Luke Gulbranson had just gotten off the phone with his parents, was sipping his morning coffee, reciting his daily prayers and watching President Trump speak with reporters when he had a realization: he was going to run for Congress.
"In that moment I was like, 'Wait, I'm going to do this. I'm going to actually throw my hat in the ring and do this,'" Gulbranson told NPR about his decision to challenge Republican Rep. Peter Stauber in Minnesota's 8th Congressional District as a Democrat.
Gulbranson is a political newcomer. This is his first campaign for elected office. But he's no stranger to life in the public eye. Before he entered the race, millions watched Gulbranson for three seasons on Bravo's reality television series "Summer House" and two seasons of its spin-off "Winter House."
He isn't the only former reality TV star making a political debut in 2026 — at least two others are hopping into the political arena. Farrah Abraham, former star of MTV's "Teen Mom," announced she is running for Austin City Council, though she has not filed the necessary paperwork to officially run. And perhaps most well-known this election cycle, Spencer Pratt, the "villain" of MTV's early 2000s hit show "The Hills" is vying to become the next mayor of Los Angeles. While some people may consider reality shows unserious, dramatic and even trashy, the genre seems to have become a training ground for politics.
David Bresenham is an executive producer of reality TV Shows. Bresenham — who is also a lecturer at Stanford University where he teaches a class about reality shows and society — believes reality TV stars have what it takes to withstand the metaphorical bloodbath that politics can become.
These stars know how to navigate conflict, work a camera and often have experience dealing with public backlash. While traditional politicians are figuring out how to handle criticism, build name recognition and reach audiences through newer mediums, like social media, reality tv stars already have those credentials.
"Politics, certainly today, you need to be able to interact well with cameras. You need to be able to speak in soundbites. And you need to be able to present your ideas as succinctly as possible," Bresenham said. "If you've had success in reality TV, you're probably pretty good at those."
Gulbranson doesn't see his time on television as an advantage against his opponents but he does believe it prepared him for politics in a way. In his view, politics isn't for the faint of heart and neither is being cast on a reality show.
"I definitely think it helps me in having thick skin because I've noticed that politics is actually worse than reality television, " Gulbranson said.
The characters on the screen are, by nature of the genre, constantly and viciously judged by a distant audience; everyone who watches has an opinion about what is unfolding in the latest episode and it impacts how the public perceives a person. On "Summer House," Gulbranson was known as the small town, dreamy guy with a reputation of toying with the emotions of some of his female housemates and being cast in that role can be difficult. Still, Gulbranson lives beyond the edit.
"I'm confident in who I am as a man and as I continue to meet people on the campaign trail, they see that, too," he said.
After his time on TV, Gulbranson moved back to his hometown of Eveleth, Minn., where he manages his own maple syrup business and coaches hockey.
Instead of trying to connect with constituents through the parasocial relationship created by television, he's leaning into his upbringing.
Gulbranson describes himself as a "welfare kid" who grew up on powdered milk and food stamps. Now, at 42-years-old, he said he is noticing that same struggle in the community he grew up in and across Northern Minnesota. His parents, who he said should be retired by now, still work because they can't afford not to. Gulbranson's mom has leukemia and his dad is disabled with diabetes. He's not worried about his reality TV persona. He said he's worried about affordability, the shrinking middle class, the loss of union jobs and access to child care and healthcare.
"In reality television, it affects me. It affects the way I'm perceived on how I'm edited and produced and stuff. But with Congress, it affects the lives of other people. You can watch a TV show and you might care about it, but it's not affecting your health care, right? It's not affecting the cost of goods or every time you're putting gas in the car," he said.
Bresenham, the reality show executive producer and lecturer at Stanford, said for all of the genre's faults, it has placed a great amount of social currency on being reliable, authentic and shameless. Even if the person on the other side of the screen disagrees with their position, there is usually a mutual respect for the star standing in their convictions.
Enter Spencer Pratt.
Pratt, who didn't respond to NPR's interview requests, told Joe Rogan in an April interview that he never "wanted to run for political office or have anything to do with politicians." But that all changed on Jan. 7 of last year, when his house burned to the ground in a wildfire that swept through LA's affluent Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
"I see that nobody is stepping up to run against the mayor who's responsible for this disaster and so many other disasters. So it came to the point where I got so sick of just being, as the younger people say in the comments section, a yapper," Pratt told Rogan.
Pratt is seemingly able to separate online chatter from real life. Since he participated in the LA mayoral debate against incumbent Karen Bass and city councilor Nithya Raman, he's gained notoriety online, especially among Republican commentators.
On Instagram's Threads, Pratt distanced himself from either party, even though he is a registered Republican.
"There's no R next to my name, there's no D next to my name. I'm not part of a political party, because I hate politicians," he wrote. "I'm a pissed off Angeleno who loves my city and is fed up with what corrupt politicians have done to her."
Pratt is running on a platform he considers, as he told Us Magazine, "common sense American." He said he would deal with crime and homelessness in America's second largest city, while cultivating the construction of housing with less red tape. Pratt has also embraced his public figure status. Pratt hasn't shied away from his reality TV past, writing on social media that he's been "in the public eye most of my life and there isn't any dirt you can find on me that hasn't already been aired."
Bresenham said one of the powers of reality TV is the stars being able to reinvent themselves. That's what he sees Pratt doing – taking the skills he's learned from spending his adult life in the public eye and shamelessly creating a new Pratt era.
Bresenham said people like Pratt and Gulbranson are relatable in a way. That alone is a huge benefit to voters.
"We vote for people we want to have a beer with," he said. "If you watch the shows, these people have been in your living rooms, you've spent a lot of time … talking about them. Even if you don't like them, they're familiar to you."
Copyright 2026, NPR
