California and 22 other states push to stop Trump order that could change mail voting rules

April 26, 2026 By Staff 3 Comments

California’s attorney general and 22 others seek to block Trump’s executive order on mail voting, citing state interference and constitutional violations.

CALIFORNIA, USA — California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of other state attorneys general are asking a federal court to permanently block an executive order from President Donald Trump that would limit mail voting and reshape how voter eligibility is handled.

The request, filed in a Massachusetts federal court, seeks a summary judgment in the coalition’s lawsuit challenging the order. They are asking a judge to rule in their favor without a trial, saying, generally, the law is clear and on their side. Officials said the order interferes with the states’ authority over elections by having requirements for federal control over voter eligibility lists and limiting mail ballots to pre-approved voters.

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“President Trump’s executive order not only represents a dangerous attempt to erode public trust in free and fair elections; it also reeks of desperation. Facing clear political headwinds — as he and Republicans are likely to suffer heavy losses in the upcoming midterm elections — he is throwing everything at the wall and hoping something sticks. This will not,” said Attorney General Bonta. “We are seeking summary judgment because we firmly believe that the law is on our side and that the case can be decided expeditiously. President Trump has used mail voting himself. If it’s good enough for him, it should be accessible to other voters without unnecessary and unlawful obstacles.”

Earlier in April, the coalition sued the administration, arguing that the president doesn’t have the power to control how states run elections. The latest motion is asking the court to block parts of the order without a trial, saying the legal issues are clear.

Click here to read the full article at ABC News

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Trump ally Roger Stone hired to lobby for Bay Area tribe seeking control of Presidio

April 22, 2026 By J.K. Dineen 1 Comment

Self-described “dirty trickster” and longtime Donald Trump ally Roger Stone has been hired to lobby for the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area, a controversial group that last year petitioned the White House to take over management of the Presidio.

In a lobbying disclosure form filed on Monday, Stone’s firm, Drake Ventures, reported that the tribe had paid it $30,000 for services in the first quarter of this year and another $20,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to public records. 

The filing, which doesn’t have any specific information about what the lobbying efforts consist of or whether it’s related to the Presidio, comes nearly two weeks after President Trump terminated the national park’s Board of Trustees. 

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And it comes more than a year after Trump issued an executive order that threatened to “dramatically” downsize the park’s operations. After that executive order, the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, which has been fighting for 45 years to be added to the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ official list of recognized tribes, called on Trump to “return the Presidio to indigenous care.” 

In a petition circulated last March, the nonprofit group, which has about 600 members and reported revenue of about $700,000 in recent years, said the 1996 Presidio Trust legislation that created the national park and laid out the bylaws and management structure should be repealed.  

“As the current administration works to eliminate the Presidio Trust as part of its effort to streamline the federal workforce, we stand ready to offer a cost-effective, environmentally responsible solution to filling the stewardship void,” tribal chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh said at the time.

Click here to read the full article in the SF Chronicle

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Lawyer John Eastman Disbarred for Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election

April 17, 2026 By Pooja Salhotra 3 Comments

The California Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision that said Mr. Eastman, had violated the rules of professional ethics.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the lawyer John Eastman disbarred for his role in seeking to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Eastman had concocted a legal strategy to put forward fake electors for Mr. Trump in several swing states that the candidate had lost in order to have Congress block or delay certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021.

He also promoted what a lower court judge called a “wild theory” that Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president, could unilaterally declare Mr. Trump the victor during a certification proceeding that day. Since then, Mr. Eastman has insisted that the 2020 election was stolen, that he did nothing wrong and that he was simply representing Mr. Trump.

On Wednesday, the court ordered Mr. Eastman’s name “stricken from the roll of attorneys.” He was also asked to pay $5,000 to the State Bar of California.

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In a statement, George Cardona, chief trial counsel for the State Bar of California, said the court’s decision “affirms the fundamental principle that attorneys must act with honesty and uphold the rule of law.”

“The Court’s order underscores that Mr. Eastman’s misconduct was incompatible with the standards of integrity required of every California attorney,” he added.

Randall Miller, a lawyer representing Mr. Eastman, said he and Mr. Eastman disagree with the decision because it “raises pivotal constitutional concerns regarding the limits of state regulation of attorney speech.” He added that he plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court “to repudiate this threat to the rule of law and our nation’s adversarial system of justice.”

In March 2024, a California judge recommended that Mr. Eastman be stripped of his law license, finding that he had violated professional ethics rules by making false statements about the 2020 election.

In her ruling, the judge, Yvette Roland, said Mr. Eastman had “exhibited gross negligence by making false statements about the 2020 election without conducting any meaningful investigation or verification of the information he was relying upon.”

