Morning Digest: A billionaire hoping to lead California just trashed nearly all his fellow Democrats

But one rival, scorned as a "school teacher," is already raising money off the diss

California Democrat Steve Cloobeck, in an appearance on "The Issue Is" on Fox 11 Los Angeles on Aug. 2, 2025 (credit: Fox 11 Los Angeles screenshot)

Leading Off

CA-Gov

Billionaire businessman Stephen Cloobeck has launched the first major ad campaign of next year's race to lead California, a move that came right after he demeaned his fellow Democratic candidates—including one who is quite happy to have him as a foil.

Fox 11's Elex Michaelson last week questioned Cloobeck, who is one of eight notable Democrats campaigning to succeed termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom, about who he sees as his main rival in next June's top-two primary.

"You want me to assassinate each one of them right now?" interjected Cloobeck, who founded the timeshare giant Diamond Resorts International and made several appearances on the reality show "Undercover Boss." A surprised Michaelson responded, "I mean, if you want to." Cloobeck readily accepted the invitation.

"Katie Porter, she's got a whiteboard, she's never signed the front of a check," Cloobeck began, referring to the former congresswoman and unsuccessful 2024 Senate candidate with contempt obvious both in his voice and on his face. "She's a school teacher. She's a legislator. What does she know about running anything?"

Porter, a former law school professor who became famous in the House for using a whiteboard to grill Trump administration personnel and corporate executives at hearings, soon shared the clip of her "billionaire opponent" insulting her, both on social media and in a fundraising email. She wrote, "Teachers know a hell of a lot more about what’s going on with California families than this guy."

Cloobeck's team also seemed to welcome the contrast. A consultant told Politico that he was grateful to her for "raising Steve Cloobeck’s name ID to her donor base."

Porter, though, was hardly the only Democrat that Cloobeck dissed when Michaelson gave him the opening. Mispronouncing the surname of former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Cloobeck said that he "can't even get a real job."

He dismissed former state Comptroller Betty Yee as "not an executive," then went on to say that former state Senate leader Toni Atkins also wasn't an executive while characterizing former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra as "a nice guy" who is "unforgettable, I mean forgettable, or whatever."

Cloobeck ignored the remaining two prominent Democrats in the race—Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond—before firing off some insults against the two main GOP contenders, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco ("he thinks he's above the law") and former Fox host Steve Hilton ("he just became an American in 2021").

Unlike Porter, however, all of Cloobeck's many rivals appear to have ignored his interview, at least as far as their social media accounts are concerned.

Cloobeck, though, is using his wealth to make sure TV viewers can't avoid him. The candidate just launched what his team tells the Los Angeles Times' Seema Mehta is a weeklong $1.4 million ad buy that focuses entirely on Donald Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

"It's been reported that Trump invited Epstein to his wedding," the audience hears as photos show the two men together. A clip then plays of Trump responding in the affirmative after a reporter asks, "Were some of the workers that were taken from you young women?"

The only mention of Cloobeck comes at the very end, after another picture shows Trump standing between Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's co-conspirator. The narrator, in a reference to the transphobic ads Trump ran against Kamala Harris last year, intones, "Trump is for they/them. Stephen Cloobeck is for you."

While those final few seconds may not do much to boost the first-time candidate's name recognition, Cloobeck believes his spot will be beneficial. He told Mehta in a text message, "Watch [the ad] and you will see how a conservative Democrat fights for All Californians."

And California voters aren't the only audience for this message. Mehta writes that the commercial will also air in New York City, Washington, D.C., and West Palm Beach, Florida, which just happens to be the home of Trump's Mar-a-Lago lair.

Cloobeck began running his new spot just days after he announced he'd contribute $10 million more of his own money to his campaign, in addition to the $3 million he'd previously thrown down. (He raised just $160,000 from donors during the first half of the year.)

