Spencer Pratt Shares How Years of Online Hate Prepared Him for Life as a Political Candidate (Exclusive)

Spencer Pratt has dealt with his fair share of haters long before he decided to run for mayor of Los Angeles.

“I would say the only edge that reality TV and fame has given me is just to prepare for the amount of negativity and threats,” Pratt, 42, exclusively reveals in his Us Weekly cover story, on newsstands now. “No normal person would want to fight this demonic machine of evil that wants people to die on the street [and] doesn’t care about our lives.”

The Hills alum continues, “You have to be a crazy person to do this as just a functioning normal, experienced human being. There’s no way it’s worth it, but if you’ve already been in the gutter with the internet, [it’s] just another day.”

Pratt rose to fame in the early 2000s while starring on The Hills alongside wife Heidi Montag. The couple wed in 2008 during season 5 of the hit MTV series and share sons, Gunner, 8, and Ryker, 3.

“Life’s all about learning. I met my wife on reality TV, [got] my two kids, for that alone I wouldn’t change anything,” he recalls. “I was 21, 22, 23 and to me it was all make believe, and I didn’t take it [seriously.]”

While the world knows Pratt as an iconic reality TV villain, he’s looking to change the narrative. Earlier this year, Pratt announced that he was running for mayor after he and his family were one of the many who lost their homes in the wildfires last year.

“You know when I announced in front of those 1000s of fire victims, everyone cheered so much that I kicked off with a new path of being taken seriously, because at least my community had known I had been fighting for them for so many months, and they knew I was dead serious about it,” he tells Us. “And for them it was not like a gimmick or a stunt, or so — just the initial launch of my campaign, energetically I already was fighting on behalf of my community.”

Pratt shares that he knew there are so many people “counting on” him so he decided to put in the work to make a viable campaign. Pratt’s work has seemingly paid off as he’s been emerging in the polls against current L.A. mayor Karen Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman.

“It was always very serious from the second I announced, at least for my community,” he says, “Obviously, the months have gone by, and I go to all of these other communities and meet with the community leaders. They all have that hope, and they just [have] so much faith in me.”

Pratt also shares that he “never” bases his success around what’s happening online. Instead, he prefers to hear directly from the people he interacts with in real-life.

“I never go off the internet, you know, it doesn’t matter if I have all these viral videos or how famous or infamous I seem on the internet, that doesn’t mean anything,” he explains. “But what I feel from people in the streets around LA, and everywhere I go, that energy is what continues to just show me how you know how much support and how much people want me to be the mayor. The internet’s great, and I love it, and it’s a great tool for social media, but the interactions I have with people are what continue to drive me.”

Pratt’s campaign has garnered the attention of people across the country, including President Donald Trump. However, Pratt has made it clear he’s not running as a Republican. (The race for mayor in Los Angeles is nonpartisan and no candidate’s party is listed on the ballot.)

“I’m running for all of Los Angeles,” he tells Us. “I’m not either party, I’m a centrist, I am complete, my brand, my party is common sense American.”

Pratt adds that he is not looking for an endorsement from Trump but instead wants the support of his community.

“The only endorsement I seek, or one of the ones I have, which are moms in Los Angeles, animal lovers,” he says. “And the one that I just got is the Latino Business Association, which is 800,000 Latino businesses that Mayor Bass has failed.”

Learn more about Pratt by picking up the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.