Click here to read the full article in the NY Times

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California Republicans are torn on following Trump’s lead in governor’s race

April 13, 2026 By Joe Garofoli 4 Comments

SAN DIEGO — President Donald Trump were facing a test of his power Sunday in an unusual place: California, where the state’s Republican Party delegates were deciding whether to follow his lead and endorse Fox News commentator Steve Hilton or buck him and back Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, an immigration hardliner who appeals to the party’s base. Republicans have a rare, if slim, shot at winning the governor’s mansion in deep blue California — but risk blowing it if they’re divided and brawling when voters receive their ballots in early May. 

At a cigar party Friday night at the convention, top party official Shawn Steel introduced Bianco as a man who “can carry a gun, but he could do it legally, as part of the perks of being a sheriff.” Bianco took the microphone and promised the crowd that “with me as your governor, we’ll all be carrying guns. We will actually abide by the Second Amendment, the First Amendment, the third, the fourth, the fifth.”

Bianco is a little shakier on other aspects of the law. Documents unsealed by the Riverside County Superior Court last week showed that Bianco’s office credited a conservative election denial group’s disputed claims about the November 2025 statewide election as its justification for seizing 650,000 ballots. The state Supreme Court has halted its investigation, which many legal experts have said appears to be illegal.

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Bianco said Friday that he voted for Trump three times, but “as much as I love our president, he proved that he makes bad decisions too.”

Earlier Friday, Bianco shrugged off the impact of a Trump endorsement. He told me that “my campaign is about Californians. It’s not about the president, it’s not specifically about Republicans, even though I am Republican. I’m very confident I’m going to get this endorsement, but this is about Californians and I want Californians’ endorsement.” (Bianco is supported by 1% of Democrats and 12% of independents in a March Berkeley IGS poll.)

Hilton, meanwhile, has been mentioning Trump’s endorsement — delivered via social media on Easter Sunday — like a mantra at the three-day convention. One Marin County delegate told me that at one meeting he attended, Hilton “must have mentioned it 35 times.”

With good reason. While only 29% of likely California voters approve of Trump’s performance, 81% of likely Republican voters give Trump a thumbs up, according to a January survey from the Public Policy Institute of California.  

Click here to read the full article in the SF Chronicle

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Trump backs Hilton ahead of California GOP vote, testing Bianco’s grip on party endorsement

April 12, 2026 By Paul Steinhauser 1 Comment

Trump’s endorsement expected to boost Hilton at San Diego convention but could hurt GOP hopes of an all-Republican runoff

California Republicans this weekend will vote to endorse their pick for California governor in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The vote, this Sunday in San Diego at the California GOP’s annual convention, comes a week after President Donald Trump took sides between the two major Republican candidates in the race, backing conservative commentator and former Fox News Channel host Steve Hilton over Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

Trump, whose endorsements are extremely influential in GOP primaries, argued in his endorsement statement that California had “gone to hell” and that “Steve can turn it around, before it is too late, and, as President, I will help him to do so!”

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The president’s support for Hilton is expected to pay immediate dividends at the state GOP convention.

HERE’S WHO TRUMP IS BACKING IN THE GOLDEN STATE GUBERNATORIAL SHOWDOWN

“I think it definitely can help rally the base behind a candidate and generate some noise and some enthusiasm,” California Republican Party chairwoman Corrin Rankin told Fox News Digital.

Bianco is a loyal Trump supporter who has plenty of friends and support among California Republican insiders. But Trump’s endorsement of Hilton, a top adviser to then-British Prime Minister David Cameron a decade and a half ago before moving to the U.S. and becoming an American citizen in 2021, may boost him at the GOP convention, where backing from 60% of delegates is needed to land the party’s endorsement.

But Bianco, the sheriff who recently grabbed plenty of national attention for seizing ballots in Riverside County, appeared defiant.

“For too long, politicians and insiders from Sacramento to Washington have tried to pick our leaders for us. That’s not leadership, that’s a coronation, and it’s exactly how we ended up with the failed leadership Californians are living with today,” he said in a social media video. “This election belongs to the people, not the political class.”

Click here to read the full article in Fox News

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Trump’s divisive role in California politics is on display as GOP prepares election endorsements

April 11, 2026 By Nadia Lathan and Maya C. Miller 3 Comments

With so many candidates running for governor, it’s hard to keep up. We’re here to help: Sign up for our 2026 election newsletter to get the latest on the candidates.

This weekend’s California Republican Party convention was poised to be a drama-filled event. The party held out a slim hope that its two gubernatorial candidates, if they played nicely enough, could lock Democrats out of the November election and reclaim statewide office for the first time in 20 years.

But then President Donald Trump weighed in, backing former Fox News host Steve Hilton over Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. 

