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    Democratic leaders across US work to lead resistance against Trump’s agenda

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    After the November elections ushered in a new era of unified Republican governance in Washington, Democratic leaders across the country are once again preparing to lead the resistance to Donald Trump’s second-term agenda.California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, said he would convene a special legislative session next month to “safeguard California values and fundamental rights”.Washington state’s governor-elect, Bob Ferguson, who is currently the state’s attorney general, said his legal team has been preparing for months for the possibility of a second Trump term – an endeavor that included a “line-by-line” review of Project 2025, the 900+ page policy blueprint drafted by the president-elect’s conservative allies.And the governors of Illinois and Colorado this week unveiled a new coalition designed to protect state-level institutions against the threat of authoritarianism, as the nation prepares for a president who has vowed to seek retribution against his political enemies and to only govern as a dictator on “day one”.“We know that simple hope alone won’t save our democracy,” the Colorado governor, Jared Polis, said on a conference call announcing the group, called Governors Safeguarding Democracy. “We need to work together, especially at the state level, to protect and strengthen it.”With Democrats locked out of control in Washington, many in the party will turn to blue state leaders – governors, attorneys general and mayors – as a bulwark against a second Trump administration. For these ambitious Democrats, it is also an opportunity to step into the leadership void left by Kamala Harris’s defeat.Progressives such as Newsom and the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, are viewed as potential presidential contenders in 2028, while Democratic governors in states that voted for Trump such as Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan are seen as models for how the party can begin to rebuild their coalition. And Tim Walz, Harris’s vice-presidential running mate, returned home to Minnesota with a national profile and two years left of his gubernatorial term.Leaders of the nascent blue state resistance are pre-emptively “Trump-proofing” against a conservative governing agenda, which they have cast as a threat to the values and safety of their constituents. As a candidate, Trump promised to carry out the “largest deportation operation in American history”. In statements and public remarks, several Democrats say they fear the Trump administration will seek to limit access to medication abortion or seek to undermine efforts to provide reproductive care to women from states with abortion bans. They also anticipate actions by the Trump administration to roll back environmental regulations and expand gun rights.“To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom, opportunity and dignity of Illinoisans, I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior. You come for my people – you come through me,” Pritzker said last week.Unlike in 2016, when Trump’s victory shocked the nation, blue state leaders say they have a tested – and updated – playbook to draw upon. But they also acknowledge that Trump 2.0 may present new and more difficult challenges.Ferguson said Trump’s first-term executive actions were “often sloppy”, which created an opening for states to successfully challenge them in court. Eight years later, and after studying Project 2025 and Trump’s Agenda 47, he anticipates the next Trump White House will be “better prepared” this time around.Pritzker said Trump was surrounding himself with “absolute loyalists to his cult of personality and not necessarily to the law”. “Last time, he didn’t really know where the levers of government were,” the governor said on a call with reporters this week. “I think he probably does now.”The courts have also become more conservative than they were when Trump took office eight years ago, a direct result of his first-term appointments to the federal bench, which included many powerful federal appeals court judges and three supreme court justices.The political landscape has also changed. In 2016, Trump won the electoral college but lost the popular vote. Despite Republican control of Congress, there were a number of Trump skeptics willing – at least initially – to buck the president during his first two years in office.This time around, Trump is all but certain to win the popular vote, and he made surprising gains in some of the bluest corners of the country.Though the former president came nowhere close to winning his home state of New York, he made significant inroads, especially on Long Island. At a post-election conference last week, New York’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, struck a more neutral tone. Hochul, who faces a potentially tough re-election in 2026, vowed to protect constituents against federal overreach, while declaring that she was prepared to work with “him or anybody regardless of party”.In New Jersey, where Trump narrowed his loss from 16 percentage points in 2020 to five percentage points in 2024, the Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, acknowledged the result was a “sobering moment” for the party and country. Outlining his approach to the incoming administration, Murphy said: “If it’s contrary to our values, we will fight to the death. If there’s an opportunity for common ground, we will seize that as fast as anybody.”Progressives and activists say they are looking to Democratic leaders to lead the charge against Trump’s most extreme proposals, particularly on immigration.“Trump may be re-elected but he does not have a mandate to come into and rip apart our communities,” said Greisa Martínez Rosas, the executive director of United We Dream Action, a network of groups that advocate for young people brought to the US as children, known as Dreamers.She called on state and local officials, as well as university heads and business leaders, to “use every tool at their disposal” to resist Trump’s mass deportation campaign, stressing: “There is a lot we can do to ensure Trump and his cabinet are not successful in their plans.”State attorneys general are again poised to play a pivotal role in curbing the next administration’s policy ambitions.“The quantity of litigation since the first Trump administration has been really off the charts – it’s at a new level,” said Paul Nolette, a political scientist at Marquette University in Wisconsin. “I fully expect that to continue in Trump 2.0.”There were 160 multi-state filings against the Trump administration during his four years in office, twice as many as were filed against Barack Obama during his entire eight-year presidency, according to a database maintained by Nolette.Many of the Democratic lawsuits succeeded – at least initially – in delaying or striking down Trump administration policies or regulations, Nolette said. Attorneys general can also leverage their state’s influence and economic power by entering legal settlements with companies. States have used this approach in the past to “advance their own regulatory goals”, Nolette said, for example, forcing the auto industry to adopt stricter environmental regulations.In a proclamation calling for a special session next month, Newsom asked the legislature to bolster the state’s legal funding to challenge – and defend California against – the Trump administration. Among his concerns, the California Democrat identified civil rights, climate action, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, as well as Trump’s threats to withhold disaster funding from the state and the potential for his administration to repeal protections shielding undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children from deportation.Trump responded on Truth Social, using a derisive nickname for the Democratic governor: “Governor Gavin Newscum is trying to KILL our Nation’s beautiful California. He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the Election.”Democratic leaders in battleground states that Trump won are also calibrating their responses – and not all are eager to join the resistance.“I don’t think that’s the most productive way to govern Arizona,” the state’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, told reporters this week, according to the Arizona Capitol Times. Hobbs, who faces a potentially difficult re-election fight in 2026, said she would “stand up against actions that hurt our communities” but declined to say how she would respond if Trump sought to deport Dreamers or to nationalize the Arizona national guard as part of his mass deportation campaign.The state’s Democratic attorney general, Kris Mayes, who also faces re-election in two years, drew a harder line against Trump, vowing to fight “unconstitutional behavior” and protect abortion access, according to Axios. In an interview on MSNBC, Mayes said she had “no intention” of dropping the criminal case against allies of the former president who attempted to help Trump overturn Biden’s victory in the state.Yet she insisted there would be areas of common ground. She urged Trump to revive a bipartisan border deal that he had previously tanked and called on the next administration to send more federal resources and agents to help combat the flow of fentanyl into the US.With Democrats locked out of power in Washington, the new Indivisible Guide, a manual developed by former Democratic congressional staffers after Trump’s election in 2016 and recently updated to confront a new era of Maga politics, envisions a major role for blue states.“Over the next two years, your Democratic elected officials will make choices every single day about whether to stand up to Maga or whether to go along with it,” the Indivisible guide states. “Your spirited, determined advocacy will ensure that the good ones know they’ve got a movement behind them as they fight back – and the bad ones know they’re on notice.”Among the examples of actions blue state activists can demand their leaders consider, it suggests establishing protections for out-of-state residents seeking abortion access or gender-affirming care; refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement and forging regional compacts to safeguard environmental initiatives, data privacy and healthcare.Democratic leaders at every level and across the country – even those in purple or red states – can serve as “backstops for protecting the democratic space”, said Mary Small, chief strategy officer at Indivisible.“The important things are to be proactive and bold, to be innovative and to work with each other,” she said. “I don’t think everybody has to have all of the answers right now, but to have that intention and that commitment and to not shrink down in anticipation of a more oppressive federal government.” More

