Did an Emerson poll show Spencer Pratt leading Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayor's race on May 28, 2026? No, that's not true: Emerson College Polling told Lead Stories "no such poll exists" and the social media post making the claim used "made up numbers." The organization last conducted a poll for the mayor's race in mid-May, and Bass was leading.
The claim appeared in a May 28, 2026, post on X account @MilaJoy (archived here). It opened:
Woohoo!!
Spencer Pratt is now LEADING Karen Bass in the new Emerson poll.
🔴 Spencer Pratt: 35%
🔵 Karen Bass*: 33%Undecided: 16%
Emerson (A) | 5/27-28 | 350 LV | ±5.2
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @MilaJoy on X.)
Camille Mumford, communications director at Emerson College Polling (archived here), told Lead Stories via email on May 29, 2026, that the "tweet is false information." She stated:
No such poll exists and the tweet is made up numbers.
Mumford told Lead Stories the last Emerson College Polling LA mayoral poll (archived here) for the June 2, 2026 primary election, was conducted mid-May and the results showed Bass leading with 30% and Pratt with 22%, as this screenshot shows:
(Image source: Emerson College Polling.)
