Techlash hits states of the union

SOTU bracketing in the attention economy. The State of the Union feels like an anachronism these days, and I feared Dems’ counterprogramming would be similarly outdated – but I was pleasantly surprised! RUBEN GALLEGO & CHRIS MURPHY were among dozens of Ds who skipped Trump & spoke at MoveOn’s “People’s State of the Union,” which had over 2M viewers on the Meidas stream alone. GALLEGO, CORY BOOKER, & ELISSA SLOTKIN all joined Don Lemon’s marathon SOTU broadcast, and PETE BUTTIGIEG hit The Bulwark livestream for post-speech reaction before his 12am CNN appearance.

At a Stanford town hall with Bernie, RO KHANNA outlined 7 AI principles – from keeping humans in the loop & strengthening worker rights, to taxing wealth & preventing AI from weaponizing public discourse. He expounded on the principles in a new Fox News op-ed. 

In NH, PETE BUTTIGIEG debuted a new vision for what it looks like to meet this moment, including swift action to ensure AI delivers better pay & shorter hours for working people, rather than mass unemployment & an even greater concentration of wealth and power.

The first week of GAVIN NEWSOM’s book tour has generated a lot of noise – much of it “fake fucking outrage” from the right, as Newsom put it, though the left has also had its complaints. But the actual events – and the chapters of the memoir I’ve made it through – have been… excellent. I don’t know if enough of America will ever root for Gavin, but owning his many flaws & transgressions is his only real path to get there, and he’s executing it deftly.

KAMALA HARRIS told podcaster Sharon McMahon she hasn’t decided if she’ll run again in 2028: “I might.” She also sat down with Aaron Parnas & with AFT’s Randi Weingarten this week, and hit Cleveland, Indy, & Detroit for book tour events that consistently sell out & are teeming with excitement. Up next: Madison, WI on Sunday.

In her final State of the State address, term-limited MI Gov. GRETCHEN WHITMER leaned into her bipartisan record and pitched new plans to boost literacy, reduce the burden of medical debt, and tackle the housing crisis, before declaring, “Big Gretch out!”

ANDY BESHEAR will keynote Georgia Dems’ Carter-Lewis Dinner on April 11 – a significant role for Beshear to land in a battleground state with key midterm contests and a pending application to hold an early primary in 2028.

ELISSA SLOTKIN – who has made a point to show up in the middle of the country – will keynote Idaho Dems’ annual fundraising gala on March 7 in Boise. In the past 6 months, she’s made trips to Kansas, Western PA, NW Wisconsin, and Littleton, CO.

RUBEN GALLEGO endorsed Gina Hinojosa for TX-Gov and will campaign for her in Houston on Sunday. And he'll be back in San Antonio on March 23 for a bilingual town hall hosted by VoteVets, who held previous events with BUTTIGIEG & SLOTKIN.

JB PRITZKER will be the Democratic headliner for the Gridiron Dinner on March 21, opposite Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR), a potential 2028 contender in her own right.

JOSH SHAPIRO is fighting to block two large-scale ICE detention centers in PA, partnering with NowThis for a video at one of the locations today. WES MOORE sued to block block similar plans in MD this week, and during his trip to NH, PETE BUTTIGIEG railed against a planned facility in Merrimack, which the admin has since scrapped.

Since profiling RAHM EMANUEL’s budding 2028 bid last May, the Wall Street Journal has run at least eight op-eds, a book review, and a letter to the editor by him. I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything quite like that.