Politics
Newsom urges California voters to protect same-sex marriage amid Supreme Court distrust
Twenty years after he issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of federal law as mayor of San Francisco, Gov. Gavin Newsom returned to the city Friday to try to convince voters that the fight for LGBTQ+ rights isn’t over.
Kicking off Pride Month, the Democratic governor is promoting a measure on the November ballot that would remove language in the state Constitution that defines marriage as between a man and woman.
While courts have deemed the outdated state definition unenforceable and unconstitutional, the initiative comes as LGBTQ+ groups are urging caution about the possibility of another Donald Trump presidency and potential rulings from a conservative Supreme Court majority he helped appoint.
“Why do we feel we need to do this? What more evidence do you need? Wake up to the world we’re living in,” Newsom said Friday at Manny’s, a cafe in the Mission District that has become a go-to venue for Democratic campaigns. “It’s profound and precious progress. You can’t take it for granted.”
Newsom and supporters of the measure at Friday’s event, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed and State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), pointed to the Supreme Court’s undoing of Roe vs. Wade as proof that rights — including the right to marriage — are not certain.
After the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe vs. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion, longtime conservative Justice Clarence Thomas said in a concurring opinion that the court should also reconsider rulings that rely on similar legal reasoning, such as those that protect same-sex marriage and access to contraception.
California and other states have since passed ballot measures to enshrine abortion rights in their constitutions. The same needs to be done for LGBTQ+ rights, Newsom said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom joins Senator Scott Wiener, Congressman Evan Low, President pro Tempore Emeritus Tony Atkins, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and other local officials for a rally in support of Freedom to Marry, a ballot measure to remove Proposition 8 from state Constitution, held at Manny’s at 16th and Mission streets in San Francisco Friday, June 7, 2024.
(Jessica Christian/Getty Images)
“Here we are in 2024, and we’re not experiencing a rights expansion, we’re experiencing a rights regression,” he said.
The definition in California’s current Constitution dates to 2008, when voters approved a ban on same-sex marriage with Proposition 8. That has since been overturned in court, and liberal California remains a leader on LGBTQ+ rights. But the language in Proposition 8 remains on the books.
The measure, if approved by voters, would replace that definition with a broader “fundamental right to marry.”
Although there is no current threat to the legality of same-sex marriage, and President Biden signed a bill attempting to safeguard it in 2022, supporters of the measure are taking no chances. They say the outdated language in California’s Constitution must be erased for good.
State Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), the former California Senate leader who is running for governor in 2026, thanked Newsom for allowing her to legally marry her wife in 2008, reflecting on the so-called summer of love, when LGBTQ+ couples rushed to wed ahead of the vote on Proposition 8.
Atkins said she officiated at 18 weddings that year and remembered days when she attended multiple ceremonies — but that came to “a devastating end” when Proposition 8 passed. Since the initiative was ruled unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ensured the right to same-sex marriage in 2015.
“In California today, we believe the ability to marry who you love is a fundamental right. And while we may feel a sense of security … we can’t become complacent in our fight to protect our rights,” Atkins said Friday.
The California Family Council, a conservative policy organization, opposes the November ballot measure. Spokesperson Greg Burt said in a statement that marriage between a man and a woman creates “the optimal family environment” for children and that the law shouldn’t “tamper” with what he called “the natural order.”
The organization said Friday that a broader definition of marriage could lead to the legalization of polygamy. In April, the Oakland City Council officially recognized polyamorous families in an effort to protect “diverse family structures” from discrimination.
Most Californians’ views have changed since Proposition 8.
Polling by the Public Policy Institute of California in 2021 showed that an overwhelming majority of Californians supported protections for the LGBTQ+ community. However, a recent nationwide poll conducted for The Times by NORC at the University of Chicago showed a clear political divide in how Americans view the influence of LGBTQ+ people in society, with 3 in 4 Democrats saying that impact is positive, and nearly the same share of Republicans saying it has been negative.
