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JONATHAN TURLEY: USC abandons governor debate after Dems whine about White candidates
The University of Southern California (USC) is under fire after canceling the California gubernatorial debate with less than 24 hours’ notice. The reason? None of the polling candidates are people of color. It was a crushingly revealing moment in a state where universities have long defied voters who demanded an end to affirmative action in admissions.
USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future and ABC/KABC Los Angeles were scheduled to co-host the debate at Bovard Auditorium on Tuesday evening. Then it was canceled on Monday.
Former Biden Health and Human Services Secretary and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra had sent a letter to President Beong-Soo Kim, alleging “election rigging” and objecting “you disqualified all of the candidates of color from participating.”
For many, USC succeeded in beclowning itself by first defending USC Professor Christian Grose’s “data-driven” selection process and then abruptly canceling the debate lineup selected through that process. If that seems incomprehensible, welcome to American higher education.
The cancellation is only the latest unexpected turn in the election, where the two top vote-getters will face each other in a runoff election.
California Democrats are in a panic as two Republicans currently top the polling: Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and commentator Steve Hilton.
At the same time, the leading Democrats include controversial candidates such as former Rep. Katie Porter and Rep. Eric Swalwell. Porter is best known nationally for spewing profanity and abuse at staff members. Last year, Swalwell was outvoted by Rep. Raul Grijalva, who died in March 2025. However, they are still doing markedly better than Becerra with voters.
BIANCO SAYS ‘DEMOCRAT POLICY IS INDEFENSIBLE’ AS GOP CANDIDATES TOP CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR POLLING
USC insisted that it “vigorously defends the independence, objectivity, and integrity of USC Professor Christian Grose, whose data-driven candidate viability formula is based on extensive research and enjoys broad academic support.”
That “data-driven system” produced a lineup of Bianco and Hilton as well as Democrats billionaire Tom Steyer, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, Porter and Swalwell.
Advocates then went into full rage, calling the process racist and rigged. Becerra declared:
“USC goes to great lengths to justify its exclusionary candidate formula. But you can’t escape the detestable outcome: you disqualified all of the candidates of color from participating while you invited a white candidate who has NEVER polled higher than some of the candidates of color, including me.”
However, the methodology considered both polling percentage and fundraising with the polling given greater weight.
Becerra has been shown at 3%, notably within the statistical margin of error for most polls. In other words, he could be closer to zero. (He is shown as tied with Mahan, who Becerra appears to be referencing in his letter as lacking higher polling).
CALIFORNIA DEMS LASH OUT AT ICE DURING GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE
USC then yielded after trying to expand the number of participants to appease objectors. In a statement, USC stated:
“We recognize that concerns about the selection criteria for tomorrow’s gubernatorial debate have created a significant distraction from the issues that matter to voters. Unfortunately, USC and [debate co-sponsor] KABC have not been able to reach an agreement on expanding the number of candidates at tomorrow’s debate. As a result, USC has made the difficult decision to cancel tomorrow’s debate and will look for other opportunities to educate voters on the candidates and issues.”
Becerra took a victory lap: “We fought. We won! … Thank you to everyone who stood up, raised hell and demanded justice. Never give up when you’re fighting for fairness!”
NO CLEAR CHAMPION OF CASH PAYMENT REPARATIONS AMONG DEMOCRATS IN CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL RACE
At least Becerra’s position is comprehensible. He has long defended affirmative action in California. Indeed, despite statewide votes against the practice, California universities continue to be accused of applying racial criteria in admissions. Becerra is effectively demanding such action for himself as a “candidate of color.”
USC was left stumbling in search of a place to hide. USC scholars defended the process that USC affectively scuttled:
“All of us expect and welcome critical engagement from inside and outside the academy. What Professor Grose has faced, however, is not substantive or methodological debate. Attacks and insinuations from members of the political classes include completely baseless allegations of election-rigging, inconsistency, bias and data manipulation. These are harmful character assassinations, not substantive debate. They are of a piece with other attempts to strong-arm or malign scholars that have become all too common in America.
Whatever their intent, the effect of these attacks is to diminish academic freedom and chill scholarly willingness to add their voices to the public square. It is imperative that universities defend their faculties’ integrity when it is unfairly attacked.”
That is a powerful statement if one does not then consider that the university caved, cancelled the debate, and meekly said that it will “look for other opportunities to educate voters on the candidates and issues.” The “strong-arming” succeeded.