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      How California has been ‘Trump-proofing’ itself against federal reprisal

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      California prided itself on its resistance to Donald Trump during his first term as president and will hardly have to scramble to assume the same role a second time around.Indeed, as a bastion of Democratic party strength in a country moving sharply to the right, it has been preparing for this moment for a long time.“California will continue to be at the forefront of progress, the fulcrum of democracy, the champion of innovation, and the protector of our rights and freedoms,” Adam Schiff, the state’s newly elected senator and a frequent target of Trump’s wrath, promised supporters on election night.On Thursday, Gavin Newsom announced a special session of the California legislature to ensure the attorney general’s office and other state agencies have the funding they need. “We won’t sit idle,” the governor said. “California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond.”Even with Trump out of power since 2021, California has been setting up guardrails to protect its resident’s rights under an adversarial federal government. The state has enshrined abortion rights in its constitution, passed a ballot initiative explicitly defending the right of same-sex couples to marry and pushed for tougher gun laws that still adhere to the supreme court’s narrow interpretation of the right to bear arms.It has even considered establishing state funding to meet the cost of wildfires, earthquakes and other natural disasters in case the Trump administration decides to withhold emergency funds from states it deems to be politically hostile, as it sometimes did during its 2017-21 term.View image in fullscreen“We’ve been Trump-proofing the place,” said Elizabeth Ashford, a political consultant who has worked for governors on both sides of the aisle and was Kamala Harris’s chief of staff when she was California’s attorney general. “The work … has been to put measures in place that can withstand shifts in Washington and on the supreme court. These projects have been going on for years.”Asked how ready she thought California was for the new administration, Ashford said: “On a scale from one to 100, we’re starting at about 90.”California is both the most populous US state and its most powerful economy, making it an unusual counterweight to the power of the federal government. It has, for example, negotiated directly with car manufacturers over tailpipe emission standards, thus circumventing the avowed desire of Trump’s allies to end a long-established rule that allows the state to set its own standards.Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage

