Seema Mehta is a veteran political writer for the Los Angeles Times covering national and state politics, including the 2026 gubernatorial race. She has written about every presidential campaign since 2008, as well as multiple gubernatorial, Senate, congressional and mayoral races. Mehta was a 2018-19 Knight-Wallace fellow at the University of Michigan, where she studied how automation and artificial intelligence are indelibly changing the nation’s identity, policies and politics. The Syracuse University graduate and East Coast native swore when she joined The Times in 1998 that she would only spend a few years on the Left Coast. Many years, a husband, a house and a few cats later, she can’t imagine living somewhere she couldn’t golf year-round.
Latest From This Author
Porter focused on protecting Californians from President Trump’s policies, a theme that is expected to be a throughline in next year’s gubernatorial contest.
Partisan rancor during President Trump’s speech was remarkable and fiery from the moment it began, and the most contentious in recent memory.
Californians are among the nation’s largest consumers of imported Mexican avocados, tequila and beer. Prices of all are expected to spike because of Trump’s new tariffs.
A key Senate committee supports Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services. The full Senate will vote on his nomination.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced aggressive questions about his skepticism of vaccines and other issues during the first of two scheduled Senate confirmation hearings.
Questions about former Vice President Kamala Harris’ plans have swirled since she lost her presidential bid — notably about whether the former California senator and attorney general will run for governor next year.
With little power in Republican-led Washington, D.C., California Democrats struggle to mount a countereffort to President Trump’s agenda.
Former President Biden’s secretary of Health and Human Services is strongly considering running for governor of California, according to allies.
Former President Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden are spending their first days after leaving the White House in Santa Barbara County.