Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon on Wednesday suggested the Democratic Party will fare better in the future if younger politicians, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, are propped up instead of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
“I think that there are other more promising, for the Democrat Party, young politicians,” Dhillon said on the New York Post podcast Pod Force One with Miranda Devine. “I think AOC is one of those fictionally created-in-a-lab characters that may be a more promising one for them.”
“I think that’s the bigger threat,” she added. “The Zohran Mamdanis of the world, who are charismatic, attractive, diabolical. That’s the next generation.”
Democrats are looking to maintain their momentum into the 2026 midterm elections after their sweeping wins in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, and elsewhere last month. The party’s winning streak continued this week, with Democratic candidates winning Miami’s mayoral runoff election and a Georgia state House race on Tuesday.
Beyond next year, two of the three Democrats that Dhillon mentioned are potentially gearing up for high-profile elections toward the end of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Ocasio-Cortez is speculated to be running for either the White House or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) seat in 2028. She has not announced her candidacy for either race.
Meanwhile, Newsom said he is heavily considering a run for the presidency in three years. However, he won’t make a decision until the 2026 elections are over. His second and final term as California governor ends in January 2027.
A 2028 presidential campaign launched by Newsom would follow his mid-decade redistricting win in California’s special election last month when voters approved Proposition 50. The ballot measure started the process for redrawing the state’s congressional map, allowing California Democrats to gain up to five more House seats.
Dhillon, who serves as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, is suing the Newsom administration for adopting the redistricting ballot measure that allegedly gerrymandered congressional districts based on race in violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
When asked by Devine whether the California governor has a viable political future, Dhillon appeared quite unimpressed.
“I don’t like his style and his lack of class,” she said of Newsom. “This person isn’t untested like Obama was in a way where there was this entire fiction created around him. He’s been tested. He’s been a governor. He’s had notable personal foibles and failures, as well as state leadership failures.”
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Among Newsom’s notable failures is his administration’s wildfire prevention policies that left the state, particularly the Los Angeles area, vulnerable to catastrophic fires at the start of this year. He is still facing backlash from the natural disaster.
Newsom is preparing to release a memoir in February 2026, providing readers a “truly vulnerable” look at his second term. The book comes out less than a year before he leaves office.