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      Where it cannot work around the federal government, it can seek to challenge any hint of government overreach in the courts, as it did more than 130 times during the first Trump administration. Rob Bonta, the state attorney general, told the policy news outlet CalMatters last week that his team had prepared briefs and tested arguments on a range of issues – everything from limits on abortion medication to gun laws and upholding the civil rights of transgender young people.“The best way to protect California, its values, the rights of our people, is to be prepared,” Bonta told CalMatters. “Unfortunately, it’s a long list.”In a statement on Wednesday, Bonta said California will “continue to move forward driven by our values and the ongoing pursuit of progress”. He added: “I’ll use the full force of the law and the full authority of my office to ensure it.”It is unlikely to take long for California and the new administration to butt heads. Newsom has a long record as a Trump antagonist and spent much of the election campaign traveling the country to promote Democratic candidates – all of which makes him a likely lightning rod for Trump’s ire.View image in fullscreenTrump has called Newsom “one of the worst governors in the country” and nicknamed him “New-scum”. Their rivalry is also personal, since Newsom’s ex-wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, is engaged to Donald Trump Jr.Trump’s former staffers have made little secret of their wish to disrupt the Democratic party’s stranglehold over California politics and have spelled out their intentions in documents like the Project 2025 blueprint that became a lightning rod during the election campaign. Despite Trump’s attempts to distance himself from it, California officials have studied Project 2025 carefully and are assuming it will form the policy backbone of the new administration. One California congressman, Jared Huffman, has described it as a “dystopian nightmare”.There are several ways in which the state can try to disrupt that nightmare. During Trump’s first presidency, for example, state agencies including the California highway patrol refused to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency tasked with aggressive round-ups of immigrants without papers. Police in so-called “sanctuary cities” were similarly protective of their immigrant populations.For all the preparation, though, state officials fear that the new Trump administration will be more organized and more radical than the old one, and that it will have more of a political mandate since a groundswell of California voters – many more than in 2020 or in 2016 – have indicated they are sympathetic to parts of the Trump agenda.Newsom said last week he was particularly concerned about the prospect of widespread raids on immigrants, which could prove devastating to the immigrant-dependent California economy including the vast agricultural concerns based largely in the inland Central valley.There may be other parts of the Trump agenda which, if enacted, could prove difficult to reverse – a national abortion ban passed by Congress, say, or a repeal of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. And that has many advocacy groups deeply worried about the vulnerable populations they serve.“Our community is feeling very anxious and uncertain,” said Terra Russell-Slavin, a lawyer with the Los Angeles LGBT Center, “particularly given the number of attacks that Trump has explosively targeted toward the LGBTQ community and specifically the trans community”.In response, Russell-Slavin said her organization was working with state and local governments to find alternative funding streams should the federal government cut back on gender-affirming healthcare or homelessness services or senior services. “We’re very fortunate that our lawmakers are overwhelmingly supportive,” she said. “We are very confident they will fight for protections for us.”Will that be enough? For now, California officials are showing their teeth and vowing to fight. But Newsom, for one, is under no illusions about how much is at stake. “No state,” he said last week, “has more to lose or more to gain in this election.”Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage

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      Democratic national convention: who are the politicians to watch?

