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
The Trump administration is sending 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles after two days of isolated clashes between federal immigration agents and protesters.
President Trump is sending the National Guard to Los Angeles over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom by invoking rarely used federal powers.
An hours-long standoff between protesters and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents erupted Saturday morning near a Home Depot in Paramount.
Las redadas sorpresivas de ICE en el centro de Los Ángeles provocaron una fuerte reacción de oficiales electos y manifestantes, que calificaron la acción de “cruel e innecesaria”
Surprise U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps in downtown Los Angeles prompted fierce pushback from elected officials and protesters.
Federal agents in riot gear detained workers in the Garment District in downtown Los Angeles as crowds gathered to record them and shout protests.
Democratic and GOP hopefuls lamented California’s affordability crisis but diverged on solutions during the first bipartisan panel in the 2026 governor’s race.
California Democrats say their party must stay committed to their values protecting the most vulnerable, while also honing their economic messaging to win back voters they lost last year.
California’s most loyal Democrats got a good look this weekend at the wide field of gubernatorial candidates jockeying to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom at the state Democratic Party’s annual convention in Anaheim.