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SACRAMENTO — A new poll shows that former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter’s support in the 2026 governor’s race dropped after she tangled with a television reporter during a heated interview in October, an incident that rival candidates used to question her temperament.

Porter was the clear front-runner over the summer, but by late October she dropped behind Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, according to a poll released Friday by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by The Times.

Still, nearly half of the registered voters surveyed remain undecided, evidence that few Californians are paying attention to a race that remains wide open and was eclipsed in recent months by the costly and successful congressional redistricting battle that became a referendum on President Trump. Porter remains the most favored Democratic candidate, which is significant in a state that has not elected a Republican governor since 2006.

“She’s the leading Democrat among the various ones that are in there right now,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll. “But it’s because nobody really on the Democratic side has really jumped out of the pack. It’s kind of a political vacuum at the moment.”

The governor’s race was frozen in stasis for most of the year, first as Californians waited for former Vice President Kamala Harris to decide whether she was going to jump into the race. It wasn’t until late July that Harris announced, no, she was not running. Then, weeks later, Californians became captivated by a special election to reconfigure the state’s congressional districts — which set off a furious, expensive and high-stakes political battle that could help decide which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.

Now that the special election is over, gubernatorial candidates can “rev up the public to pay attention,” DiCamillo said.

“It’s the time for someone to break through,” he said.

But it won’t be U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla. The senator would have been the top Democrat in the race, but not a heavy favorite, if he decided to jump in, the poll found. Voters gave him the highest favorability rating among all current and potential contenders in the governor’s race. After months of speculation, however, Padilla on Tuesday announced he would forgo a run for governor.

The new poll found that Bianco was supported by 13% of voters in the state, followed by Porter at 11%. The Berkeley poll in August showed that Porter led all candidates with 17% support, with Bianco in second place at 10%.

A Bianco representative said his lead in the polls was evidence that his campaign was resonating with voters.

“It is abundantly clear that Californians are demanding a new path forward,” campaign manager Erica Melendrez said. “Sheriff Bianco represents a safe California, an affordable California, an educated California and a leader with integrity and character that ALL Californians can be proud of.”

DiCamillo said Porter’s 6% drop over those three months was significant, given that the California governor’s race is so tight, but cautioned that it’s still early in the 2026 campaign season and a lot of shifting will happen before the June gubernatorial primary.

Porter’s campaign declined to comment on the drop in support and noted instead that she still led the Democratic field.

“Poll after poll continues to show Katie as the strongest Democrat in the race, driven by a growing coalition of grassroots supporters — not powerful special interests,” spokesperson Peter Opitz said. “Californians know her record of taking on Donald Trump and trust her to tackle our cost crisis, from skyrocketing rent and housing costs to rising healthcare premiums and unaffordable child care.”

Porter came under fire in October after an outburst during an interview with CBS reporter Julie Watts. When the Sacramento-based journalist asked Porter what she would say to Californians who voted for Trump, the UC Irvine law professor responded that she didn’t need their support.

After Watts asked follow-up questions, Porter accused the reporter of being “unnecessarily argumentative,” held up her hands and later said, “I don’t want this all on camera.”

The next day, a 2021 video emerged of Porter berating a staff member during a videoconference with a member of the Biden administration. “Get out of my f— shot!” Porter said to the young woman after she came into view in the background. Porter’s comments in the video were first reported by Politico.

Porter later acknowledged that she mishandled the television news interview, but explained that she felt the reporter’s questioning implied she should cater to Trump’s supporters. Porter also said she apologized to her staff member, saying her remarks were “inappropriate,” that she values her staff and could have handled that situation better.

Her Democratic gubernatorial rivals seized on the videos. Former state Controller Betty Yee called on Porter to drop out of the race, and businessman Stephen Cloobeck and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attacked her in ads about the uproar.

While difficult to assess, the negative news coverage and publicity surrounding those incidents appear to have taken a toll on Porter’s reputation. No other candidate experienced a similar shift in support.

According to the new poll, 26% of California voters had a favorable opinion of Porter, compared with 33% who saw her unfavorably — with the remainder having no opinion. That’s a major drop from when she was running for the U.S. Senate last year, when 45% of voters had a favorable opinion in February 2024 and 27% were sour on her.

Political scientist Eric Schickler, co-director of the Berkeley institute that conducted the poll, said Porter looks vulnerable, and that makes the governor’s race a more attractive contest for current candidates and those who may be considering joining it.

