I’ve lived in a lot of places: I spent my early years in Chicago, then we moved to Manhattan, then I went to school in Boston and North Carolina, and I even once had a low-level banking job in St. Paul, Minnesota. There are many good experiences I’ve had in all those places, and I’d like to think that my wanderings have given me a better understanding of the different regions of America and the people who inhabit them.
To those elitist West Coasters, all too many of whom I have encountered, who consider the South nothing more than a racist backwater, I say to you: you're idiots. There are so many patriots and wonderful people below the Mason-Dixon line who put your America-hating views to shame. Many wonderful things are happening there, and you can live in your misery and eschew it all you want, but they're living the dream and you're not.
Sometime in the early 1990s, after I’d moved back to the Big Apple following graduation, it dawned on me that The City was not my forever home. Some people adore the excitement, the pace, the incredible energy, and I don’t judge them for that. I just knew it wasn’t for me.
I wanted a backyard, a little space to call my own, a different experience — one without subways. I packed up my relatively few belongings and moved to Los Angeles, sight unseen. It was exactly what I was looking for, and I’ve never left.
It was a vibrant place, a creative hotspot, and naturally, I didn’t mind the fantastic weather. We had a spate of earthquakes my first year, and I did find those a little, um, unnerving, but they weren’t enough to chase me away.
One thing I noticed right away that was different from my experiences on the East Coast: nobody seemed to give a rat’s patootie about local politics. In New York City, if there was a mayoral race going on, believe me, you knew about it. You’d see the screaming tabloid headlines from The New York Daily News and its rival, The New York Post, on every street corner and train station, coverage would be wall-to-wall on TVs at every watering hole, and people would be talking about it at every party. It was a thing.
In Los Angeles, meanwhile, you wouldn’t even know a race was happening. People didn’t talk about it at cocktail soirees, obsessively read the news, or even seem to give it much of a thought. It really weirded me out.
Believe it or not, a Republican, Richard Riordan, won in both 1993 and 1997 — and that’s the last time we saw a non-leftie take the prize.
One reason it’s saddened me to see the state and the city in such decline under one-party extremist leadership is that I came out here with hope, and hope was delivered. I met my future wife here, we raised our four kids here, and we worked our butts off to create a business and make our house our dream home. Sure, it’s easy to say, “Just leave! California sucks.”
But the Golden State did not use to suck, it doesn’t have to always suck, and it’s a lot easier for someone to fire off a tweet than it is for me to give up the life I've created over three decades.
TUESDAY’S COMING: Wow: Surging Donations and Latest Polling Show Big News for Spencer Pratt
California Dems Cleared the Field for Becerra - but Steve Hilton Isn't Going Away
Which is why I’m so thrilled and heartened by something I have never witnessed out here on the Left Coast: genuine passion and pushback from people who don’t want us to become a communist hellhole. You can feel the electricity in the air.
You see the signs for LA Mayoral Candidate Spencer Pratt — they’re everywhere, even in deep blue neighborhoods. You hear people at get-togethers talking about gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton. You see the non-stop coverage on the TV and in print, while the duo’s viral campaign videos, as well as those made by content creators, continue to garner millions of views. It’s become a regular occurrence for me to have someone walk up and whisper in hushed tones, “Can Spencer really win?” And it’s not just conservatives asking.
Amazingly, even some in Hollywood are advocating for change, for a new direction. That I can tell you is certainly novel, except for a few brave outspoken conservatives — some of whom have lost their careers for speaking out.
This is not an official Spencer Pratt campaign video; it's one of many made by a grass-roots collection of rebels:
If you wanna see why Bernie and the Dems hate Ai it’s because of stuff like this, not because they care about people.
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) May 11, 2026
Well done again, @charliebcurran. pic.twitter.com/Vtk377Byp7
Now, I’m no naïve fantasist — I know full well that the climb is steep and the deck is stacked against us. On Tuesday, the endless primaries will mercifully come to an end, and eventually we'll know the finalists for the November general election (it won't be right away because California's pernicious system often takes weeks to publish official results).
Right now, the polls are showing that Hilton will likely face off against the listless Democratic Machine candidate, former Biden-era HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.
In the mayoral race, nobody is likely to get more than 50 percent of the vote to win outright, so it’s looking like Pratt against Cuba acolyte Karen Bass. Once the field is settled, expect the dark money to flow from the Dems and special interest groups, and watch for the powerful unions to ramp up for serious battle. They will not give up easily, and as they showed with the anti-Democratic mid-decade redistricting measure, Prop. 50, they are more than willing to use any and all tools at their disposal.
Even if neither Pratt nor Hilton achieves victory, they've already severely shaken up a corrupt progressive one-party regime that is not used to even the slightest pushback.
Bonus: Win or lose, this is all horrible news for the imminent Gavin Newsom presidential campaign. He’s been in power for seven years, yet he can't easily hand over the keys to the car to his clones? It shows how deeply he's failed Californians, and he's going to answer for that when JD Vance or Marco Rubio takes him to task. Good luck with that, pal.
Change is in the air. Is it enough to turn back the managed decline that has become the policy of the once Golden State? We’ll see where we stand after Tuesday. May God have mercy on our souls.
