For all of their special-election victories, modest polling advantages and newly invigorated base voters, Democrats are still adrift as a party. Who is their leader? What does the party stand for? How can Democrats win a national election again?
Plenty of prominent Democrats have ideas about all of this.
In the coming weeks, I hope to introduce you to some of these characters — many of them potential presidential candidates — through Q&As about their politics and personal lives. Today we’re starting with Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, who gave his final State of the State address on Thursday.
It has been a big week for ambitious Democratic governors, with Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Andy Beshear of Kentucky also giving major addresses that were widely viewed through the lens of whether they might run for the White House in 2028.
But it is the California governor who has jumped to the front of Democrats’ vibes-based — and very early! — shadow primary race, endearing himself to some of the party’s voters with his energetic and combative approach to President Trump. Still, others wonder whether Newsom would be perceived as too much of a (woo-woo?) West Coast liberal to appeal to the middle of the country if he runs.
The following are excerpts, edited and condensed, from our interview last month at a Democratic Governors Association meeting in sunny Phoenix, with an assist from my colleagues Lisa Lerer and Tyler Pager.
What do you see as the party’s most urgent challenge in 2026?
The House of Representatives. Period, full stop. Existential. 2028 does not matter. It’s all about 2026. We, from my humble perspective, and I believe this in my core, may not have a free and fair election, as we know them, in 2028 if we’re not successful in 2026.
Your party’s greatest opportunity in 2026?
Moving away from the “rule of Don” back to the rule of law.
In a sentence, if you could, what’s the most significant way that Trump has changed America?
(He pauses.)
Forgive me, I’m trying to diagram — back to my seventh grade — a sentence.
There’s a coarseness in America. People feel free to shove again. And that’s why, for me, he’s been singularly corrosive. And it is incumbent upon elected officials of all political stripes, in the spirit of Isaiah, to be repairers of that breach.
Can it be repaired at this point?
We don’t have an alternative. This republic will not survive, let alone thrive, unless we can figure out a way to live and advance together across our differences. That’s the heart of what should animate our politics today and moving forward.
A couple of lighter questions: What’s your hometown and what is your top restaurant recommendation there?
You want me to [do] the Trump thing and talk about a little self-dealing? Talk about the Balboa Cafe in the great city [of] San Francisco, and my equity ownership stake that is in a blind trust that I inappropriately should not be bringing up?
It does have a great burger.
Your ethically compliant restaurant recommendation?
Why should I have to play by all these rules?
That’s how Kamala and I got to know each other, at the Balboa Cafe. That’s where we were always hanging out when we were young … it was sort of the center of so much of our respective universes.
This is going to be running after New Year’s and people will be in resolutions mode. What is your workout routine?
Every morning, I wake up, I slice a lemon, cold water, and I make a smoothie. I only eat fruit till noon, consistently. Berries, banana.
I use bands, not weights. I haven’t touched a weight in years. And three to four days a week, we’ll do a routine on my cellphone. It’s like stretch and bands, and that lasts anywhere from, I’m not making this up, like consistently 41 minutes to about 56, so 40 to 60 minutes, and I bring the bands on the road.
And then I try once a week to get out, hike, walk, as I did when Kamala called … there’s a text, we were texting! (That’s a reference to a kerfuffle with former Vice President Kamala Harris over a claim in her book that Newsom never returned her call the day Joe Biden dropped his presidential bid in 2024. “Hiking,” Newsom texted her. “Will call back.”)
I went through that Peloton thing during Covid, saved my life.
Name one person you’d like to see run for president in 2028.
One person? I can’t do a composite?
No.
That’s so unfair. The best of? Ugh.
You can clarify whether it’s an endorsement. But just someone who comes to mind.
The challenge with that is self-evident, that it immediately upsets everyone that’s not on the list, and then they read between it. Was it a cynical response? Was it a tactical response? Was it a thoughtful response? Was it checkers? Was it chess?
It’s the person that is authentic and will be true to themselves. That’s open to argument, interested in evidence that’s not ideological. And someone that truly knows why the hell they want to run.
Has your party solved any of its problems since the last presidential election?
The one problem perhaps that defines more things in more ways on more days is this perception of weakness.
At the core of our challenge and brand is that notion that we are weak. And in significant ways, [Democratic victories in] November meaningfully aided in addressing that issue. And it goes back to the old, strong and wrong, versus weak and right. Given the choice, the American people always support strong and wrong. Trump understands this.
[Steve] Bannon, Bernie [Sanders], Trump — they understand the mood very well. The democratic socialists, MAGA, and whatever invasive species Trump is of the day — I think we need to understand and learn from them as well. That’s where my head’s at.
quote of the day
“Trump says we’re going to run the country — no, we’re not.”
That’s Randy Dutton, a Republican voter in Washington State, whose reaction to the Venezuela intervention exemplified the old saying that Trump’s supporters take him seriously but not literally. Trump suggested to Times reporters this week that the U.S. could run Venezuela for years.
Dutton and other Republican voters spoke to my colleague Sabrina Tavernise about why they support the president’s actions in Venezuela and his projection of American power.
The Moment
Our White House photographer on finding new angles
My colleague Doug Mills, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who has photographed U.S. presidents since 1983, has taken a lot of pictures. Usually, he contends with serious time and space constraints. But on Wednesday, while four Times reporters sat with President Trump for a marathon interview, Doug saw an opportunity to get creative.
He spoke to Jodi Rudoren, who oversees The Times’s newsletters, about the hours he spent capturing the Oval Office through a bird’s-eye view and snapping portraits of Trump through a half-full (or half-empty) glass. Read the full interview with Doug here.
ONE LAST THING
Is Kari Lake eyeing greener pastures?
My colleague Kellen Browning, who covered Kari Lake’s 2024 Senate campaign in Arizona, has more on her notable new digs.
It’s not every day that a $58,500 condo purchase in Iowa catches the political world’s attention.
But Kari Lake is not your typical homeowner.
Lake, the bombastic two-time Republican nominee for top Arizona political offices, bought a condominium in the eastern Iowa city of Davenport in November.
The transaction, earlier reported by MS Now, reignited speculation about whether she is eyeing a political campaign in Iowa, the first-in-the-nation Republican presidential caucus state where she grew up and attended college before moving to Arizona in 1994.
Arizona was not kind to the political ambitions of Lake, who lost bids for governor and Senate in the past four years after alienating moderate voters with her aggressive style and embrace of election conspiracy theories.
Those battleground-state defeats have left some political observers wondering if Lake, who is now serving as a media adviser in the Trump administration, might try again in solidly red Iowa.
In a statement, Lake said only that she was focused on her work in Washington, but she offered some praise for the place where she grew up.
“I love Iowa,” she said, adding that it’s “where so much of my story began.”
If she does run, it’s unclear which office she might seek, but Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, is 92 and might not seek re-election in 2028.
As for the condo, a family trust tied to Lake bought the two-bedroom, one-bathroom, 967-square-foot property in November, according to county records. Lake has three sisters and other extended family members in Iowa, and she grew up near Davenport.
Georgia Gee contributed research.
Kellen Browning, Taylor Robinson, Ama Sarpomaa and Stefano Montali contributed reporting.
Katie Glueck is a Times national political reporter.
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