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      Democrats will gather in Chicago on Monday to kick off their convention, where Kamala Harris will formally accept the party’s presidential nomination. Party members have indicated that the theme of the week will be “passing the torch” to a new generation of leaders, after Joe Biden cleared the way for Harris by abandoning his re-election campaign.Conventions provide a unique opportunity for up-and-coming lawmakers to speak to a national audience and boost their name recognition as they prepare for their own possible presidential campaigns in the future.Although the Democratic National Committee has not yet released the list of convention speakers, here are some of the big names expected to take the stage:Pete ButtigiegView image in fullscreenThe former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, surprised the country in 2020 when he launched a seemingly long-shot presidential bid, but the charismatic Buttigieg turned in strong performances in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. After dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Biden, Buttigieg, 42, joined the administration as transportation secretary.Like other expected speakers at the convention, Buttigieg was named as a potential running mate for Harris before that post went to the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz. The convention will give Buttigieg another chance to build his national profile, as he is widely expected to launch another White House bid in the years to come.Wes MooreMoore, 45, made history in 2022 when he was elected as the first Black governor of Maryland. A former businessman, Moore has proven himself to be an effective surrogate for Biden and now Harris, and his effectiveness on the campaign trail has sparked speculation about his future plans.While introducing the president and vice-president at an event in Maryland on Thursday, Moore said: “In a few minutes, you’re going to hear not just from the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden. You’re also going to hear from the 47th president.”The crowd then broke out in chants of “48! 48!” in an apparent reference to Moore’s future campaign to become the 48th president.Gavin NewsomView image in fullscreenThe California governor, 56, has built a reputation as one of the Democratic party’s loudest attack dogs, as he often went toe to toe with Donald Trump during his presidency. His gubernatorial tenure has not been without controversy, as he faced – and overcame – a recall effort in 2021.But Newsom’s ability to punch back against Republicans could be a boon for Democrats’s efforts to draw a clear contrast between Harris and Trump, while also helping to build the governor’s political brand.Alexandria Ocasio-CortezView image in fullscreenOcasio-Cortez, 34, attracted national headlines in 2018, when she pulled off a huge upset to defeat a 10-term incumbent in her Democratic primary. The New York congresswoman has quickly become known as one of progressives’ most engaging communicators on issues like healthcare costs and student loan debt.In a year when Democrats are counting on young voters to turn out at the polls to help them win up and down the ballot, Ocasio-Cortez’s presence on the convention stage could help the party motivate a new generation of Americans.JB PritzkerView image in fullscreenThe 59-year-old governor of Illinois is widely expected to get a prime speaking slot at the convention, as it will be held in his home state. The speech would give Pritzker a chance to flourish his credentials of having codified the right to abortion in Illinois and declaring it a “sanctuary state” for women seeking abortions. He has also been strong on gun control, and legalised recreational marijuana.Harris reportedly considered Pritzker to be her running mate before choosing Walz, as the Illinois governor was similarly viewed as a potential asset in the midwestern battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin. With a reported net worth of $3.5bn, Pritzker would also be the wealthiest lawmaker to address the convention.Josh ShapiroView image in fullscreenShapiro, 51, has been a rising political star in a crucial swing state for years but shot to national prominence in fall 2022 when, as state attorney general, he won the gubernatorial race over an extreme Trumpist Republican.He was one of the two finalists in Harris’s search for a running mate, but progressives raised concerns about his support for Israel and record on private school vouchers. When Walz was announced as the pick, Shapiro said in a statement: “Pennsylvanians elected me to a four-year term as their governor, and my work here is far from finished – there is a lot more stuff I want to get done for the good people of this commonwealth.”Known as a compelling orator who models himself off Barack Obama, a convention speech would give Shapiro the opportunity to push back against some of the criticisms leveled against him during the veepstakes.Gretchen WhitmerView image in fullscreenThe Michigan governor, 52, was on Biden’s running mate shortlist in 2020, and her party’s strong showing in the midterms was in part attributed to her governership. She has been in favor of stricter gun laws, repealing abortion bans and backing universal preschool. Viewed as one of the party’s most promising leaders, Whitmer was also named as a potential running mate for Harris, but the governor withdrew from consideration early.“I have communicated with everyone, including the people of Michigan, that I’m going to stay as governor until the end of my term at the end of 2026,” Whitmer said of her decision.Depending on the outcome in November, Whitmer may have an opportunity to run for the White House in 2028 – or she may wait until 2032 if Harris can pull off a victory. More

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      Rising stars have the chance to shine at Democratic convention

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      In 2004, Barack Obama was a relatively unknown state legislator trying to become Illinois’ next senator – until his speech at the Democratic convention. When Democrats gathered in Boston to nominate John Kerry, many Americans heard Obama speak for the first time. And they were mesmerized.“I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible,” Obama said that evening.Four years later, Obama stood on the convention stage to accept the party’s presidential nomination. The 2004 speech offers one of the clearest examples of how convention speeches can elevate a rising political star to national prominence. When Democrats convene in Chicago next week to nominate Kamala Harris, a number of the party’s most promising lawmakers are expected to address the American people as they look to build their national profiles and potentially plan for their own presidential campaigns.“The convention is a really powerful opportunity because tens of millions, if not more – probably hundreds of millions across all the different platforms and social media clips and stuff like that – are going to watch what happens in Chicago over the next week,” said Amanda Litman, co-founder of the group Run for Something, which recruits young leaders to run for office.The Democratic National Committee has not yet released its list of convention speakers, but party leaders have emphasized that the theme of the week will be passing the torch to a new generation of leaders, reflecting Harris’s ascension to the nomination after Joe Biden abandoned his presidential campaign last month.Certain lawmakers are widely expected to receive prime speaking slots. Governors like Wes Moore of Maryland, Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan will likely have a chance to address the convention crowd. Some of the expected speakers – including Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro and transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg – were named as potential running mates for Harris before that position went to Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, who will address the convention on Wednesday.That somewhat awkward dynamic underscores an unexpected challenge facing rising stars in the party. With Harris as the nominee, the dynamic for them has changed. They previously thought they would address a convention where Biden was the nominee. If Biden were still in the race and then won re-election, he could not run again in 2028. But if Harris wins in November, she will have the chance to seek re-election in 2028, meaning the next open Democratic primary may not occur until 2032.With that in mind, up-and-coming leaders will need to balance their promotion of Harris’s campaign with their efforts to grow their national profiles. That delicate dynamic was on display Thursday, when Moore was introducing Biden and Harris at an event in Maryland.“In a few minutes, you’re going to hear not just from the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden. You’re also going to hear from the 47th president,” Moore said, nodding to Harris’s campaign.The crowd then broke out in chants of “48! 48!” in an apparent reference to Moore’s future campaign to become the 48th president.While Harris’s elevation complicates speakers’ task, it could also present them with an opportunity.“They can tap into the palpable enthusiasm and excitement that is electrifying not just Chicago but the entire country over the next week,” said Antonio Arellano, vice-president of communications for the youth voting group NextGen. “They can tap into that energy that this change at the top of the ticket has generated and really lean into the fact that the Democratic party is the party of the future. It is a party that is listening to the American people, particularly young voters.”Surveys show that Harris has indeed captivated the Democratic party base since launching her campaign last month. A poll conducted this month by Monmouth University found that 92% of Democratic voters are enthusiastic about having Harris as the party’s nominee, compared to 62% who said the same of Biden back in February.“The American people, especially young voters, have been demanding to turn the page, and the Harris-Walz campaign is delivering on this exciting moment,” said Rahna Epting, executive director of the progressive group MoveOn Political Action. “It’s time for a new generation of leaders to take the stage, and the pro-democracy, anti-Trump coalition is fired up to build on the momentum heading into the fall.”And while well-known lawmakers like Newsom and Whitmer will almost certainly get a spotlight at the convention, other rising stars in the party may get a chance to speak as well. Arellano hopes to hear from first-year House members like Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Maxwell Frost of Florida, who is the first gen Z member of Congress. Litman expects that the convention will also bring attention to more junior lawmakers, such as state legislators who have played a key role in the fight over abortion access since the reversal of Roe v Wade in 2022.“There have been really powerful state and local leaders who have done amazing work, and I hope they’ll get a spotlight,” Litman said. “I think they should talk really genuinely and authentically about what they’ve been doing and what they will do, but I expect we’ll hear a lot about reproductive health and abortion access.”Arellano echoed Litman’s expectation that abortion will be a primary focus of the convention, and he expects many speakers will also make a point to outline a progressive vision for the economy. With poll after poll showing that voters rank the economy and the cost of living as two of their top concerns, Democrats need to demonstrate how their agenda will materially improve the lives of Americans, particularly young Americans.“They want to be able to not just get by, but get ahead,” Arellano said. “What they’re wanting to hear are policy proposals, legislative priorities that are going to make sure that we level the playing field for once and for all, that our economy is measured not by how well big corporations are doing, but by how well ordinary Americans are doing.“[The convention] presents an opportunity to really drive home that contrast between a party that is celebrating joy, celebrating enthusiasm, driving excitement about what’s possible in the future, versus a party that’s looking at the past as a source of inspiration and wants to drag our country backwards 50 years.” More

