Erika D. Smith

California Governor Gavin Newsom is used to walking fine political lines. But how he navigates the one before him now will say a lot about whether he’ll be able to define himself as a populist or be cast as an elite in a likely campaign for president in 2028.

They called him a “doomer,” a “decel” and an “alarmist” who was too “focused on science fiction.” Turns out, Scott Wiener, the California state senator behind some of the country’s first safety regulations on artificial intelligence, was a Cassandra. All of a sudden, it appears he’s in good company.

How badly are things going for Republicans in what for more than a decade has been the reliably red state of Ohio? Just ask Jon Husted.

California Governor Gavin Newsom blew more than a few minds this week when he said that he wouldn’t mount a highly anticipated bid for president in 2028 if his longtime frenemy, former Vice President Kamala Harris, decides that she wants to run too.

The more details that emerge about the agreement to settle an antitrust lawsuit that would’ve blocked Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the more blame has been heaped on one man: California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

For months, the billionaires of Silicon Valley (and a few other gilded corners of California) have been scrambling to stop a statewide measure that would levy a one-time 5% wealth tax on their assets. Until now, they haven’t had much luck. But as ballots begin arriving in voters’ mailboxes this week, they arguably have some reason for optimism.

When Donald Trump ran for president the first time, he famously declared that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”

With only weeks to go until Election Day, the story of US politics continues to be one of Republican retrenchment and Democratic expansion. Polls show Democrats now have a real shot at winning races in the traditionally Republican strongholds of Ohio, Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Iowa and even South Carolina.

For much of the Donald Trump era, no low has been too low for what passes as political rhetoric. Posting an AI slop video of the president dropping poop on protesters from a fighter jet? That’s “satire.” Calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage”? Hilarious. Disparaging women as “incapable” and even “piggy”? That’s just telling it how it is.

Donald Trump has spent the past six years trying and failing to prove that Democrats are stealing elections by letting noncitizens vote in big numbers. There’s a mountain of evidence showing that doesn’t happen. But it’s easy to understand why most Americans have little confidence the president will accept the results of next month’s midterms — especially if Republicans get shellacked.