Aside from Porter and Bianco, the poll found that 8% of voters favored former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Democrat; the same percentage backed conservative commentator Steve Hilton. Villaraigosa had support from 5% of voters, Yee 3%, and California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond 1%. Cloobeck and former Democratic legislator Ian Calderon registered less than 1%.

Another potential candidate — billionaire developer Rick Caruso — was backed by 3% of voters, the poll found. Caruso said Monday night that he still was considering running for either governor or Los Angeles mayor and will decide in a few weeks.

Schickler said the results of Tuesday’s election may be a sign that moderate or business-friendly Democrats — including Caruso — may not fare so well in a state as Democratic as California. Voters across the nation delivered a sharp rebuke to Trump, electing Democrats in major races in New York City, New Jersey and Virginia and passing Proposition 50, the California ballot measure designed to help Democrats take control of the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2026 election.

“Somebody like Caruso, his narrative would probably look a lot stronger if Democrats still seemed on the defensive and in disarray,” Schickler said. “But after Prop. 50 passing, big Democratic wins in New Jersey and Virginia, I think the argument for a need to change what we’re doing dramatically, at least in a state like California, is less likely to resonate.”

The Berkeley IGS/Times poll surveyed 8,141 California registered voters online in English and Spanish from Oct. 20 to 27. The results are estimated to have a margin of error of 2 percentage points in either direction in the overall sample, and larger numbers for subgroups.

By&nbspAP with Doloresz Katanich

Published on
09/10/2025 – 16:44 GMT+2

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Traders on Wall Street showed caution on Thursday morning although US stocks continue to hover near their record highs.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1% in the first few minutes of trading on Thursday, before slipping 0.35%. The index is coming off its eighth gain in the last nine days.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.41%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.43%, following a tech rally that kept US markets in a good mood over recent weeks. On Wednesday, AI chip giant Nvidia and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index both hit new records.

However, the rally has been increasingly accompanied by a growing chorus of concerns that AI-related investments are overpriced. On Wednesday, the Bank of England and the IMF both issued warnings about growing risks of an AI-led market bubble bursting. The announcements add to the current uncertainty due to the shutdown in the US, among others.

“Concerns around excessive valuations, elevated levels of government borrowing, uncertain economic growth, and political turbulence are omnipresent,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“There are a multitude of factors that could trigger a market pullback, but for now, it is another day where there are more bulls than bears.”

In other corporate news, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chipmaker, on Thursday reported its third-quarter revenue climbed 30% year-on-year, beating market forecasts.

“There is no real sign of a slowdown in AI-driven demand in the latest numbers from TSMC,” Mould said. “The chip manufacturing giant may have seen a slight easing in demand month-on-month, but year-on-year the levels of growth are still impressive for a company of its size.”

Shutdown weighs on the market sentiment

Trading has been relatively muted recently following the US government’s latest shutdown. The closure is delaying the release of several major economic reports that usually move the market. Stocks have been drifting without them or other signals to change expectations for cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve, one of the major reasons the stock market has been on a tear since April.

Oil prices fell after Israel and Hamas agreed Wednesday to pause fighting in Gaza so that the remaining hostages there can be freed in the coming days in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

The acceptance of elements of a plan put forward by the Trump administration represents the biggest breakthrough in months in the devastating two-year war.

US benchmark crude dipped 21 cents to $62.34 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, edged down 18 cents to $66.07 per barrel.

Gold shed some of its stellar gains but was still at $4,054.50 per ounce as of Thursday morning in the US.

Corporate news fuelling the trade

PepsiCo shares inched up over 1% on Thursday after the snack and beverage giant reported better-than-expected revenue in the third quarter despite weaker demand for its snacks and drinks in North America.

PepsiCo’s net income fell 11% to $2.6 billion (€2.24bn), but adjusted for one-time items, the company earned $2.29 per share, beating analysts’ forecasts by 3 cents.

Delta Air Lines easily topped Wall Street expectations for third-quarter profit. Delta expects recent momentum to carry through the end of the year and forecasts full-year profit of $6 per share, in the upper half of its previous guidance range. Delta shares rose 5.8% in premarket, lifting other major airlines’ shares along with it. United rose 3.9% and American jumped 4.9%.

Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, the maker of weight-loss drug Wegovy, announced that it was acquiring San Francisco’s Akero Therapeutics for $4.7bn (€4.05bn) in cash.