Cloobeck, however, may not be the only billionaire who winds up joining the race to lead America's largest state. Developer Rick Caruso is continuing to mull whether he wants to run for governor or seek a rematch against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Cloobeck isn't hiding which option he wants Caruso to pursue. He told Michaelson that if they both ran for governor, "I think we'd both kill each other." Cloobeck, though, dismissed any talk that he'd defer to his fellow billionaire by affirming, "I don't get out of anything."

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Texas Chainsaw Gerrymander

Election Recaps

Special Elections

Democrats turned in another massive special election performance on Tuesday in Rhode Island, as North Providence Town Councilman Stefano Famigletti successfully defended a vacant seat in the state Senate in a landslide.

While a relatively small number of mail ballots remained uncounted, Famigletti had run up an 83-16 margin over his Republican opponent as of Wednesday morning. That was more than 50 points better than Kamala Harris' 55-44 win in the 4th Senate District last year.

In Delaware, however, Democrats escaped with a narrow victory in a special election for the state House. In the 20th District, charter school founder Alonna Berry, the Democratic nominee, held off educator Nikki Miller, the Republican candidate, by a 51-49 margin.

That outcome was an underperformance, as Harris had carried the district 54-45. However, the House result was the same as last year's, when Miller was also the GOP nominee and held the previous Democratic incumbent to a 51-49 win in 2024.

Overall, according to a tally maintained by The Downballot, Democrats are overperforming last year's presidential race by an average of 15.9 points across 33 special elections so far in 2025.

Senate

FL-??

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who is one of the more prominent Democrats in Florida, tells Politico's Kimberly Leonard he wants to run for "higher office" in 2026 but hasn't decided which one. Demings said he was interested in running statewide or for a federal post, though he ruled out challenging any Democratic incumbents in the House.

Demings, who cannot seek reelection next year as leader of the populous community that includes Orlando, is the husband of former Rep. Val Demings, who unsuccessfully challenged GOP Sen. Marco Rubio in 2022.

IA-Sen

Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris on Tuesday entered the surprisingly crowded Democratic primary to face Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican who has not yet announced if she'll seek reelection next year.

Norris served as Michelle Obama's chief of staff during the first few months of Obama's tenure as first lady. She later was an official at Points of Light, the nonprofit founded by George H.W. Bush.

Norris joins state Rep. J.D. Scholten, state Sen. Zach Wahls, and military veteran Nathan Sage in the primary. The field will likely expand again soon, as the Des Moines Register recently reported that state Rep. Josh Turek plans to launch a campaign this month.

IL-Sen, IL-Gov, IL-16

Republican Rep. Darin LaHood surrendered to political reality on Monday evening when he announced that he'd seek reelection to his safely red 16th District rather than run for Senate or governor. LaHood had flirted with higher office for some time, but he acknowledged back in January that he'd have been better off if Donald Trump had lost last year and left him with "a good atmosphere" in which to campaign in solidly blue Illinois.

Governors

AK-Gov

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski unexpectedly refused to rule out running for governor of Alaska next year.

"Sure," Murkowski said Monday after reporters asked at a press conference if she was thinking of trying to succeed Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a fellow Republican who will be termed out of office. Murkowski, whose Senate seat won't be up again until 2028, acknowledged her answer was "a little bit flippant," but she still didn't dismiss the idea.

"Everybody asks me about it, so, you know, when you’re asked, you’re like, ‘Oh, I was thinking about it,'" said Murkowski. "Would I love to come home? I have to tell you, of course I would love to come home."

Murkowski's father, Sen. Frank Murkowski, made that very decision in 2002 when he sought and easily won the governor's office, but he soon had reason to regret his career change. The elder Murkowski made enemies in his first days as governor when he announced he was appointing his daughter, who at the time was majority leader in the state House, to replace him in the Senate.

Lisa Murkowski overcame accusations of nepotism to win a tough campaign to keep her new job in 2004, but her father wasn't so lucky. Budget cuts, an unpopular oil pipeline deal, and the governor's decision to buy a state jet for his own use helped make Murkowski one of the most unpopular chief executives in the nation. In the GOP primary in 2006, he wound up taking a distant third place against a former small-town mayor named Sarah Palin.

