Category: Politics

Matt Mahan suffered a disappointing finish in California’s gubernatorial primary last month, but the World Cup has offered the mayor of Silicon Valley’s largest city the chance of an immediate remontada.

His home San Jose, riding a sports tourism surge, stands to gain more economically today as the U.S. national team opens knockout play in Santa Clara. Mahan told POLITICO on Friday that he had not yet attended a match in the bordering city, but had been soaking in the action at watch parties in San Jose, where attendees have been so numerous they’ve begun watching from the tops of nearby parking garages to get a better view.

A FIFA official watch party in downtown San Jose’s San Pedro Square is streaming all 104 games and has hosted more than 300,000 fans, by the city’s count.

“It’s been just an incredible experience,” Mahan said. “We’re on track to double, if not triple, the amount of attendance we expected.”

A shooting a block from the venue Sunday evening was a reminder of the security challenges posed by such large gatherings, but city officials said the deadly incident wasn’t connected to the event and didn’t occur while matches were being streamed. Watch parties resumed on Monday and are set to carry on through the tournament — with an additional screen to spread out the crowds.

The U.S. match against Bosnia and Herzegovina today will be the last of six tournament games played in the South Bay, capping a banner sports year in which the region hosted the Super Bowl and NCAA March Madness games. San Jose officials tweaked their plans for the lineup’s longest and only international competition based on how the other events went, adding TVs to watch parties and looking for ways to limit congestion, Mahan said.

“One of the things we learned during the NFL Super Bowl experience was that it got fairly congested in the middle of the action, and we want to spread people out a little bit more, and so we’ve, we’ve got multiple screens up there, very large screens, so there’s no reason to crowd up front,” Mahan said.

Local governments coordinated to plan for the string of high-profile events, and San Jose hired dedicated staff to prepare for them. The planning, overseen by former Olympic short track speed skater Tommy O’Hare, took two years, while the city became involved in seeking the U.S., Mexico and Canada’s joint bid to host the World Cup over a decade ago.

The city embarked on a marketing campaign to attract visitors to San Jose Mineta International Airport — a lesser-known hub than SFO but one just minutes driving from Levi’s Stadium. Mahan opted not to name names over security concerns, but he said “a ton” of foreign dignitaries have landed at SJC during the tournament.

Representatives from China, South Korea and a half-dozen other countries were set to attend an overlapping summit in San Jose on international innovation and investment this week, mingling with expected attendees from Bay Area tech giants including NVIDIA and Apple.

But the mayor — a Democrat who finished sixth in the state’s jungle primary for governor in June — said the focus during the tournament has been less on fostering international relationships than on the fan experience.

“Our North Star has been, you know, whether you can afford a ticket to the big game, we want you to be able to have a fun, accessible, and memorable World Cup experience in downtown San Jose,” Mahan said. “I think we’ve proven that we’re offering that.”

​Politics

An anti-establishment avalanche blanketed Colorado on Tuesday night.

Across the Centennial State, the candidates who cast themselves as fighters against the old-line Democratic establishment soared to victory — the clearest proof yet that the base’s fury at their leaders extends far beyond the five boroughs, following insurgents’ major victories in New York City last week.

Colorado democratic socialist Melat Kiros scored a stunning victory over 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), who was first elected before the 29-year-old Kiros was born, while Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser defeated longtime Sen. Michael Bennet, losses for two of the most dominant Democratic figures in the state. Both winners were viewed as longshots just weeks ago, but Kiros and Weiser successfully positioned themselves as the true scrappers while painting their opponents as Washington insiders who were too beholden to the party machine, with little to show for their years in office.

“For decades Democrats have failed to meaningfully deliver for working families,” Kiros said in an interview after the race was called. “We have to root out the corruption and get money out of our politics … It’s not about popular support, it’s about political will — and that means we have to vote out any of the incumbents that are standing in our way by taking that kind of corporate PAC money.” That includes, she added, not supporting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for speaker.

Manny Rutinel, a progressive state representative backed by an infusion of cash from prominent Latino groups, also cruised to the Democratic nomination to face Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) for one of the most competitive House seats in the country.

Rutinel focused much of his campaign on attacking his more-moderate foe for failing to stand up to President Donald Trump’s ICE operations.

