The Inside Game: Gabriel Debenedetti

Gavin newsom isn’t supposed to be doing this the Feinstein dilemma looms over the wannabe face of Democrats.

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The Senatorial whispers picked up this spring once Democrats concluded that they were screwed: When, exactly, is Dianne Feinstein coming back? Is she going to return at all? Unable to pass their agenda with Republicans running the House, the party had pinned its hopes for productivity on the Senate’s confirming liberal judges. But with Feinstein, who turns 90 in June, suffering from shingles and missing from the all-important Judiciary Committee for months, that dream was stalling out. And the silence from her camp was excruciating.

Rumors started to circulate about who had reached out to Feinstein to gauge her health or her willingness to step down. Even colleagues on the committee weren’t hearing any real updates—just vague noise about staffers and family members who had tried and failed to persuade her to retire as she recovered in San Francisco. None of them wanted to disrespect her by venting their frustration publicly, and the party’s leadership kept deflecting all questions.

So the search for answers began drifting west to a man who would prefer to talk about anything else—but who some Democrats nevertheless wish would get them some clarity about her return or even himself try to convince her to step aside. Gavin Newsom won’t do either.

This is not how things were supposed to go for him. Newsom, the 55-year-old governor of California, has been his party’s Next Big Thing on and off for two decades.