Erika D. Smith, Columnist

The Race to Succeed Newsom Has All the Democrats’ Problems

March 30, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC

Erika D. Smith is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She is a former Los Angeles Times columnist and Sacramento Bee editorial board member.

A crowded field.
Photographer: Etienne Laurent/AFP/Getty Images

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After more than a year in disarray, Democrats finally seem to be getting it together. The party is heading into the midterm elections with an edge in both polling and messaging. Voters are energized — see this weekend’s No Kings rallies — and that has led to a string of wins in special elections, including one last week that flipped a district in Florida that takes in President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

How, then, to explain what’s happening in the Democratic stronghold of California?