“Folks right now are upset with the establishment, and they’re looking for fighters who are going to stand up to Donald Trump and Gabe Evans, because they are destroying our economy,” Rutinel said. “We need fighters who understand the struggles, and we’ll fight for them every single day. That’s what I’ve done throughout my entire career. That’s what I’m going to do when I’m in Congress.”

That same anti-establishment energy ran up and down the ballot Tuesday night.

Moderate-leaning Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) won his primary. But his democratic socialist-aligned opponent, state Sen. Julie Gonzales, ended the night closing in on a single-digit loss — despite Hickenlooper’s nearly 9-to-1 fundraising advantage over Gonzales in a race few observers thought would be close. She led him in Denver, the city where he was once mayor. Hickenlooper’s margin of victory was narrower than Weiser’s with 90 percent of the vote counted.

A number of more-moderate state legislators trailed their further-left opponents as well.

“Voters are angry,” said Doug Friednash, a longtime Colorado Democratic strategist and former gubernatorial chief of staff to Hickenlooper. “They are all anti-establishment and don’t feel like our leaders have fought hard enough and don’t have a coherent voice. Kiros is the clincher.”

Kiros lost her job as an attorney after writing an op-ed slamming the backlash against critics of Israel’s government, and she launched her campaign nearly a year ago with an ad portraying herself as a fighter who would deliver change. She painted DeGette, a reliable progressive vote but low-profile member, as someone who wasn’t “fighting back like they should.” In the two-minute ad, Kiros referred to the need for a fighter six times — which she carried over into her victory speech Tuesday night.

Weiser’s campaign didn’t mirror Kiros’ DSA-backed candidacy, but he did cast himself as someone who would take on both the Democratic establishment and the Trump administration. While he’s a two-term statewide official — and at age 58, is only three years younger than Bennet — Weiser built his campaign around the dozens of lawsuits he’s brought as attorney general against the president. He’s sued over everything from the president’s executive order on birthright citizenship to federal funding freezes.

“Coloradans need a governor who is a fighter,” Weiser said in an ad earlier this year. “I’ll always stand up to bullies, especially Donald Trump. Congress isn’t doing it. But I am. We are stopping him in court, winning 34 times and counting.”

Kiros’ campaign was buoyed by a wave of support from national progressive leaders and groups. She picked up major endorsements from Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Justice Democrats, which has been on a hot streak this primary season and was the first national group to back Kiros’ campaign, framed the win as validation. “Our candidates are winning because they are running on an affirmative vision to make life more affordable for working class voters — from Medicare for All to ending taxpayer-funded genocide — and they are not afraid to call out a Democratic establishment that stopped fighting for us the minute they started being bankrolled by the corporations raising our prices,” said Usamah Andrabi, a spokesperson for the group.

The Democratic Socialists of America also poured major resources into the race, running phone banks for Kiros nearly daily in the campaign’s final stretch, knocking on over 100,000 doors and making over 500,000 calls on the ground in Denver.

Popular socialist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who emerged as one of the most visible outside organizers in New York’s insurgent sweep, dedicated multiple streams to boosting Kiros’ candidacy in the weeks leading up to the primary. At one point, he hosted her for an extended interview and also ran multiple marathon phone-banking sessions for her campaign live on stream, urging his viewers to call voters alongside him before ultimately traveling to Denver to campaign with Kiros in person on primary day.

“A thirty-year incumbent was defeated tonight. It’s clear that there is a real hunger for change. Democrats all over the country are demanding it,” Piker said. “That change is a working class centered movement. It’s socialism. We are not done yet.”

​Politics

Democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeated 15-term Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette on Tuesday, delivering one of the biggest shocks of the Democratic primary season amid a growing streak of wins for the insurgent left.

Kiros’ win in the contest for Colorado’s 1st District topples a 68-year-old representative who had held the seat since before her 29-year-old challenger was born.

It’s a victory that echoes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) stunning 2018 upset over 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley in New York, and delivers democratic socialists fresh momentum.

DeGette’s loss, after representing the district since 1997, seemed unthinkable in the state just months ago, but Kiros rode the same anti-incumbent wave that swept through New York’s Democratic primaries last week, where Reps. Adriano Espaillat and Dan Goldman were ousted in a dramatic show of the left’s growing strength.

The defeat is a stunning one for the Democratic establishment, though warning signs had been building for months inside DeGette’s campaign, with allies privately acknowledging the race was tightening and the representative’s team spending weeks urging national Democrats and allied groups to come to her aid.