Meanwhile, Ferrari saw its shares lose more than 13.8% after the Italian luxury sports carmaker offered a cautious earnings forecast on Thursday.

European sentiment remains mixed

Elsewhere, European markets opened in a mixed mood as traders weighed the details of the Israel–Hamas peace deal and mounting concerns over an AI bubble, with corporate updates, the looming US shutdown, and France’s political turmoil humming in the background.

Germany’s DAX added 0.28% while France’s CAC 40 was mostly flat. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.29%.

Craig Revel Horwood nearly slipped and fell on Saturday’s Strictly Come Dancing as he attempted his favourite routine and fans at home flooded social media with their reaction

Craig Revel Horwood nearly slipped and fell on Saturday’s Strictly Come Dancing. The professional dancer, 60, was back in his seat on the judging panel alongside Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke where he had spent much of the evening dishing out his typically-acerbic critique to celebrities like Thomas Skinner, Vicky Pattison and Ross King.

Just before Balvinder Sopal, who is known to fans of BBC soap EastEnders for playing Suki Panesar on the long-running programme, took to the stage, Craig leapt out of his seat once it became apparent that his ‘favourite’ routine was about to be performed. The TV star is a huge fan of the Charletson, and excitedly skipped around in front of the cameras.

Tess Daly was just about to introduce Balvinder to the stage, and laughed as Craig excitedly performed a few seconds of the famous routine. But the move didn’t necessarily go down too well with viewers at home as they noticed straight away that he almost lost his footing.

READ MORE: Strictly Come Dancing chaos as Stefan Dennis falls and Dianne Buswell catches himREAD MORE: Strictly Come Dancing viewers divided as La Voix makes savage dig towards at co-stars

One fan wrote on X: “Craig being iconic but also nearly slipping there,” whilst another said: “Craig nearly slipping lmfaoooo” A third simply asked: “What the hell was that Craig?” whilst a fourth said: “Thought i was about to watch Craig faceplant onto the floor there for a sec.” Another added: “What was that all about with Craig? Really cringe & annoying,get back in your box mate!”

Balvinder then took to the stage alongside her professional partner Julian Caillon to perform the dance, all set to Been Like This by Meghan Trainor. They received a score of 30, made up of two sevens and two eights.

But Craig’s dancing moment wasn’t the only thing fans issued a complaint over during the second live show of this year’s series. As soon as the programme began, viewers took issue with the fact that presenters Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly do not get their own introduction, even though the judges do.

One wrote: “Okay…..no intros for Tess and Claudia” and another said: “So Tess and Claudia don’t get introduced anymore” In agreement, a third viewer said: “I hate the way Tess and Claudia don’t get an intro now but the judges do!”

It was Amber Davies‘ night in the end, though, as the former Love Island winner and musical theatre star topped the leaderboard with a score of 56, when combining her scores from this week and the first week of the show.

To make things extra special for the West End actress, she celebrated her 29th birthday on Saturday and was surprised with a cake that came with a picture of her and her professional partner Kai Widdrington printed onto it. Just hours before the show, he surprised her with a large bouquet of flowers along with a Happy Birthday balloon.

The moment was captured on video, and Amber, who will star as Elle Woods in next year’s UK tour of Legally Blonde: The Musical, captioned the Instagram post saying: “Little me would never believe I would be celebrating my last birthday in my twenties on the Strictly ballroom dancefloor.”

She added: “Golden star for the most fab pro partner ever @nikita__kuzmin !!! He remembered guys best birthday EVER !!!! @bbcstrictly (he did infact say happy 40th birthday whilst handing me this gift..) Thank you so much for all the birthday love, time to celebrate with a SAMBAAAAA.”

And friends and family wasted no time in sending their best wishes to Amber. One person wrote: “Happy birthday beautiful!!! What a special day it’s going to be! The last year of your twenties is going to be the best

Meanwhile, It Takes Two’s roving reporter and former Strictly finalist Tasha Ghouri wrote: “Happy birthday lovely!! ” And Sue Davies, Amber’s mother, penned: “A very special birthday my girl love you so much .”

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

Reporting from Washington — For a president prone to distraction, Donald Trump was unusually disciplined — for a time.

