California Governor Gavin Newsom owes President Donald Trump a “thank you.” That won’t happen, of course. Yet, it’s the best way to understand the political ramifications of what Trump did this week by making an endorsement in the race for Newsom’s successor, even as the governor has avoided doing the same.
The result is more likely to hurt Republicans than help them. But Democrats still have lots of their own problems in California.
Under the state’s “top two” primary election system, there has been growing anxiety within the Democratic Party about their crowded field of candidates fracturing the electorate. That could allow ...