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      Chopper whopper: Willie Brown shoots down Trump’s helicopter story

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      In his press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Donald Trump’s stream of invective, wild claims and outright lies included a story about a brush with death during a helicopter ride with Willie Brown, a veteran California politician who once briefly dated Kamala Harris, now Trump’s Democratic rival in the presidential election.Claiming to “know Willie Brown very well”, Trump said: “In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought, maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie was … a little concerned. So I know him pretty well.”Trump also said Brown told him “terrible things” about Harris and was “not a fan of hers very much at that point”.Both parts of Trump’s story turned out to be untrue.It quickly became clear after the news conference on Thursday that Trump was talking about a helicopter ride with Jerry Brown, then the California governor. Furthermore, Willie Brown had nothing bad to say about Harris.The pair dated nearly 30 years ago. Brown, 90, told the New York Times, adding: “No hard feelings.”Of Trump’s helicopter claim, he said: “You know me well enough to know that if I almost went down in a helicopter with anybody, you would have heard about it!”Speaking to KRON4, a San Francisco-area radio station, Brown said: “I’ve never done business with Donald Trump, let’s start with that. And secondly, I don’t think I’d want to ride on the same helicopter with him. There’s too many people that have an agenda with reference to him, including the people who service helicopters!”It was widely established that Trump’s helicopter ride happened in 2018, when Trump was president and he and Jerry Brown took a trip to inspect wildfire damage.Through a spokesperson, Jerry Brown said: “There was no emergency landing and no discussion of Kamala Harris.”It turned out that Gavin Newsom, the current governor of California, was on the flight too, as governor-elect.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“I call complete BS,” Newsom told the Times, while “laughing out loud”.Trump did repeatedly bring up the subject of crashing, Newsom said, but: “We talked about everyone else, but not Kamala.”Trump held his press conference in an attempt to highlight Harris’s lack of such events since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee, after Joe Biden dropped his re-election campaign less than three weeks ago and endorsed his vice-president to replace him at the top of the 2024 presidential ticket. But the former president’s chaotic and bad-tempered event did little to reset a campaign narrative showing Harris surging in popularity on the campaign trail as the former president flounders.Newsom told the Times he thought the press conference was “an act of desperation”. More

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      Governors admit worries but rally behind Biden after meeting: ‘We have his back’