What is particularly disappointing is that I just spoke at USC and was impressed with the members of the USC community seeking to restore a diversity of viewpoints. The event was sponsored by The Center for the Political Future, which was the sponsor of the debate. It was also organized by the USC Open Dialogue Project and the USC chapter of the Heterodox Academy. Both have written in defense of this process.
Professor Morris Levy with Heterodox wrote: “[USC’s] message is unmistakable: USC was allowing ‘concerns’ and a public ‘distraction’ to override its own institutional conviction that the selection formula was data-driven and backed by research.”
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So Heterodox, The Center for the Political Future, and ABC7 issued statements indicating that they were prepared to go forward and also defended the process of selection. That left only USC.
In this controversy, USC succeeded in finding the least defensible ground to make its stand. It denounced the cancel campaign but then effectively yielded to it.
The alternative is to stand by your race-blind, data-driven process and hold the debate for all invited candidates willing to attend.
Where USC was criticized recently for its fake punt in the game with Northwestern, it actually punted in this play and left the field.
From Times Square to here in Minnesota’s state capital, communist and socialist activists at the nationwide “No Kings” protests escalated their anti-America campaign and openly called for a nationwide economic strike on May 1, an international communist holiday known as May Day, as key Democratic activists joined their call.
At the rally here in St. Paul, organizers, speakers and activists distributed communist literature, waved flags from socialist governments and revolutionary movements, and urged demonstrators to transform the day’s protests into a nationwide shutdown of work, school and commerce.
By early Sunday, Press TV, the propaganda arm of the Islamic Republic of Iran, leveraged news of the protests to tell readers, “Regime change begins at home’: No Kings, No War protests held across US.”
As Fox News Digital reported, about 500 organizations with an estimated combined annual revenue of about $3 billion sponsored and organized the demonstrations, creating a centralized protest apparatus even while organizers tried to market the activists as “grassroots.”
The network included traditional Democratic advocacy organizations, like Indivisible, MoveOn and the American Federation of Teachers, alongside openly socialist and communist groups such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and local chapters of the Communist Party USA, including the Twin Cities Communist Party USA club, which endorsed the St. Paul rally.
500 GROUPS WITH $3B IN REVENUES ARE BEHIND THE #NOKINGS PROTESTS AND COMMUNIST CALL FOR ‘REVOLUTION’
Offstage at the celebrity-filled “No Kings” protest in St. Paul, activists with the Party for Socialism and Liberation sold a manifesto, “Socialist Reconstruction: A Better Future for the United States,” filled with Marxist teachings.
Yards away, near the main stage, Kevin Dwire a candidate for the U.S. Senate from the Socialist Workers Party, sold copies of the “Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the 1847 work that would transform the next century’s global politics. The group says it is “part of the continuity of revolutionary Marxism,” tracing back to Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.
In the middle of the lawn, flags for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Venezuela and Cuba flew next to a flag of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, a self-described Marxist group.
In the back of the lawn, a young man who identified himself only as “Mason” championed the teachings of the Revolutionary Communists of America. A young woman nearby sold copies of Socialist Alternative, which describes itself as a “revolutionary organization working to build a movement for a democratic, socialist society.”
‘NO KINGS’ CALLS ITSELF LEADERLESS, BUT ITS OWN INTERNAL DOCUMENTS TELL A VERY DIFFERENT STORY
Across the country, from Los Angeles to New York City, pro-communist Americans marched alongside traditional center-left Democrats in an alliance that many mainstream media outlets largely portrayed simply as anti-Trump protests.
The ideological adherents themselves, however, were not shy about their beliefs.
In Times Square, members of the Revolutionary Communists of America chanted: “There is only one solution — communist revolution,” while waving red flags bearing the hammer and sickle.
The common refrain from these groups was a call for a nationwide strike on May 1, the traditional May Day holiday long embraced by communist and socialist movements as a day of mass political action.
At the St. Paul rally, that call received support from the stage.
Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, the protest’s key organizer, joined the communist call for a national strike and urged protesters to prepare for economic disruption on May Day, similar to a shutdown that saw limited success in Minneapolis during protests on Jan. 23 against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I want everyone here to put this on their calendar… It is a tactical goal, an escalation… It is an economic show of force, inspired by Minnesota’s own day of truth and action,” Levin told the crowd.
Levin continued: “On May 1, on May Day, we are saying, ‘No business as usual.’ No work, no school, no shopping. We’re going to show up and say, ‘We’re putting workers over billionaires and kings.’”
While Indivisible has participated in May Day coalitions before, the prominence of socialist organizations in the protest ecosystem illustrates the growing influence of the far left within networks that overlap with mainstream Democratic political organizing.
