‘Trump’s reign of terror must end’: California Democrats plot national return to power | California

Fury against Donald Trump was the coin of the realm, as thousands of California delegates, activists and elected officials gathered in San Francisco this weekend, emboldened by a string of victories and confident that the Golden State would help check the president’s power in the upcoming midterm elections.

Democrats swarmed the Moscone Center convention complex Saturday, sporting lanyards emblazoned with Gavin Newsom’s name and tote bags emblazoned with one of Nancy Pelosi’s favorite aphorisms: “We don’t agonize, we organize” — symbols of a party in transition as the former president nears retirement and the term-limited governor considers a presidential campaign.

“Trump’s reign of terror must end,” Pelosi said in her speech, which Democrats honored throughout the weekend with tributes and speeches to their “always-on speaker.”

Adam Schiff, a California senator and longtime Trump adversary, invoked the grizzly bear on the state flag as a warning to the current administration: “When you push the bear, it takes your fucking head off.” »

Next November, he declared in front of a packed room, “there will be a countdown”.

During hours of fiery speeches and caucus meetings, speakers touted the resounding success of Proposition 50 last year — the state’s redistricting counterattack to a Republican gerrymander in Texas. They say this speaks to California’s role both as a “model” for the national party and as a bulwark against the Trump administration.

Democrats across the country are furious with the president after more than a year of sweeping policy changes — massive cuts to health care, a sprawling deportation campaign and the use of federal power to target political opponents and blue states. But in California, the clash seemed personal.

The state, long touted by Trump as a liberal “hellscape,” is governed by some of his most prominent political adversaries — leaders who champion environmental protections, immigrant rights, access to abortion and expanded access to health care. In June, Trump deployed the National Guard and troops to the streets of Los Angeles — a preview of what was to come in Chicago, Minneapolis and other blue cities.

As California leads the national resistance to Trump 2.0, Democrats have welcomed a new generation of rising stars. In the room, Rep. Robert Garcia was treated like a celebrity. A top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Garcia has become a leading voice in investigations into the Trump administration and in the push for the release of Jeffrey Epstein’s files. At a Progressive Caucus meeting, Congressman Ro Khanna was cheered as he pushed for accountability from the “Epstein class.”

Trump’s return to power also opened the door to a new, more combative rhetorical posture with a lot more swearing and trolling, a nod to Newsom, whose all-caps, no-holds-barred mockery of Trump and his administration catapulted him onto the national stage.

The race to succeed Newsom dominated the gathering, as convention attendees fretted that California’s vast field of candidates had yet to produce a front-runner, just months before the June primary.

California’s jungle primary system, in which the top two vote-getters advance regardless of party, has increased fears that two Republicans could slip through a fractured field, preventing Democrats from reaching the governor’s office in the nation’s largest blue state.

Underscoring the Democratic National Committee’s commitment to remaining neutral in a contest between Democrats, DNC Chairman Ken Martin urged the party to “unite behind one candidate as quickly as possible” in the governor’s race.

“We just have to make sure we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot, so to speak,” Martin said.

In several recent opinion polls, conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco – both Republicans – lead the pack, followed by Congressman Eric Swalwell, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer and former Congresswoman Katie Porter, with a significant share of voters still undecided.

None of the Democratic candidates for governor won enough delegates to gain approval, according to results released Saturday evening. Swalwell won about a quarter of the delegates, followed unexpectedly by Betty Yee, the former state comptroller, with 17 percent and former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra with 14 percent.

In their speeches on the convention floor, the gubernatorial candidates took turns attacking Trump and promising to protect Californians from the “chaos” and “cruelty” his administration has unleashed on the Golden State.

Porter turned his whiteboard toward the room and asked delegates to repeat the message scrawled in black marker. “Damn Trump!” » they chanted. Swalwell, meanwhile, pledged to use his office to “keep Donald Trump and ICE off our streets and out of our lives.”

In an interview, Yee argued that Sacramento needed more than an anti-Trump crusader: The state needed a governor with the experience to “fix” its chronic budget deficits.

“I think the price of entry into this race is you have to fight Trump,” Yee said in an interview. “But I think we need to do more than that.”

At the Moscone Center, the San Francisco backdrop only underscored the party’s competing impulses on how to counter the Trump administration and go after Silicon Valley billionaires who have forged a stronger relationship with the president during his second term.

The growing divide between Democrats and Silicon Valley is particularly stark in California, a state heavily dependent on the technology sector and where political leaders have long maintained ties to industry executives. But as Silicon Valley politics shifts to the right and top executives pour money into local and national elections, many Democrats are sounding the alarm about the unchecked power they say these companies wield.

In a speech to the convention, Lorena Gonzalez, who heads the California Federation of Labor union president, warned Democrats it was time to stop “kneeling” to the same tech titans who helped put Trump back in power.

“There is an enemy here and it’s not just Trump,” she said in an interview. “The reason we’re with Trump again is because we didn’t address the structural issues that were actually affecting the working class.”

As the party grapples with these internal divisions, the internal tug of war over how Democrats win back power is playing out in districts like Randy Villegas’s.

Villegas, a progressive political newcomer backed by Sanders, is running against Jasmeet Bains, a moderate Democratic senator who frequently opposes his party, including over the redistricting plan that made Republican Rep. David Valadao’s district more favorable to Democrats. “Our race is, above all, a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party,” Villegas said.

Outside the convention, the party’s ideological – and tactical – fault lines were on full display. A group of young activists dressed as snails and other spineless sea creatures called on Democratic leaders to “grow a backbone and use it” to protect trans children and immigrant families. As delegates filed out of the room, a costumed mollusk handed out business cards that warned: “Trumpism thrives when Democrats rush to confront the cruelty in the middle.” »