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      A group of leading Democratic governors offered words of support for Joe Biden on Wednesday as pressure mounted on the president to leave the race.The governors, including Tim Walz of Minnesota, Wes Moore of Maryland, Gavin Newsom of California and Kathy Hochul of New York, held a closed-door meeting with Biden in Washington as he sought to reassure his party – and the public – that he is up to the job after a shaky debate performance.Biden met for more than an hour at the White House in person and virtually with more than 20 governors from his party. The governors told reporters afterward that the conversation was “candid” and said they expressed concerns about Biden’s debate performance last week. They reiterated that defeating Donald Trump in November was the priority, but said they were still standing behind Biden and did not join other Democrats who have been urging him to withdraw his candidacy.“We, like many Americans, are worried,” Walz of Minnesota said. “We are all looking for the path to win – all the governors agree with that. President Biden agrees with that. He has had our backs through Covid … the governors have his back. We’re working together just to make very, very clear that a path to victory in November is the No 1 priority and that’s the No 1 priority of the president … The feedback was good. The conversation was honest.”“The president is our nominee. The president is our party leader,” added Moore of Maryland. He said Biden “was very clear that he’s in this to win it”.“We were honest about the feedback we’re getting … and the concerns we’re hearing from people,” Moore said. “We’re going to have his back … the results we’ve been able to see under this administration have been undeniable.”The meeting capped a tumultuous day for Biden as members of his own party, and a major democratic donor, urged him to step aside amid questions over his fitness for office. Two Democratic lawmakers have called on Biden to exit the race, and a third Congressman said he had “grave concerns” about Biden’s ability to beat Trump. The White House, meanwhile, was forced to deny reports that Biden is weighing whether his candidacy is still viable.Biden, for his part, has forcefully insisted that he is staying in the race. “Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can, as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running … no one’s pushing me out,” Biden said on a call with staffers from his re-election campaign. “I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.”Kamala Harris has also stood by his side, despite some insiders reportedly rallying around her as a possible replacement. “We will not back down. We will follow our president’s lead,” the vice-president reportedly told staffers on Wednesday.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMichigan governor Gretchen Whitmer also threw her support behind Biden. “He is in it to win it and I support him,” she said on Twitter/X after the meeting.Whitmer is one of several Democratic governors who have been cited as possible replacements if Biden were to withdraw his candidacy. Gavin Newsom, whose name has also been floated, flew in for the governors’ meeting on Wednesday, saying afterwards: “I heard three words from the president tonight – he’s all in. And so am I.”Newsom has been a top surrogate for Biden’s re-election campaign, but has also garnered increasing buzz as a potential replacement if Biden were to withdraw. He was swarmed by reporters after the debate ended last week, some asking him if he’d replace Biden.A Siena College/New York Times poll released Wednesday suggested Trump’s lead had increased since the debate, with him winning 49% of likely voters compared to 43% for Biden. Only 48% of Democrats in the poll said Biden should remain the nominee. A Reuters/Ipsos poll published Tuesday said that former first lady Michelle Obama is the only hypothetical candidate to definitively defeat Trump, but she has previously said she’s not running. That poll had Biden and Trump tied.The Associated Press contributed reporting More

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      Kamala Harris: insiders rally behind VP to replace Biden if he bows out

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      As Joe Biden faces increasing pressure to withdraw his candidacy following last week’s poor debate performance, Kamala Harris has emerged as the frontrunner to replace him.The president forcefully rejected calls to end his campaign on Wednesday, telling his staffers: “No one is pushing me out … I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.” His defiant remarks came after the New York Times reported that Biden had privately told allies he understood he might not be able to salvage his candidacy if he could not convince voters of his viability.As the White House has continued to deny reports that Biden was weighing the future of his campaign, talks of who would step up if he did withdraw have escalated.Senior sources at the Biden campaign, the White House and the Democratic National Committee told Reuters that the vice-president was the top alternative.Harris, a former senator from California, has stood by the president’s side as he weathers the debate fallout this week, and reportedly told campaign staffers on Wednesday: “We will not back down. We will follow our president’s lead.”But pundits advocating that Harris take over the ticket have pointed to polls suggesting that she could have advantages over Biden in a race against Donald Trump. A post-debate Reuters/Ipsos poll found that one in three Democrats think Biden should quit, and that 81% viewed Harris favorably, compared to 78% for Biden. Michelle Obama was the only hypothetical Democratic candidate to beat Trump in the poll, but the former first lady said in March she was not running. Biden and Trump were tied in that poll, and Harris performed similarly, earning 42% of votes compared with Trump’s 43%.A CNN poll published Tuesday also found Harris “within striking distance of Trump in a hypothetical matchup” – 47% supporting the former president, and 45% supporting Harris, a result within the margin of error. The Biden-Trump matchup in that poll had Trump earning 49% of votes and Biden earning 43%. Harris’s modest advantage was due partly to her having broader support from women and independents, CNN said.With two Democratic congressmen now publicly calling on Biden to step aside, other party leaders have privately suggested they favor Harris as his potential replacement, according to reports. Hakeem Jeffries, House minority leader, signaled to members that she would be the best option, the Washington Post reported.James Clyburn, a senior congressional Democrat, said publicly he’d support Harris if Biden were to withdraw his candidacy, urging Democrats to “do everything to bolster her, whether she’s in second place or at the top of the ticket”. Summer Lee, a House Democrat from Pennsylvania, also said Wednesday that Harris was the “obvious choice” to replace Biden, if he decided not to run.Some Harris supporters who are advocating she take over the campaign have argued that she would perform better than Biden with Black and Latino communities, and that she is a more powerful abortion-rights spokesperson than Biden.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSkeptics, however, have noted that Harris also remains fairly unpopular and have pointed to polls suggesting she has vulnerabilities in terms of voters’ trust in her ability to handle immigration, China relations and Israel’s war on Gaza.The other names that have been floated as possible replacements include California governor Gavin Newsom, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois governor J B Pritzker and Kentucky governor Andy Beshear. The Reuters poll, however, suggested they would all perform worse than Biden and Harris.If Harris became the presidential candidate, she could take over the funds raised by the campaign since the account is registered under Biden and Harris.On Wednesday, the White House also announced a series of “summer of engagement” events for Harris, including visits to New Orleans, Las Vegas, Dallas and Indianapolis. More