Now, the state party’s endorsement is far less consequential.

“He screwed over California Republicans yet again,” said Rob Stutzman, a Republican political consultant, of Trump. “It’s just political malpractice to not have done a dual endorsement,” he added. “People were briefing the White House on the situation.”

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The weekend’s festivities in San Diego mark the first gathering since the state GOP’s bruising loss last November on Proposition 50, the Democrats’ gerrymandering plan designed to oust five Republicans from Congress in the midterm election. That loss only magnified the state party’s growing irrelevance since the ouster and resignation of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Bakersfield congressmember who made sure the national GOP didn’t forget about its California members.

The gubernatorial contest, as well as legislative races, had become the new focal points for a party in search of a way out of the political wilderness. Trump’s endorsement probably dashed any hope of a Republican governor, leaving the Legislature as Republicans’ best chance for wins. 

Bianco, who recently made headlines for seizing hundreds of thousands of ballots over claims of alleged voter fraud, is still expected to put up a fight for the 60% of delegate votes required to earn the party endorsement. Hilton will likely consolidate GOP support as loyal base voters fall in line behind Trump. Even without the party’s endorsement, Hilton is well positioned to finish in the top-two in June. 

Click here to read the full article in CalMatters

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Huntington Beach MAGAs want to take their revolution to Sacramento

April 10, 2026 By Gustavo Arellano 1 Comment

Michael Gates is basing his run for California attorney general on his decade-long reign as Huntington Beach’s top lawman.

When we met at a Starbucks a block away from City Hall, he rattled off his hometown’s bona fides: A drop in crime and homelessness. Tourists from across the world. A thriving Main Street. A small-town feel “almost like the Midwest.”

His biggest obstacle in trying to convince voters that he should replace Rob Bonta, besides his Republican Party membership? Um, Huntington Beach.

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For years, Surf City conservatives like Gates have reveled in playing the burr in the saddle of deep blue California. From a torrent of lawsuits against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to protests against COVID restrictions to the City Council’s vote to place a plaque outside the public library spelling out “MAGA,” Huntington Beach’s GOP leadership has yet to meet an anti-liberal stunt they didn’t characterize as a stance against tyranny worthy of Bunker Hill.

Their antics made Huntington Beach a national laughingstock — but Gates and his pals so far have had the last giggle.

They ran as a slate in two elections that transformed the City Council from a narrow Democratic majority in 2022 to an all-Republican body in an era when Orange County is turning more and more purple. The takeover became a sensation among California conservatives looking for victories in a state where Democrats maintain a supermajority in both legislative chambers and have held every statewide office for 15 years.

“We’ve morphed into this epicenter of fighting back,” said Mayor Casey McKeon, a third-generation Huntington Beach resident who’s up for reelection this year. “We are the model every city can follow. If I were running for state office, I’d run it on that.”

That’s exactly what the architects of MAGA-by-the-Sea plan to do this November.

In addition to Gates’ bid, gadfly-turned-Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark is seeking an Assembly seat. Her former council colleague Tony Strickland won his state Senate seat last spring and is the co-author of a proposed state ballot initiative that would require voter ID for all elections. Huntington Beach voters approved a similar initiative in 2024, which was later struck down by the California Supreme Court.

The Huntington Beach red revolution now includes conservative commentator Steve Hilton, who launched his campaign for governor last spring near the city’s world-famous pier — even though he lives in Silicon Valley.

Hilton told me he has long loved Huntington Beach because it reminds him of Brighton, the seaside British town where he grew up. His affection for Surf City deepened the more he talked to people like Gates and Strickland, who sold him on their vision to stick it to Sacramento.

“There’s such a joy about it — it’s a place where it’s well-run and clean and orderly,” said the candidate, who has consistently led in polls as his Democratic opponents cannibalize each other’s share of the vote. “When I was thinking where to launch my campaign, it made sense [in Huntington Beach], because it felt like home.”

Click here to read the full article in the LA Times

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Trump endorses Steve Hilton in California governor’s race

April 7, 2026 By Megan Lebowitz 2 Comments

Hilton is one of two prominent Republican candidates in the crowded primary, which will see the two candidates who received the most votes advance, regardless of party.

President Donald Trump endorsed former Fox News host Steve Hilton for governor of California in an overnight Truth Social post, potentially shaking up a crowded primary race that will see the top two vote getters advance to the general election, regardless of their political party.

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“Steve can turn it around, before it is too late, and, as President, I will help him to do so!” Trump wrote, referring to what he has characterized as the poor leadership of Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats running the state.

“With Federal help, and a Great Governor, like Steve Hilton, California can be better than ever before!” the president continued. “Steve Hilton has my COMPLETE & TOTAL ENDORSEMENT. He will be a GREAT Governor and, importantly, WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!!!”

