Election 2026: Newsom, of costly California, stumps for ‘Make Stuff Cost Less’

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(The Center Square) – National Democrats not only supporting Roy Cooper’s bid for U.S. Senate but coming to speak on his behalf in the state is becoming quite the list.

And not necessarily for obvious reasons.

A California governor defending making hog farming in the nation’s No. 3 state for production more costly – while his contributes one-tenth of 1% – added his name to a list topped by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic Socialists of America supporter. Cooper's campaign tour is known as “Make Stuff Cost Less,” making the leader of costly California more than intriguing.

Cooper is bidding for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by two-term Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. On the ballots that went into the mail this past Friday to kick off the 61-day voting window are Republican Michael Whatley and Libertarian Shannon Bray.

“My entire life I’ve seen the expansion of rights,” Newsome said. “Now it’s the rights regression. This is it – don’t focus on 2028. The biggest mistake the Democratic Party makes is we watch cable TV and we focus on the next presidential election.”

Newsom was with Cooper and incumbent Democratic Justice Anita Earls, she of the tight state Supreme Court seat race, in Charlotte on Saturday morning. In the afternoon, they moved from Mecklenburg County into Union County with Justices Toby Hampson and Christine Walczyk, President Braxton Winston of the North Carolina AFL-CIO, and Chairwoman Anderson Clayton of the North Carolina Democratic Party.

Newsom's choice is intriguing. No state in the nation had more people (9,600) than California to move to North Carolina, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau state-to-state migration data.

He's also got a slew of challenges back home.

Dana Williamson, his chief of staff from late 2022 to December 2024, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, subscribing to a false tax return and making false statements to a federal agent. According to federal prosecutors, the conduit scheme was between February 2022 and September 2024, filing false tax returns between 2021 and 2023, and false statements to agents in November 2024.

Newsom has defended California's Proposition 12, the colloquial or ballot term for the Farm Animal Confinement Initiative. Egg-laying hens, breeding pigs and veal calves have space requirements, and sale of products from the animals is prohibited if not meeting the standard. Voters – with a turnout of only 20% – favored it in 2018 and the measure went into full effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

What that means across the country where North Carolina has a $108 billion agriculture industry with a No. 3 national ranking in pork production only behind Iowa and Minnesota is the opposite of Cooper’s tour title. For farmers, stuff costs more to comply with California's law due to new construction or retrofits on hog farms.

California’s market includes about 40 million people and 15% of domestic pork consumption.

Newsom’s policies extend beyond farming to everyday Californians. Residential electricity rates, because of renewable energy mandates, is second only to Hawaii; the $5.87 per gallon of unleaded gasoline and $7.87 per gallon of diesel, amid excise taxes, regulatory fees and specialized fuel-blending, puts both averages at highest in the nation; and accelerated wage increases for fast food ($20 per hour) and healthcare workers has increased operational overhead for local businesses.

Newsom’s California also has inflated costs of home construction and rent tied to impact fees, wage rules on subsidized projects and strict environmental reviews. And to balance the Medi-Cal budget, critics say the price for private insurance premium costs for families is driven up by state-level fees and assessments on managed care organizations.

The “Make Stuff Cost Less” tour has also drawn U.S. Reps. Valerie Foushee and Deborah Ross. First-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein is also backing him.

And for the annual convention of the state’s Democrats the first Saturday in August, in came Warren, the senator from Massachusetts.

She told the Raleigh audience, “Cost of groceries is up, cost of gasoline is up, cost of rent is up, cost of utilities is up, cost of healthcare is up.”

And it’s because of Republicans and second-term Republican President Donald Trump, she said. While not affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, she has endorsed many of their party platforms including saying New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s view of the future of the Democratic Party is where all should be going.

On its website “about us” section, the Democratic Socialists of America say, “Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with a democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society.

“We want to win ‘radical’ reforms like single-payer Medicare for All, defunding the police/refunding communities, the Green New Deal, and more as a transition to a freer, more just life.”

Cooper's ads say he doesn't want to defund police. Still, his litigation settlement in February 2021 put more than 3,500 prisoners onto the streets – ones a release at the time said were nonviolent and without convictions of crimes against people, and a group of people who since have racked up 18 murder charges. 

Since America celebrated 250 years as a nation on the Fourth of July, Warren has traversed the country in support of Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Minnesota U.S. Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan and Georgia first-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. As late as June, she was encouraging voters considering then-candidate Graham Platner in Maine to look the other way toward present-day growth in sending him to the U.S. Senate.

That despite already knowing of his chest tattoo resembling the Nazi-era death’s head symbol; his social media posts of a misogynistic, racist and homophobic nature; dismissal of sexual violence; interactions with antisemitic podcasts; text messages early in his marriage suggesting infidelity; and ex-girlfriends’ depictions of a heavy drinker with aggressive behavior.

Cooper, too, was pushing Mainers to choose Platner through June and until a July 6 report from Politico on his relationship with Jenny Racicot. Within hours, Democrat after Democrat – including Cooper and Warren – followed the lead of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and bailed on Platner. Shortly after, the campaign was dead.

Cooper has the endorsements as well from the American Federal of Government Employees District 4; the North Carolina Association of Educators; the National Education Association; the Sierra Club; the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare PAC; and former U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel.

This U.S. Senate seat is viewed as a major player nationally in the quest for a majority in the chamber. Republicans have 53 seats today. In no particular order, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Maine, Iowa, New Hampshire, Alaska, Texas and Montana are the other top battlegrounds among 35 races.

Republicans are 5-for-5 in North Carolina's U.S. Senate races since losing to the late Kay Hagan in 2008. Democrats chase back to 1998 for the last time winning a Senate seat at the midterms. Yet Cooper counters with statewide wins in four attorney general races and two gubernatorial races – all from 2000 to 2020.

This is Whatley's first foray into individually winning political office. He's helped many candidates first as chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, then as the picked chairman by Trump of the Republican National Committee.