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      ‘Waiting in the wings’: as Biden stumbles, Gavin Newsom’s name is on everyone’s lips

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      To paraphrase Jan Brady of the Brady Bunch, lately it’s been “Newsom, Newsom, Newsom” all day long.He’s been at the Vatican for a climate summit, and in Alpharetta, Georgia, for a televised debate with Florida governor Ron DeSantis. He’s all over the TV, actually – on Fox News and MSNBC, and in advertisements airing in Tennessee.And ever since Joe Biden’s catastrophic performance at the first presidential debate on CNN, his name has popped up in nearly every list of possible successors. With just four months to go until the presidential election, chances that the president would step aside now are exceedingly remote – but that hasn’t stopped the speculation. Online political betting odds that Gavin Newsom, the California governor, would end up at the top of the presidential ticket this year tripled to a one-in-four chance last week.For the ambitious governor of the most populous US state, this crowning moment has been a long time in the making. For years, Newsom’s flair for a photo op and steady pursuit of network news spots have fueled speculation about his presidential ambitions, and sparked scepticism among constituents who’d rather he stick to his day job. Now, it seems, the man who has spent the last several years seeking a national stage has finally found himself at the centre of one.“I think it’s been clear that he’s been waiting in the wings for some time,” said Emily Hoeven, an opinion columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle and politics reporter who has followed Newsom’s career closely. “But I think that now there is a far bigger opening for him than there ever has been.”View image in fullscreenThe governor was swarmed by the press the moment the debate ended. “It was like human piranhas descending on the governor after the end of this debate,” marvelled MSNBC host Alex Wagner, as she settled in for a post-debate interview with him.Newsom, who is top surrogate for Biden’s 2024 campaign, waved away the buzz about whether he would replace Biden on the Democratic ticket. When Wagner asked about growing calls for Biden to step down, he quickly said such talk was “unhelpful and unnecessary” – before highlighting Biden’s record on the economy and abortion, and the threats his opponent poses to the continuation of US democracy.“I think what you’ve seen is this, what Gavin Newsom has to say is really not so different from what Joe Biden has to say,” said Bill Whalen, a policy fellow at the Hoover Institution thinktank in Palo Alto, California. “But he takes Joe Biden’s message, and he delivers it much more effectively.”For Democrats across the US, Whalen said, Newsom is living out a dream scenario – leading a blue state with a Democratic supermajority in the legislature, where he can easily pass liberal reforms that would be nearly impossible to get through in other states or at a national level. “A lot of what Democrats would love to do nationally, California is doing,” Whalen said.It has also helped that as California governor – one who handily defeated a recall campaign in 2021 – Newsom has amassed formidable political funds that he has been using not only to aid other Democratic candidates including Biden, but also his own political aspirations. Since his easy re-election in 2022, the governor has funnelled millions in campaign funds towards ads and appearances outside his home state.Whether he can translate that momentum into a successful national campaign remains uncertain, Whalen and other political analysts said.View image in fullscreenWhile he has been busy pursuing the national limelight, his reputation at home has soured. Only 47% of likely voters in California approved of his job performance in a Public Policy Institute of California survey in June, down from 57% in March 2023.It may not help Newsom’s case that amid recent budget shortages, the state has been grappling with a spiralling homelessness crisis, an underperforming education system and growing economic inequality.“I think that his actions demonstrate that his priorities are increasingly lying outside of California,” said Hoeven. “And I think that that is frustrating to Californians who obviously did not elect him to be the president.”In recent months, Newsom has appeared to abandon some of his more progressive political stances – including backtracking on support for supervised injection sites, vetoing a bill to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms and occasionally siding with Republicans and against allies in the legislature – which some supporters have perceived as an appeal to swing voters.But it remains unclear whether the liberal governor of a blue state will ever truly have what it takes to amass national support in an increasingly divided country. And while his powerful political connections have helped his star rise in California, it is unclear whether he will be able to shed a certain elitist affect that has dogged his campaigns here.Then there’s the enduring image that’s haunted the governor’s political career for two decades: a photograph of Newsom stretched across a luxurious rug in Ann Getty’s penthouse, with his ex-wife Kimberly Guilfoyle – who is now a rightwing TV personality and Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law.View image in fullscreenIt will be easy for opponents to hearken back to the governor’s infamously ill-timed visit to the Michelin-starred French Laundry restaurant amid a Covid-19 surge, or to point out his family’s decision to move, part-time, from California’s capitol in Sacramento to the wealthy Bay Area enclave of Marin – to enrol their child in a private academy.In a recent bit on Jimmy Kimmel Live, comedian Josh Meyers plays “your lovin’ Govin” in a fake political ad where Meyers-as-Newsom attempts a bench press in his signature startup-chic navy business jacket and half-buttoned white shirt while promoting “lunar power”. He huffs a vape and when someone asks for a hit he says: “Sure, but I only vape merlot” without breaking out of his toothpaste commercial smile.“There is such a thing as perhaps being too attractive, or, more to the point, looking like the person whose photo comes with the new wallet that you buy at the department store,” said Whalen. “That’s Gavin Newsom.”Hoeven thinks back to Newsom’s inauguration in 2023, when he led what was billed as an “anti-January 6 march to the capitol”. He was meant to march about a quarter-mile, alongside supporters, down to the governor’s office. “But in reality, there were these massive fences up on either side of the promenade, basically, so the average person could not participate or really even watch the parade,” she recalled.The governor walked only a little bit, before getting into a car. “It was emblematic of some of the ways that he’s failed to connect, I think, with the average person,” she said. More

