‘This Is About Voter Intimidation’: Gavin Newsom Is Calling Out Trump’s Bid to Control Elections

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is on to President Donald Trump’s plan to undermine free and fair elections.

Newsom warned in a post last week that the Department Of Justice’s (DOJ) plan to send federal election observers to California and New Jersey is just one facet of Trump’s wider plot to subvert elections.

“They have no business doing that. They have no basis to do that,” Newsom said of the DOJ’s monitoring effort. “This is about voter intimidation. This is about voter suppression, period. Full stop.”

The DOJ’s Civil Rights division last week said it will send monitors to polling sites in seven California counties and Passaic County, New Jersey –  – for key state elections next month. 

Legal experts told Democracy Docket that the DOJ provided no justification for dispatching monitors and that the department appeared to be targeting states selectively.

On Nov. 4, New Jersey is set to hold its extremely close governor election, while Californians are set to vote on Proposition 50, a proposed congressional redistricting plan that could net Democrats as many as five seats in the House of Representatives.

California’s redistricting plan, which is a response to aggressive redistricting measures by Republican-led states like Texas, has been condemned by the president and his allies.

Trump has spoken before about putting law enforcement officers at the polls.

“We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to have, hopefully, U.S. attorneys, and we’re going to have everybody and attorney generals (sic),” he said before the 2020 election.

In the aftermath of that election, the Trump White House drafted, though never issued, an executive order directing the defense secretary to seize voting machines.

Still, some leading Democrats, and much of the media, have shied away from spelling out the threat to fair elections in terms as clear as those Newsom — along with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) — have used. 

“I don’t think Donald Trump wants another election,” Newsom warned in August, after Trump used National Guard troops to take over Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.

In deploying monitors, Newsom warned Friday that Trump’s DOJ is both attempting to influence next month’s elections while also preparing the way for future deployments during the 2026 midterms.

Newsom added that the Trump administration may also send Immigration and Custom Enforcement or other federal agents to polling places – a move supported by some of Trump’s allies.

“This is a bridge too far,” Newsom said. “They do not believe in fair and free elections. Our republic, our democracy, is on the line.”

“We all need to wake up,” he added.