The race to replace the term-limited Newsom features eight prominent Democratic candidates and two prominent Republicans. Trump’s endorsement of Hilton, an ex-aide to former British Prime Minister David Cameron, comes at the expense of the other major GOP candidate, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. But all candidates will appear on the same primary ballot in what’s known as California’s “jungle” primary on June 2.

Trump’s endorsement could coalesce the Republican vote around one major candidate, while the Democratic vote still appears to be fragmented among the more than half dozen significant candidates.

The Democratic candidates include Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Rep. Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, billionaire Tom Steyer, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former state Controller Betty Yee and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.

Polling indicates that there is not a clear frontrunner in the race. A poll last month by the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, found that no candidate received more than 17% of voter preferences, and several candidates received similar voter preferences that were within the margin of error.

Click here to read the full article in NBC News

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Where does the Supreme Court stand on birthright citizenship? Live updates

April 2, 2026 By Maureen Groppe Bart Jansen Aysha Bagchi N'dea Yancey-Bragg Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy 2 Comments

The Supreme Court gave a tough – but not dismissive – review of President Donald Trump’s effort to redefine who is an American, debating the issue on Wednesday as the president himself added to the historical significance of the case by attending the arguments.

“The examples you give to support (your position) strike me as very quirky,” Chief Justice John Roberts told the Justice Department’s attorney shortly after the debate began.

But the conservative justices, who have a 6-3 majority, also had probing questions for the other side, particularly about how to understand the court’slandmark 1898 ruling upholding the citizenship of a San Francisco-born man whose Chinese parents were barred from becoming citizens under the laws of the time.

“It seems to me it’s a mess,” Justice Neil Gorsuch said.

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The executive order Trump signed on his first day back in office to sharply limit automatic citizenship for babies born in the United States is central to his efforts to crack down on both legal and illegal immigration – a major campaign promise. Trump argues that benefit wasn’t intended for the children of undocumented immigrants and temporary residents. But his order challenges the longstanding interpretation of a 19th century constitutional provision guaranteeing birthright citizenship to nearly everyone – and every lower court that has reviewed Trump’s executive order ruled against it.

Click here to read the full article in USA Today

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Citing Iran crisis, Trump orders Santa Barbara oil pipeline restart. California will fight it

March 16, 2026 By Staff 4 Comments

Keeping up with your California representatives felt impossible before. Now you can watch them like a hawk: Sign up for My Legislator, your weekly, personalized report that tracks what your state representatives say and do.

The Trump administration invoked emergency powers under the Defense Production Act Friday, ordering the restart of the Santa Ynez offshore oil platform and pipeline along the Santa Barbara County coast that was shuttered after a spill released thousands of barrels of crude into the Pacific 11 years ago.

The move, which comes in response to skyrocketing fuel prices in the wake of the Iran conflict, brought an immediate threat to sue by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The order also marks the most aggressive federal intervention yet in a yearslong dispute. On one side is the Trump administration and Sable Offshore Corp., a Houston-based startup that has been trying to restart the pipeline. On the other are California officials and environmental groups who oppose the effort. 

Sable, which bought the system from ExxonMobil in 2024, has told investors that production could increase from about 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to more than 50,000 if the system restarts, sending oil to refineries in Los Angeles, Bakersfield and the Bay Area. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening.

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The ruptured pipeline released crude oil onto beaches north of Goleta in May 2015, killing hundreds of birds and marine mammals and triggering one of the worst California coastal oil spills in decades.

Sable was blocked from restarting operations by court orders requiring approval from California regulators — a requirement the Trump administration has tried to override.

On Friday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement that the Trump Administration “remains committed to putting all Americans and their energy security first. Today’s order will strengthen America’s oil supply and restore a pipeline system vital to our national security and defense, ensuring that West Coast military installations have the reliable energy critical to military readiness.”

Newsom said, however, that California will sue the Trump administration over the move. 

“Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would spike gas prices nationwide, and told Americans it was a small price to pay,” Newsom said. “Now he’s using this crisis of his own making to attempt what he’s wanted to do for years: open California’s coast for his oil industry friends so they can poison our beaches.”

“The Trump administration and Sable are defying multiple court orders, and we will see them back in court,” Newsom said.

The Energy Department did not immediately provide CalMatters with a copy of the order. A March 3 legal opinion from the Justice Department concluded that a federal order under the Defense Production Act of 1950 could preempt state law in the Sable case. It also said such an order could override a 2020 federal consent decree stemming from the 2015 Refugio spill that requires approval from the California State Fire Marshal before the pipeline can restart.

Click here to read the full article in CalMatters

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