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      ‘Absurd’: Gavin Newsom hits back over Panera wage-exemption puzzle

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      Gavin Newsom is hitting back at a news report that he pushed for an exception to the state’s new fast-food minimum wage law that benefits a wealthy campaign donor.California’s minimum wage is $16 per hour. But starting on 1 April, most fast-food restaurants in the state must pay their workers at least $20 an hour under legislation Newsom signed last year. However, the law does not apply to restaurants that have on-site bakeries and sell bread as a standalone menu item.That exception puzzled some industry watchers, and was never fully explained by Newsom or other supporters of the law. Then on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported that the exemption was linked to opposition from the Panera Bread franchisee Greg Flynn, whose company owns 24 of the restaurants in California and has donated to Newsom’s campaigns.“This story is absurd,” the California governor’s spokesman, Alex Stack, said on Thursday.Stack said that the governor’s legal team believes Panera Bread is not exempt from the law. They said that to be exempt from the minimum wage law as a bakery, restaurants must produce bread for sale on site. The governor’s office said many chain bakeries, such as Panera Bread, mix dough at a centralized off-site location and then ship that dough to the restaurant for baking and sale.Since last year, Panera Bread has been reported as a restaurant exempt from the law and Newsom’s office has not said otherwise, even when the governor was directly asked why the chain was exempt.A message left with Panera Bread about their baking process was not immediately returned.Stack said the governor never met with Flynn about the law. A message left with the Flynn Group was not returned on Thursday. Flynn told Bloomberg he did not play a role in crafting the exemption.The Bloomberg story, citing anonymous sources, says Flynn urged the governor’s top aides to consider whether chains such as Panera should be considered fast food. It does not say that Newsom and Flynn spoke directly about the law.The Flynn Group and Flynn Properties operate 2,600 restaurants and fitness centers across 44 states, according to the company’s website. Campaign finance records show Flynn Properties and Greg Flynn – the founder, chairman and chief executive – have donated more than $220,000 to Newsom’s political campaigns since 2017. That included a $100,000 donation to Newsom’s campaign to defeat a recall attempt in 2021.The minimum wage law passed in 2023. In 2022, Flynn had publicly opposed a similar proposal, writing in an op-ed in Capitol Weekly that it would “effectively kill the franchise business model in the state”.Republican leaders in the state Legislature on Thursday criticized Newsom for the possible connection.“Put simply, campaign contributions should not buy carveouts in legislation,” the Republican state senate leader Brian Jones said. “It’s unacceptable.”Assemblymember James Gallagher, the Republican leader in the assembly, said the attorney general, Rob Bonta, or another entity responsible for investigating conflicts of interest should look into the matter.“This exemption, there is no explanation for it. Someone had to push for it,” he said.The law was authored by Assemblymember Chris Holden, a Democrat from Pasadena, who told reporters on Thursday he was not involved in the negotiations over the bill’s final amendments, which included the $20 minimum wage increase and the exemption for bakeries.He said those talks happened between the business community and labor unions – groups Holden said were brought together “through the governor’s leadership”.Holden said he did not know Flynn or his status as a Newsom campaign donor. He declined to discuss if there were any legitimate policy reasons for exempting bakeries from the law.“I’m not going to try to start parceling every individual group,” Holden said. “The way that the bill moved forward, everyone who’s in is in.”Dan Schnur, who teaches political communications at the University of Southern California and the University of California Berkeley, said the issue had the potential to damage Newsom, much like when Newsom went to dinner at the French Laundry during the pandemic at a time when he was urging people to avoid public gatherings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. That issue gave momentum to an effort to recall Newsom from office, which eventually qualified for the ballot in 2021 but was ultimately unsuccessful.“The last time the governor got in the middle of a restaurant-related controversy, his hesitation to address it turned a small problem into a much bigger one,” Schur said. “It’s more than possible that there is a perfectly reasonable substantive policy-based reason for this exception. But if that reason exists, the governor is obligated to share it with the people of California. Otherwise they’ll assume that he did a big favor for a big donor.” More