Politics
Trump stirs GOP primary drama with visit to Massie’s Kentucky home turf
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President Donald Trump is taking his feud with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to the libertarian lawmaker’s home turf on Wednesday.
Trump is expected to hold an event in Hebron, Kentucky, on Wednesday, the Republican Party of Kentucky announced on social media Monday. It’s located in the northern part of the state’s 4th Congressional District, which Massie represents.
Massie’s primary rival, Ed Gallrein, will attend the Hebron event, his campaign confirmed to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, while deferring all other questions on the matter to the White House.
Massie himself will miss the event due to a previously scheduled official engagement, his spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
KHANNA AND MASSIE THREATEN TO FORCE A VOTE ON IRAN AS PROSPECT OF US ATTACK LOOMS
President Donald Trump will be visiting Rep. Thomas Massie’s congressional district on Wednesday. (Win McNamee/Getty Images; Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
When asked about the visit, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told Fox News Digital, “President Trump will visit the great states of Ohio and Kentucky on Wednesday to tout his economic victories and detail his Administration’s aggressive, ongoing efforts to lower prices and make America more affordable.”
The president has thrown his considerable influence behind Gallrein to unseat Massie after the GOP lawmaker publicly defied Trump on multiple occasions.
MASSIE, KHANNA TO VISIT DOJ TO REVIEW UNREDACTED EPSTEIN FILES
Massie most recently was one of two House Republicans to vote to stop Trump’s joint operation in Iran with Israel, though the legislation was successfully blocked by the majority of GOP lawmakers and a handful of Democrats.
Ed Gallrein, left, seen with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House. (Ed Gallrein congressional campaign)
He was also one of two Republicans to vote against Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last year.
Trump in turn has hurled a slew of personal attacks against Massie, including calling him “weak and pathetic” in a statement endorsing Gallrein in October.
“He only votes against the Republican Party, making life very easy for the Radical Left. Unlike ‘lightweight’ Massie, a totally ineffective LOSER who has failed us so badly, CAPTAIN ED GALLREIN IS A WINNER WHO WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN,” Trump posted on Truth Social at the time, one of numerous criticisms targeting the Kentucky Republican through the years.
He called Massie the “worst Republican congressman” in July amid Massie’s bipartisan push to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein.
Then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, and Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, during a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But Massie has so far appeared to defy political gravity despite making political enemies out of both Trump and House GOP leaders.
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He handily defeated multiple primary challengers in 2024 and 2022, despite public feuds with Trump, and has served his district since 2012.
Gallrein is a retired Navy SEAL and farmer who launched his campaign days after Trump made his endorsement. Their primary election day is May 19.
Politics
California Democrats launch pricey polling effort to winnow crowded gubernatorial field
As anxiety mounts among California Democrats about the potential of a Republican being elected governor, the state party will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on polling to assess the viability of the sprawling field of candidates hoping to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to plans released Tuesday.
The move comes after nearly every Democratic candidate refused party leaders’ call last week to withdraw from the race to avoid splitting the vote in the June primary — an outcome that could lead to a Republican being elected to statewide office for the first time in two decades.
“Candidates have filed, and now they’ve got the opportunity to showcase their viability, their path to win. I want to simply ensure that everybody has information to fully understand the current state of the race,” said Rusty Hicks, the leader of the California Democratic Party.
As campaign season ramps up, the series of six polls will allow “candidates, supporters, the media, voters, anyone and everyone to have a clear understanding of what is or is not happening in this particular race,” he said.
The filing deadline to appear on the June 2 ballot was Friday. Three days earlier, Hicks released an open letter urging candidates who did not have a path to victory to withdraw from the race. Of the nine prominent Democrats who had announced runs for governor, only one heeded his call: former state Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon.
That means the eight other candidates’ names will appear on the ballot, regardless of whether they decide to later drop out. And that creates the possibility of a Republican winning the race because of how California elections are decided.
The state has a voter-approved top-two primary system, under which the two candidates who receive the most votes in the June primary advance to the November general election, regardless of party.