Indivisible Project, a nonprofit whose work is often marketed with just the first word of the group’s name, has received $5 million in recent years from billionaire George Soros’ Open Society philanthropy arm.
Meanwhile, some of the openly pro-communist groups marching alongside Democratic activists are connected to a global activist network funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon now based in Shanghai, promoting messaging critical of U.S. democracy and sympathetic to China’s political model.
That network includes media and organizing hubs such as the People’s Forum, BreakThrough BT Media Inc.’s BreakThrough News, CodePink, the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which have received funding and support through the Singham network.
Over the years, Singham, who sold his tech company for approximately $800 million in 2017, has provided $22.4 million to People’s Forum, $1.3 million to CodePink and $1.1 million to BreakThrough BT Media Inc. The ANSWER Coalition and Party for Socialism and Liberation have received support through their relationships with the People’s Forum.
The network has funded conferences, media outlets and activist organizations promoting narratives that portray the United States as a “fascist” and “hyper-imperialist” power while defending the authoritarian governments of China, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The theme echoed throughout the protests, where demonstrators warned of rising “fascism” in the United States.
In the hours after the protests ended, the activist networks celebrated the demonstrations online. In Los Angeles, CodePink posted video showing its banner in the middle of a protest where demonstrators chanted: “Hey, hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go.”
BreakThrough News shared videos from protests in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Houston and Gainesville, Florida, declaring: “Massive demonstrations took place as part of the ‘No Kings Day.’”
The outlet blasted what it described as Trump’s “right-wing agenda of endless wars and deportations.”
The ANSWER Coalition circulated video showing Indivisible, CodePink and the Party for Socialism and Liberation marching together in Chicago, writing that the “people of Chicago take the streets to stand against Trump’s agenda.”
Indivisible Chicago responded with three fire emojis, revealing the emerging synchronicity between traditionally Democratic groups and openly pro-communist organizations.
The ANSWER Coalition operates out of the People’s Forum in New York City, which also celebrated the demonstrations online with the caption, putting its stamp on the day: “No Kings Day NYC.”
Leaders tied to some of these activist groups, including CodePink co-founders Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin, have participated in delegations to Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and China, strengthening relationships with governments frequently at odds with U.S. foreign policy. Evans married Singham in 2017, as he started funding this network in the U.S.
Back in St. Paul, even some socialist activists expressed skepticism about those alliances.
Dwire, the Socialist Workers Party leader selling copies of Marx’s manifesto, shook his head when discussing China’s political system. “China socialism is capitalism,” he said.
The young activist from the Revolutionary Communists of America also distanced himself from China’s government, describing it as a betrayal of communist ideals, while he openly embraced communist ideology. “We are against imperialism,” he told Fox News Digital.
As the rally wound down and crews dismantled stage equipment, the protest grounds began to empty.
A demonstrator propped a Party for Socialism and Liberation sign against a porta-toilet.
Nearby, two American flags lay discarded in the grass beside a heap of garbage bags, an emptied bag of Cheez-It visible among the trash.
Kyle Schmidbauer contributed to this report.
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LSU Tigers infielder Seth Dardar made the most of his clutch home run in the eighth inning against the Kentucky Wildcats on Sunday.
Dardar was at the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning with the Tigers down two runs. LSU had two men on base when he stepped up to the plate.
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He clobbered a home run to right field to give LSU an 11-10 lead. As he knew he got all of it, Dardar flipped his bat high into the air to put the exclamation point on the dinger.
LSU was down 7-0 going into the bottom of the third inning before they went on the comeback trail. The Tigers got the deficit down to within one run before Kentucky added three more runs in the fifth inning.
But after Dardar’s homer, LSU’s bullpen buckled down and didn’t give up any more runs.
OLE MISS’ TRINIDAD CHAMBLISS ELIGIBLE FOR SIXTH COLLEGE SEASON AFTER NCAA’S APPEAL DENIED BY JUDGE
LSU won the game, 17-10, and took the series against Kentucky.
“Even down 7-0, our players were confident they were going to come back in this game,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said after the game, via the school’s website. “I’m very proud of the way they competed; they gave their all throughout the game and earned a great victory.”
Dardar, who played at Kansas State and Columbia before transferring to LSU for the 2026 season, was 3-for-5 with a double, home run and four RBI.
LSU improved to 19-10 on the season and 4-5 against SEC opponents. Kentucky fell to 21-6 and 5-4 in the SEC.
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