McClatchy Media endorses a proven leader for California secretary of state | Opinion

This week, a Supreme Court ruling effectively struck a fatal blow to the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 law that guarantees a person’s right to vote, regardless of their race. It is, sadly, just the latest attack on voting rights under a federal administration that has repeatedly assaulted this most crucial pillar of democracy.

California needs a strong secretary of state who will guarantee every individual’s right to vote, and who will make strides to rebuild trust in voting institutions and the elections process, especially since President Donald Trump has declared war on American elections.

The best person for that job is the current secretary of state, Shirley Weber.

As a child, Weber learned about the importance of voting. Weber’s father was a sharecropper in Arkansas who was not allowed to vote. When Weber’s parents moved to South Central Los Angeles, they opened up their living room as a neighborhood polling place.

“I grew up knowing the power of voting,” she told The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board in an endorsement interview.

In 2020, Weber saw how Trump began to undermine and cast doubt on the country’s election systems.

“It’s been a very challenging reality,” Weber said. “I didn’t know that voting would be the number one target. We never had a president who targeted the whole system.”

Weber, a former professor and California State Assembly member, has already made tremendous strides on building back trust in the state’s election systems, including by talking to voters and asking them if they think an election system is working fairly and as it should.

“We have registered young people to work in the polls and reinstill the faith in the voting system that I had as a kid,” she said. “We are working hard with trusted messengers. We make sure that every question is answered.”

“Trusted messengers” is a relatively new term used to describe individuals or institutions that can communicate information about elections and encourage people to vote.

“Trust in certain messengers — political elites, local leaders or celebrities — may be able to help

counter false election-related information,” states a 2026 study published by Research Square.

Weber’s challenger for secretary of state, however, Republican Don Wagner, an Orange County supervisor and former California assemblymember and mayor of Irvine, does not have a lot of trust in the state’s current election system. He emphasizes that California must clean its voter rolls to prevent voter fraud and supports a voter ID initiative that recently qualified for the state’s November ballot. He proposes to require voters to use identification for both in-person and mail-in ballots.

Weber, for her part, opposes both the statewide initiative and a similar federal initiative, called the SAVE Act.

“Existing law already prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal and state elections, and voters are already required to provide election officials with information necessary to verify their identity and eligibility to vote,” according to a press release from the California Secretary of State’s office.

Weber also affirms that California cleans its voting rolls “in five or six different ways.”

Trump, meanwhile, has recently begun attacking mail-in ballots, issuing an executive order to limit who can cast a ballot via mail. (This action has since been legally contested by Democrats.) Voting by mail has “opened up the opportunity” for a significant number of people to vote who otherwise might not be able to, including for rural and Republican communities

Additionally, there are increasing concerns among the nation’s immigrant communities that in-person voting could make them vulnerable to potential run-ins with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents.

“One of the biggest reassurances we can give them is vote-by-mail,” Weber said.

It’s an especially challenging time to work in elections, but the job remains one of the most crucial pillars of American democracy. We need a public servant who can rise to the challenge. Weber is that person.