Kiros launched her campaign nearly a year ago, framing it from the outset as a generational reckoning with the Democratic establishment. She cast DeGette, a longtime progressive who served as an impeachment manager against President Donald Trump, as a corporate-backed incumbent who was out of step with her constituents, and called for a new era of progressive leadership in Congress.

Kiros’ campaign drew major outside support from progressive leaders, including endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Working Families Party, as well as backing from the candidates who upended New York’s Democratic delegation last week.

Her win marks the seventh primary victory this cycle for Justice Democrats, the progressive group that recruited and backed her, making 2026 the organization’s most successful primary year to date.

“We are so proud to be sending Colorado’s first Justice Democrat to Congress,” said Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats. “Melat built a movement that inspired Denverites to remember they themselves have the power to transform what kind of Democratic Party they want to be represented by. Melat and our candidates continue winning this cycle because Democratic voters are finally getting leaders acting on their demands.”

Down the final stretch of the campaign, DeGette’s allies scrambled to hold off Kiros’ rise, with outside groups pouring roughly $2.3 million into the race over the final month, including $1.3 million in the race’s final days. DeGette’s side held a nearly three-to-one spending advantage down the stretch.

DeGette also secured last-minute endorsement videos from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and progressive Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who like DeGette was a manager of Trump’s impeachments. Still, that wasn’t enough to help her keep her seat.

The new class of hard-left members of Congress could prove a tough group to wrangle for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), particularly if Democrats win a narrow majority in the House this fall.

“If the day comes to vote and he continues taking corporate PAC money, I won’t be voting for him,” Kiros said in an interview prior to Tuesday’s win.

​Politics

Progressive state Rep. Manny Rutinel will take on GOP Rep. Gabe Evans this fall, setting up a contentious general election in one of Democrats’ top pickup targets — and giving Republicans the candidate they hoped to face.

Rutinel defeated the more-moderate former state Rep. Shannon Bird in Tuesday’s primary for Colorado’s 8th District, bolstered by big spending from his campaign and its allies, including prominent Latino groups that see Rutinel as the best candidate to court the key voting bloc back to Democrats. The district is 40 percent Latino.

But Republicans believe they have a better chance at beating Rutinel than they would have Bird in the battleground seat. They’ve boosted pictures of the progressive rallying alongside democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and are quickly recycling statements from Bird’s allies who said Rutinel would be unable to win in November.

Rutinel has softened his positions on some of the left’s top issues, including his previous support for Medicare for All and opposition to fracking.

The primary was defined by the Democratic Party’s ongoing ideological civil war. While Bird racked up endorsements from moderate establishment Democratic groups, like EMILYs List and the centrist Blue Dogs, Rutinel was able to capitalize on a committee vote Bird took as a state legislator that he argued didn’t do enough to stand up to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Democrats remain bullish they can flip the district, which President Donald Trump won by less than a 2-point margin in 2024. Democrats’ top House super PAC has already reserved millions of dollars in ads ahead of November.

Meanwhile, Evans, a freshman Republican who flipped the district for his party in 2024, has stockpiled $3.4 million for the general election as Democrats duked it out in the primary.

​Politics

The Supreme Court struck down limits on coordinated spending between candidates and political parties on Tuesday, a win for Republicans that will fundamentally change how tens of millions of dollars are spent in congressional elections.

The decision will have an almost immediate impact on the midterms. Removing the limit on coordinated spending effectively gives candidates direct control over a far greater amount of money being spent on their races. It is also likely to increase the flood of political advertising that hits the airwaves each fall.

The 6-3 decision, which divided the court along its usual ideological lines, held that the limits violate the First Amendment.

The decision is a blow to Democrats, who argued that eliminating the limit on coordination would put more power into the hands of large donors who can cut bigger checks to party committees than to candidates. Republicans tend to get more money from large donors, while Democrats have been more reliant on small-dollar donors.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority, called the limits a “severe infringement on First Amendment-protected political speech.” He also argued the ruling eliminating the limits could bolster political parties generally.

“To uphold the political-party coordinated-expenditure limits here could therefore help consign political parties to continued second-tier status as compared to outside groups,” Kavanaugh wrote. “Weakened political parties distort the political system.”

President Donald Trump hailed the ruling allowing parties to spend unlimited amounts in coordination with individual campaigns.

