California Democrats are planning an anti-Trump strategy for the midterm elections

from Maya S. Miller and Jeanne KuangCalMatters

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

California Democrats this weekend in San Francisco have an opportunity to set the tone in a key election year when their voters can decide control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

As Democrats across the country seek to harness discontent with the Trump administration into a transformative midterm in November, all eyes are on the nation’s largest state party as it chooses who to back in California’s June primary.

Party leaders are overrated after voter support Proposition 50the ballot measure to rig congressional districts in favor of Democrats. The three-day gathering gives him an early opportunity to build on that momentum for the upcoming elections.

The state marquee race this year is one that will make it from the outfield Governor Gavin Newsoma national Democratic star with presidential ambitions who is retiring at the end of this year. But don’t expect an impressive party endorsement there: With nearly 10 candidates, it’s unlikely any of them will attract enough of the expected 3,500 Democratic delegates to secure the nomination. Newsom himself will not attend, a spokesman said.

Instead, one of the biggest questions will be whether California Democrats will continue to anoint incumbents — those with the support of elected party leaders, high-dollar donors and powerful lobby groups — or whether political newcomers can convert grassroots support from the party into actual endorsements.

For years, young Democrats in particular have been pushing the party to embrace bolder, more progressive ideas such as universal health insurance, tuition-free college, banning arms sales to Israel, and eschewing the Democratic Party’s longstanding respect for seniority and office through term limits. The brazenness of Trump’s second administration has given new urgency to those demands as the Democratic base grows weary of what activists call a milk-livered “radical civility” approach.

“The fact that we’re in a national emergency means there’s no time for incrementalism or moderation,” said Heidi Hall, Nevada County Supervisor and the first Democrat to announce she’s challenging Republican incumbent Kevin Kiley to represent a competitive district east of Sacramento.

“Any Democrat in office who isn’t willing to fight that hard needs to get out, needs to step back and let somebody else in who is going to fight,” Hall said. “Or they’ll be complicit in what’s going on.”

Kylie has since said she will run for Congress again, but not in her current district, which has changed dramatically since the passage of Prop. 50.

Early signs show there is at least some appetite for new blood in the overwhelming majority of California’s 52-member Democratic congressional delegation. In January, local delegates blocked five sitting Democratic members of Congress — Reps. Ami Berra, John Garamendi, Doris Matsui, Brad Sherman and Mike Thompson — from securing endorsements that incumbents typically receive by default. These members have instead had to woo delegates to win the party’s endorsement as they face challenges from other left-leaning and mostly younger candidates.

And while Thompson, Garamendi and Sherman were able to garner enough support from local delegates in a pre-convention endorsement vote, Matsui must continue to seek support at the convention. Berra was completely out of favor as he failed to secure even a simple majority of the delegate votes in his district.

“People on the ground are tired of domestic politics like this,” Hall said. “They want to be heard and they want the opportunity to choose the candidate they want.”

Hall’s team spent more than a month calling delegates and gathering petition signatures to deny Bera automatic approval. She criticized the seven-term congressman from Elk Grove, who represents the Sacramento-based 6th Congressional District, for jumping into the race in the neighboring 3rd District, where he is running, after the new maps of Prop. 50 made the seat much more favorable to Democrats.

In a prior approvalHall placed third behind Berra and fellow grassroots candidate Eric Bennett, who also switched districts in November.

Another endorsement battle to watch is in the 22nd Congressional District, where two Central Valley Democrats have adopted different tactics to win swing votes as they fight for the chance to fall incumbent Republican Rep. David Valadaoa major target for Democrats nationally this cycle.

Randy Villegas, a community college professor, Visalia school board trustee and political newcomer, is hoping to win his party’s support over the beloved Assemblyman Jasmeet Bainswhich is backed by the powerful California Service Employees International Union.

Villegas campaigned on the economic populist message promoted by progressives such as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and New York City Mayor Zochran Mamdani, while Baines, a Kern County physician, casts himself as a moderate “Dolinist” who isn’t afraid to stand up to party leadership.

Winning the party’s support over an incumbent or incumbent will still be an uphill battle, said Mai Wang, a progressive Sacramento City Council member who is challenging Rep. Matsui in the 7th Congressional District. For her, supporting the party means more than just pouring money into the campaign and volunteers knocking on doors.

“This is about the future of this country and what kind of Democratic Party we want going forward,” Wang said. “At this point we have to ask ourselves, ‘What type of leaders do we want to send into the halls of Congress to fight this authoritarian administration?’

Who will Democrats support for governor?

One race where there will almost certainly be no approval is the wide open race gubernatorial race.

It is usually difficult to secure the party’s support in any non-incumbent race, requiring a candidate to receive 60% of the delegate vote. This weekend, as many as eight Democrats running for governor will address delegates on Saturday — and that’s not even including all the Democrats in the race.

Those vying for the endorsement include former Congresswoman Katie Porter, a consumer advocate who made her name in Congress challenging corporate executives; Congressman Eric Swalwell, a former prosecutor known for his involvement in Trump’s second impeachment; and self-funded billionaire Tom Steyer, who has invested some of his hedge fund fortune in environmental activism.

Trailing them in campaign cash and polls are former Attorney General Xavier Becerra, former State Inspector Betty Yee, Public Schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond and former Assemblyman Ian Calderon.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan was the latest to enter the race last month, missing a party deadline to seek the endorsement. But the moderate, who is not well known outside the Bay Area, has quickly raised millions of dollars in campaign donations from tech executives such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, making him a formidable opponent.

Still, all the contenders will be working the crowds this weekend. The meeting, which will include both official work such as voter registration training and boozy parties organized by interest groups and campaigns, represents the largest concentration of the state’s most active party loyalists. This is a chance for applicants to gain the attention of potential organizers, volunteers and benefactors.

If they fail to secure a significant number of delegates, that could increase pressure on some candidates to drop out, as poll after poll shows a wide field of Democrats splitting voter support and putting Republicans in a clear lead. In California’s first two primaries, the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party, leading some Democrats to worry that two Republicans could advance.

For months, polls have shown the top two Republican candidates, former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, ahead of most Democrats. C latest poll from Emerson College released Wednesday, the top Democrat in the polls is Swwell, with 14 percent of likely voters backing him. He was sandwiched between poll leaders Hilton and Bianco, meaning the three are statistically tied. No other Democrat received more than 10% support from voters polled.

Party Chairman Rusty Hicks dismissed concerns that there are too many little-known Democrats in the race and did not say whether he or the party would intervene to force candidates to drop out and consolidate support.

“I am committed to doing whatever is required to ensure that we win in November 2026, period,” he said. “The reality is that by the time you get to the end of March and the beginning of April, you’re probably going to see the field naturally thin out.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.