Two prominent Republicans will appear on the ballot: former conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Even though Democratic voters outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1, and the state’s electorate last elevated Republicans to statewide office in 2006, it is mathematically possible for Democrats to splinter the vote, allowing the two GOP candidates to advance.
Under such a scenario, not only would Republicans be guaranteed the leadership of the nation’s most-populous state, but Democratic voter turnout also would probably be depressed in November, potentially affecting down-ballot races such as those that could determine control of Congress.
Hicks’ call last week prompted concerns among candidates of color, including former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, that the effort was aimed at every nonwhite candidate in the race.
The state party chairman responded that his letter was not aimed at any specific candidate.
“It’s not something I lose sleep over,” Hicks said when asked about the racial claims. But he added that the voter surveys will be conducted by Los Angeles-based Evitarus, the state’s only Black- and Latino-led full-service polling firm, and will oversample historically underrepresented communities: Latino, Black and Asian American voters.
Hicks said the polling will cost “multiple six figures” but did not specify the exact amount.
The first poll will be released on March 24, and then five additional surveys will come out every seven to 10 days until voters start receiving mail ballots in early May.
“We’re putting this forward to ensure everyone is armed with the information they need to clearly have an eyes-wide-open assessment of where the state of the race currently is between now and when ballots land in the mailboxes of voters,” Hicks said.
Politics
Trump reveals top issues GOP should focus on to secure midterms victory: ‘I’ve never been more confident’
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President Donald Trump outlined five key items he believes will tip the upcoming midterm elections in the GOP’s favor — if Republicans can muscle them through Congress.
“No transgender mutilation surgery for our children,” Trump told an audience at the Republican Members’ Issues Conference. “Voter ID, citizenship [verification], mail-in ballots, we don’t want men playing in women’s sports.”
“It’s the best of Trump. Those are the best of Trump. This is the number one priority, it should be, for the House,” Trump said.
Trump’s exhortations to Republican lawmakers come as the GOP wages an uphill campaign to hang on to a controlling majority in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He framed his legislative priorities as a way for Republicans to capitalize on popular demands within the GOP base that would increase their chances of preserving a Republican governing trifecta.
President Donald Trump gestures as he boards Air Force One before departing Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on March 1, 2026. (Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)
HOUSE REPUBLICANS PUSH ELECTION OVERHAUL WITH VOTER ID, MAIL-IN BALLOT CHANGES AHEAD OF MIDTERMS
Currently, Republicans hold just four more seats than Democrats in the House of Representatives.
The GOP holds six more than Democrats in the Senate.
To keep the numbers in their favor, Republicans will need to beat historical trends. In the vast majority of past cases, parties that capture the White House in presidential elections face blowback in the midterms. Notably, the last time a majority party gained seats in both chambers of Congress in the midterms came under the Bush administration in 2002, following devastating attacks on the World Trade Center.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, left, and President Donald Trump shake hands during an Invest America roundtable in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, District of Columbia, on June 9, 2025. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
REPUBLICANS, TRUMP RUN INTO SENATE ROADBLOCK ON VOTER ID BILL
Trump said he believes Republicans have a shot at bucking the trend come November if they focus on his list.
“It’ll guarantee the midterms,” Trump said of his legislative priorities.
Republicans have already taken strikes towards two of them through the SAVE America Act, a piece of legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and cast a ballot. That bill cleared the House last month for a second time in the 119th Congress.
Its future is uncertain in the Senate, where Republicans would need the assistance of seven Democrats to overcome the 60-vote threshold to defeat a filibuster. Democrats, for their part, believe the legislation would disenfranchise voters who cannot readily provide documented proof of citizenship through a passport, REAL ID, or birth certificate.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. has promised a vote on the package despite its long odds.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, talks with a guest during a “Only Citizens Vote Bus Tour” rally in Upper Senate Park to urge Congress to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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Several members have introduced bills on transgender issues, although none of them have cleared either chamber.
“I’ve never been more confident that if we keep these promises and deliver on this popular agenda, the American people will stand with us in overwhelming numbers, just as they did in 2024,” Trump said.
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