“The Supreme Court just took restrictions off political spending!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “A BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS and, more importantly, The First Amendment!”

The National Republican Senatorial Committee brought the case seeking to overturn the limits in 2022 alongside now-Vice President J.D. Vance’s Senate campaign. Trump’s Justice Department declined to defend the law in court, while Democratic groups intervened to oppose the lawsuit.

“By striking down these unconstitutional caps on coordinated spending, the Court has restored core political speech and ensured parties can compete on a level playing field,” NRSC Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) said in a joint statement. “We are ready to fully support our candidates and put them in the strongest possible position to win in 2026 and beyond.”

Democrats, who are already staring down substantial disadvantage in party fundraising this midterm cycle and are worried that the ruling will only amplify the impact of that disparity, were quick to deride the decision Tuesday.

“Today’s ruling is a win for billionaire donors and special interests who want more influence over the GOP agenda and an invitation for corruption,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a joint statement.

The ruling strengthens the parties themselves, allowing them to directly support their preferred candidates in a way that could empower their roles in the political ecosystem — and potentially weaken the influence of super PACs. Party committees on both sides have been preparing for the possibility for months and the decision is likely to have an immediate impact on campaign spending ahead of the November midterms.

Previously, coordinated spending between candidates and party committees, such as the NRCC or the DCCC, was capped, with the specific amounts depending on the size of the district or state. Those limits no longer apply.

That significantly alters the campaign finance landscape because parties can accept far larger donations than individual candidates — $44,300 per year for national party committees compared with $3,500 per cycle for candidates. Removing the limit on coordinated spending effectively gives candidates the ability to control a far greater sum of money that is being spent on their race.

That could also substantially change the makeup of political advertising on television, because candidates get far lower rates on TV ads than other groups. If their coordinated efforts with campaigns get the similarly low rate, they would have far more cash to tap to flood the airwaves, while super PACs will still have to pay a higher rate. As a result, campaigns might spend more of their budget on TV advertising, while super PACs may be more likely to pick up other campaigning costs, such as mailers and digital advertising.

Democrats have largely had the advantage in candidate fundraising, which has generally given them a leg up in battlegrounds when candidate fundraising was the most important. But NRSC has slightly more cash on hand than the DSCC, according to recent campaign finance reports, while the Republican National Committee has wildly outraised the DNC. Those party funds could now give the GOP the financial advantage in key states.

The court’s decision additionally eliminates the need for parties to mount their own independent expenditure arms, where they have traditionally spent tens of millions of dollars.

The decision is the latest in a series of blows the high court has dealt to campaign finance regulation over the past two decades. The 2010 Citizens United and Speechnow.org decisions enabled the rise of super PACs with no limit on donations. In 2014, the court struck down aggregate limits on individual donations. And in 2022, it struck down limits on candidates using donor funds to repay personal loans they had made to their campaigns.

“Today’s decision follows a string of disastrous campaign finance rulings from the Roberts Court that began with Citizens United,” Michael Beckel, director of money-in-politics reform at Issue One, said in a statement. “By eliminating the limits that have long governed how much money parties can spend in coordination with candidates, the Supreme Court has further empowered wealthy donors and special interests with outsized influence in elections.”

​Politics

Iran’s ambassador to Mexico praised the country’s national soccer team after its elimination from the FIFA World Cup, while also highlighting the controversial video review decisions that influenced the outcome of the tournament.

In a lengthy statement to POLITICO, Ambassador Abolfazl Pasandideh argued that Iran battled not only its opponents but also “fatigue, injustice, and hardships that rarely appeared before the cameras,” later criticizing what he called “pseudo-VAR” interventions.

“Perhaps some balls fell just centimeters short of bringing joy to millions of Iranians — centimeters that were not even measured by the linesman’s flag, yet were magnified by ‘pseudo-VAR’ interventions,” Pasandideh wrote. “However, nothing could ever diminish the magnitude of your determination.“

FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

He cast the team’s World Cup run in overtly patriotic terms, comparing the players to legendary Persian heroes including Arash and Rostam and arguing that “true championship lies in loyalty to the flag.”

Addressing the players as the “brave sons of Iran,” Pasandideh said they had demonstrated a willingness to give “the last drop of life for Iran” and predicted the national team would return “stronger, more experienced, and more brilliant” in future international competitions.

​Politics