California Battleground

Is the Newsom Recall really that close? Probably not...

Gen Z was born after 1997, and they are voting, running -- and winning -- elected office in California. We sat down with some of these rising leaders, who are among a large group of young councilmembers recently elected all across California, from Calexico to the Central Coast, Bay Area and Central Valley.

California city governments have undergone massive political change in the last 5 years. This was driven by some macro political trends, but kitchen table political issues are what really drive this change. We talk about housing, homelessness, environmental issues, policing and cannabis as a few of the dominant policies bringing new groups and candidates into City Halls.

The last few years have seen a collapse in GOP mayors and city councilmembers across California, a reversal of a years-long (if not decades long) trend of Republican dominance of local government. We talk about where and why this is happening.

Welcome to the California Battleground podcast. Politics in the Golden State have changed over the last few years in historic ways that are not only under-appreciated, but not very widely known. We are also on the precipice of massive changes to the people representing California in state legislature and in some of our biggest cities.