The younger Murkowski has remained in the Senate despite some harrowing races—most notably, she lost renomination in 2010 before winning the general election as a write-in candidate—by repeatedly forging a coalition of Democratic, Republican, and independent voters. However, a new poll suggests that Murkowski may no longer be well-liked enough by any group to win again.

Alaska Survey Research, a firm run by longtime Democratic pollster Ivan Moore, shows the senator with a 33-60 unfavorable rating, a huge drop from her 47-44 score in January. Moore argues that Murkowski's vote for Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" cost her the vital support she needs from Democrats and moderates, while she still remains toxic with conservatives who want a purer strain of Republican.

No matter what decision Murkowski makes, though, there's sure to be a packed race to replace Dunleavy in what will be Alaska's first open-seat race for governor since that crucial 2002 election. Several Republicans are competing in the top-four primary, which replaced the state's old partisan primary system, while Democrats are waiting to see what former Rep. Mary Peltola will do.

ME-Gov

Businessman Ben Midgley, who has been an executive at multiple fitness companies, announced Tuesday that he was joining an already busy Republican primary for governor of Maine.

Midgley, according to the Bangor Daily News, was president of Planet Fitness before he founded and led Fitness Crunch. Fitness Crunch has since expanded to 46 states and multiple countries, though it does not have any locations in Maine.

WI-Gov

Former Gov. Tommy Thompson said Monday that he was open to running to regain his old job after more than two decades away.

"I haven’t said no," the 83-year-old Republican told Wisconsin’s Afternoon News. "There are a lot of good candidates, and I don’t have a desire to get in the race, but the truth of the matter is I’ll wait to see what’s out there."

"I’m in great physical health," continued Thompson, who served as governor from 1987 to 2001 before resigning to become George W. Bush's secretary of Health and Human Services. "[M]y mind is sharp as hell, I’ve got things I would like to accomplish, but it’s way too early for me to make that decision."

Thompson has sought office twice since his final victory in 1998, but without any success. His 2008 presidential campaign was going nowhere even before he blamed a broken hearing aid and a desperate need to pee for why he said bosses should be able to fire employees for being gay.

Thompson went on to run for the Senate in 2012 but lost to Democrat Tammy Baldwin. He most recently served as interim president of the University of Wisconsin System from 2020 to 2022.

House

CA-32

Former Biden administration official Jake Levine announced on Tuesday that he'd oppose longtime Rep. Brad Sherman, a fellow California Democrat, in next year's top-two primary.

Sherman already faced opposition from Democrat Jake Rakov, one of his former staffers, in the top-two primary for the safely blue 32nd District in the western San Fernando Valley.

Levine is the son of former Rep. Mel Levine, who was elected in 1982 to represent part of the Los Angeles area but left a decade later to wage an unsuccessful Senate campaign. The younger Levine, who is married to MSNBC host Jacqueline Alemany, rose to become the Biden administration's senior director for climate and energy.

Levine, 41, highlighted his age difference with the 70-year-old incumbent even as he told Politico his challenge is "really not about Brad Sherman." Still, he emphasized, "We’re in a moment today where we need generational change."

Rakov, who is a similar age, was more confrontational when he launched his own challenge in April. Rakov, who worked as Sherman's deputy communications director in 2017, said the 15-term congressman had lost touch with his constituents even before, he argued, the incumbent had failed them during and after January's devastating wildfires.

Sherman responded to Rakov's challenge by defending his work regarding the fires, and his team soon told Axios he'd run again. The congressman has the means to defend himself: He finished June with over $4 million on hand, while Rakov, who self-funded most of his effort in the early going, had $435,000 banked. Levine will report his opening numbers in early October.