In the hours following the shooting of a Republican congressman and three other people in a Virginia park, Trump behaved as most presidents do to reassure the nation in a moment of crisis: He called for unity in a scripted and sober television appearance from the White House, steered clear of attacking political opposition and put the focus on the pain of the victims and heroism of law enforcement.

Then, at the end of the day on Wednesday, as Trump sat down for dinner with his family to celebrate his 71st birthday, news broke that the special prosecutor looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election was taking steps toward investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice.

For hours, Trump again showed restraint as he and First Lady Melania Trump delivered white flowers to the hospital for Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the congressional leader wounded in the gunfire.

“Just left hospital. Rep. Steve Scalise, one of the truly great people, is in very tough shape – but he is a real fighter. Pray for Steve!” Trump wrote on Twitter just before 10 p.m. EDT.

Trump’s restraint lasted another nine hours.

By early Thursday morning, Trump slipped back into his Twitter persona — the one that lashes out at enemies in all-capital letters and impugns the motives of investigators — returning to the muddy fracas that aides have been trying to get him to avoid. Trump refused to let his highly paid outside counsel do the talking for him.

“They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice,” Trump tweeted before 7 a.m., a time when he is usually watching television news in his upstairs White House residence and getting ready for the day.

“You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history – led by some very bad and conflicted people!” he added an hour later.

For decades, Trump has made a habit of unapologetically hammering critics, a tactic that electrified supporters during his campaign.

The habit remains a tough one to kick. The lure of speaking to 32 million followers on Twitter and fighting back against allegations Trump sees as fundamentally unfair may be too much to resist, even as advisors and Republican strategists warn that his provocative comments may be perpetuating the cycle of leaks and accusations that launched the investigation in the first place.

“He’s described himself as a counterpuncher. That muscle memory, that he has that reflex to react when something like this comes up, obviously it’s very strong,” said Jim Merrill, a New Hampshire-based consultant for three Republican presidential campaigns.

Trump “interrupted the window where you saw a great deal of unity” in Washington, and hampered his own political interest, Merrill said.

“Its safe to say that oftentimes the president can be his own worst enemy,” he said. “Certainly, weighing in on the investigation so quickly after the shooting yesterday kind of undermines the message of unity.”

Even after 146 days in the White House, Trump continues to seesaw back and forth between brief moments when his administration seems in control of the agenda and longer periods when outbursts from the president create overwhelming distractions.

By the middle of the day Thursday, Trump had returned to a more measured tone. He praised the two Capitol Police special agents who ran toward the gunman in Wednesday’s shooting and returned fire, saving lives, and he described his visit to Scalise’s hospital room the night before, saying “he’s in some trouble” after a bullet tore through his hip.

After multiple surgeries on Wednesday, Scalise’s doctors said the congressman had suffered from internal bleeding and organ damage and was still in critical condition.

Lawmakers from both parties planned to honor Scalise by wearing purple-and-gold Louisiana State University hats during the annual congressional baseball game at Nationals Park on Thursday night.

“And Steve, in his own way, may have brought some unity to our long-divided country. We’ve had a very, very divided country for many years. And I have a feeling that Steve has made a great sacrifice, but there could be some unity being brought to our country. Let’s hope so,” Trump said.

“In these difficult hours, it’s more important than ever to help each other, care for each other and remind each other that we are all united by our love of our great and beautiful country,” Trump said.

The White House seemed to acknowledge the dual nature of Trump’s give-and-take, but, at least officially, insisted that the two were not at cross purposes.

Asked why Trump took to Twitter to call investigators “very bad and conflicted people,” White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president was responding to allegations.

“I think there’s been quite a bit of attacking against the president. I think he was responding to those specific accusations. But I think, as a whole, our country certainly could bring the temperature down a little bit.”

“I think that was the goal that the president laid out yesterday, and hopefully we can all see moving forward,” Sanders said.

After Sanders spoke, Trump visited the Supreme Court to attend the investiture of Justice Neil Gorsuch, whose nomination many conservatives point to as the single most important accomplishment of Trump’s five months in office.

But here wasn’t much time to ponder Gorsuch. Before 4 pm, Trump had his mind on an old adversary from the presidential election. Trump tapped out a Tweet about Hillary Clinton, insisting she should have been investigated for mishandling her State Department emails.

Trump wrote: “Crooked H destroyed phones w/ hammer, ‘bleached’ emails, & had husband meet w/AG days before she was cleared- & they talk about obstruction?”

Twitter: @ByBrianBennett

[email protected]

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