be a textbook case.

When your opposition ad generates more goodwill for the target than your own candidate's campaign does, you have a messaging problem. And when Republicans across the country are outmaneuvering Democrats on issue after issue, that messaging problem becomes part of a much larger strategic failure.

The real test ahead

Several questions remain unanswered. The exact date of the upcoming mayoral election is not yet clear from available filings. Pratt's own response to the ad has not been reported. And the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor has not publicly explained what, specifically, it believed the ad would accomplish.

What is clear is the trajectory. A Republican candidate in deep-blue Los Angeles is generating enough support to force the city's most powerful labor organization into a six-figure defensive spend. The ad was supposed to define Pratt as unfit. Instead, it defined the establishment's fear of him.

Los Angeles voters will decide whether Pratt is the right person to lead their city. But if the best the union machine can do is produce ads that double as free campaign material for the other side, those voters may not need much convincing.

When your enemies spend $221,000 to make your case for you, the only polite thing to do is say thank you.