IN Redistricting, MD Redistricting

Two more states could join the escalating redistricting wars: Democratic-held Maryland and Republican-controlled Indiana.

In Maryland, state House Majority Leader David Moon said late last month that he's preparing legislation that would require the governor to propose a new congressional map if any other state adopts a new map "outside of the regular decennial census period."

The Baltimore Sun reported on Tuesday, however, that Democratic Gov. Wes Moore declined to comment when asked if he supports the idea, or whether he'd call a special session so that lawmakers could pass it this year. Instead, a spokesperson would say only that the governor "will continue to evaluate all options." (The legislature is not set to reconvene until January, and the state's candidate filing deadline is in February.)

Separately, Punchbowl reports that the White House may send JD Vance to Indiana this week to urge Republicans to further gerrymander their map. However, Politico previously said that "there is little-to-no appetite for remapping, according to four Hoosier Republicans close to the process."

Republicans in Missouri, though, seemed to share that reluctance just weeks ago, but now, thanks to Donald Trump's intervention, a top GOP leader says a redraw is "likely."

NH-01

Republican state Rep. Brian Cole, who also runs a hardware wholesale business, entered the race for New Hampshire's open 1st Congressional District on Tuesday.

Cole joins a primary featuring two other candidates, businessman Chris Bright and state GOP official Melissa Bailey, though another potential rival, Manchester Alderman Joe Kelly Levasseur, just said no.

Democrats have an even more crowded field, with half a dozen notable contenders seeking to replace Rep. Chris Pappas, who is running for Senate.

NV-01

State Sen. Carrie Buck on Tuesday became the first notable Republican to challenge veteran Rep. Dina Titus in Nevada's 1st District, a light blue constituency in the eastern Las Vegas area.

Buck, who flipped a swingy legislative seat in 2020 after falling short four years earlier, has on occasion cast votes against her party's conservative leadership, yet has still voiced hard-right rhetoric.

The Nevada Independent writes that Buck was one of just two Republican senators who backed a 2023 bill to protect abortion seekers from other states, legislation that GOP Gov. Joe Lombardo ended up signing.

The Indy's Jon Ralston, though, highlights Buck's not-so-bipartisan social media history, including a tweet simply reading, "Democrats are the anti-Christ!" Buck also has the dubious honor of being the only member of the GOP's Senate minority who failed to pass a bill during each of the last three legislative sessions.

Titus, who is 75, sounds like she wants to continue the decades-long political career she began with her election to the state Senate in 1988. Her campaign responded to Buck's entry by telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "Congresswoman Titus is looking forward to contrasting her record with that of state Sen. Buck."

Democrats in the legislature made the once-solidly blue 1st District more competitive after the 2020 census to strengthen Reps. Susie Lee and Steven Horsford in the neighboring 3rd and 4th Districts—a decision Titus did not support.

But while the congresswoman reportedly told a labor gathering she "totally got fucked by the Legislature," the redraw worked out, as Titus and both her colleagues all prevailed in both 2022 and 2024.

Titus won her most recent term 52-44 as Kamala Harris, according to calculations by The Downballot, carried her constituency by a much tighter 50-48 spread. Joe Biden carried the 1st District 53-45 in 2020.

NY-01

Democrats just landed their first candidate to take on Republican Rep. Nick LaLota, while last year's nominee has decided against a second bid.

Veteran Chris Gallant, who has flown Black Hawk helicopters for the Army National Guard in the Middle East and has also worked as an air traffic controller and volunteer firefighter, kicked off his campaign for New York's 1st Congressional District on Tuesday.

In his launch video, after sharing his background, Gallant goes directly at the incumbent.

"But what pisses me off is how politicians in Washington are too scared to do the right thing—especially Nick LaLota," he says. "I have voted for both parties. I don't care that he's a Republican. I care that he doesn't have the courage to stand up for Long Island families."

Gallant specifically hammers LaLota for "[k]nocking nearly 20,000 working Long Islanders off their healthcare, giving tax cuts to billionaires, and sticking people around here with the bill," calling it "cowardice."

