Don Scott for President

Welcome to Radio Free America, Aaron Kleinman’s take on stories that matter in state politics but aren't getting enough attention.

Sure, Gavin Newsom’s net approval is as bad as ICE’s. Sure, he dated a teenager when he was the mayor of San Francisco. And that while voters perceive him as very liberal, he won’t support popular liberal ideas that will help with the upcoming deficit crisis that we likely won’t be able to borrow our way out of the way we have in the past.

But he’s a fighter! The people want a fighter! And to his credit, he doesn’t just do oral sex jokes in Davos. He also got California to respond in kind to Texas’s mid-decade redistricting to help give Democrats a better chance of winning the House of Representatives in November. He got the California Legislature to pass three bills to put the issue on the ballot. Then, he was able to get the heavily Democratic state to support the plan in November. But that effort pales in comparison to what Virginia legislative leaders, including House Speaker Don Scott, did. 

Virginia Democrats also wanted to pass a constitutional amendment that would redraw their congressional districts to counteract Republican mid-decade gerrymanders in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina. But Virginia is far less Democratic than California. While the GOP hasn’t won statewide in California in the last two decades, Virginia had a Republican governor until earlier this year. Kamala Harris only carried the state by 6%, as opposed to her 20% victory margin in California. So you can’t rely on Democrats alone to pass your agenda.

Moreover, Virginia’s state legislature was only narrowly in Democratic hands heading into the 2025 election, with the party holding one-seat majorities in each chamber. Like California, Democrats needed to pass a constitutional amendment in order to draw new districts. But unlike California, they had to do so two times, before and after the 2025 elections. And unlike California, they couldn’t afford to lose any Democratic votes before those elections. Scott held the pre-election special session right as voters were making up their minds, willing to risk his Speaker’s gavel in order to fight extremism at the federal level.

Of course, his daring move ended up working out. His party gained 13 seats in the elections, and he got the Senate to agree to a map that would create 10 Democratic-leaning seats and one Republican-leaning seat. This was about as much as the state was willing to support, as the measure passed by only a 3% margin on Tuesday night.

While many legislative leaders showed initiative in this push Scott is perhaps the most compelling contrast to Newsom. Like Newsom, he was raised by a single mother. But his father wasn’t a well-connected judge, and he had to grow up in poverty. Scott still worked his way into college at Texas A&M and joined the Navy, only to be sent to prison for seven years for helping transport money for a friend as part of a drug deal. But he ended up turning his life around and became a lawyer and politician, a story of redemption so powerful that even his Republican opponents in the Legislature admired it. He then became Virginia’s first ever Black Speaker of the House, where he is now helping enact Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s agenda. Heck, he even donated a kidney to his neighbor! If anyone represents the power of a second chance and the ability of average Americans to overcome the odds, it’s Don Scott.

Obviously, state House speakers aren’t high on anybody’s list of potential presidential contenders. And I doubt Scott runs. (I didn’t reach out to his press office for this story because I assumed they’d laugh in my face.) And I’ll readily admit that Gavin Newsom has better hair than him. But if your main criteria for the 2028 nomination is finding someone who fought Trump on redistricting, then Newsom is not the best option.

College football message boards tend to be the most deranged places on the Internet, and the good folks of the Shutdown Fullcast have decided to use that for good. Every year, the popular football podcast (whose predecessor site Every Day Should Be Saturday let me contribute a few pieces) pits fanbases against each other to see who can raise the most money for New American Pathways, which helps refugees adjust to life in their new home. Last year, they raised well more than $1 million, and they’re on their way to shattering that record this year. You can check out their website to see where your alma mater stacks up against its rivals. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to give, in the name of spite.

Craig Fehrman, author of the upcoming Lewis & Clark book This Vast Enterprise, had a great article in Defector last week about how history books should focus more on how their events were experienced by the participants. And I’m with him 100%. Too often, historians use books as an excuse to empty their notebooks instead of giving you a cogent narrative and idea of what the events meant to the people in the middle of them.

Which is why I wholeheartedly recommend you read “The Gales of November.” John U. Bacon delves deep into the lives of the men who were aboard the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald and the unique culture of Great Lakes mariners. By the time you get to the ship’s doomed final voyage, your heart breaks knowing the ins and outs of the lives of the men aboard. But it still ends on a high note thanks to a purple bong and a tattoo. If you want to know why, you just have to pick it up yourself.

The people have spoken, and Cuisinart has the best waffle maker these days. I’ll report back on how much of a pain it is to clean.

As for this week, I’ve started clawing my way back through old Survivor seasons. I stopped watching around season five, but Season 50 has sucked me back in. So my question to you is which seasons I should focus on and which ones I should avoid. No spoilers, please! Hit reply and tell me.

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