Shortly before kicking off his campaign, Gallant learned that former CNN anchor John Avlon, who lost to LaLota in 2024 by a 55-45 margin, would not try again. LaLota's margin matched that of Donald Trump, who carried the 1st District, which covers eastern Long Island, by a 54-44 spread.

PA-01

Attorney Tracy Hunt, who says he was once a registered Republican, has joined the Democratic primary to take on Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.

One prominent local Democrat is already running for Pennsylvania's swingy 1st District, Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, who launched a bid in April. Harvie has a financial head start, having raised $340,000 in the second quarter and stockpiling almost $200,000. Fitzpatrick, however, has a daunting war chest of $6.5 million, the largest of any potentially vulnerable House Republican in the nation.

SC-01

Both Republicans and Democrats have landed their first candidates for South Carolina's conservative 1st District, which Rep. Nancy Mace is leaving behind to run for governor.

Republican state Rep. Mark Smith on Tuesday teased a "special announcement" for Aug. 14, though he made it a little less special by already revealing what he's up to. Smith told the South Carolina Daily Gazette the previous day he'd run to replace Rep. Nancy Mace, who is giving up the conservative 1st District to run for governor.

Meanwhile, Democrat Mac Deford, an attorney who's also served in the Coast Guard, announced Tuesday that he would wage a second campaign to flip the 1st.

Smith and Mace faced off in a 2018 primary for a special election to the legislature, which Mace won decisively. That victory put Mace on course to get elected in 2020 to represent much of the state's coastline, but her promotion also worked out well for Smith, who was elected to replace his former opponent in the state House.

Morning Digest: Nancy Mace’s favorite person in the world launches bid for governor

As he tries to succeed Mace once again, though, Smith will almost certainly face serious intraparty opposition.

The conservative Washington Examiner reports that Air Force veteran Alex Pelbath is "extremely likely" to enter the race this month, according to an unnamed source. Pelbath, whom the story says has "strong ties" to Donald Trump, acknowledged his interest but did not commit to anything.

Dorchester County Councilman Jay Byars, meanwhile, suggested back in April that he might enter what was still a hypothetical campaign to replace Mace.

As for Democrats, they're hoping for an opening in a tough district that they managed to win in an upset during the last wave election seven years ago.

Deford, who graduated from Charleston's famed military academy, The Citadel, narrowly lost last year's primary to businessman Michael B. Moore. Mace went on to easily beat Moore 58-42 as Trump, according to calculations by The Downballot, prevailed 56-43.

The 1st, which includes many of Charleston's suburbs, is a longtime GOP stronghold that Democrat Joe Cunningham unexpectedly flipped during the 2018 blue wave. Mace, though, unseated Cunningham in 2020, and Republican map makers soon took action to guard against another surprise.

The legislature moved heavily Black communities, which overwhelmingly support Democrats, from the 1st District to the 6th District, where Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn was already safe. A long legal battle concluded last year when the far-right majority on the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the boundaries after ruling that partisanship, rather than race, was the predominant factor in the GOP's gerrymander.

TX Redistricting

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott followed through on his threat to seek to expel Democratic lawmakers who've left the state on Tuesday, filing an action before the state Supreme Court asking it to declare that caucus chair Gene Wu "has forfeited his office" and "thereby created a vacancy."

Abbott's arguments could, in theory, also be directed toward the other House Democrats who, along with Wu, decamped for other states on Sunday to deny Republicans a quorum and prevent them from further gerrymandering Texas' congressional map. In total, at least 51 and possibly as many as 56 members of the 62-member caucus are participating in the quorum-break.

But as state constitutional law expert Quinn Yeargain explains, Abbott's legal arguments are shoddy and fail to cite much in the way of relevant precedent—largely because there isn't any. However, Texas' top court is home to a 9-0 Republican majority that has seldom shied from doing the bidding of GOP partisans.