LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 As national Democrats search for a unifying theme ahead of the fall’s midterm elections, a California proposal to levy a hefty tax on billionaires is turning some of the party’s leading figures into adversaries just when Democrats can least afford division from within.<\/p>\n
Bernie Sanders will be in Los Angeles campaigning Wednesday for the tax proposal that has the\u00a0Silicon Valley in an uproar, with tech titans threatening to leave the state. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom\u00a0is among its outspoken opponents, warning that it could leave government finances in crisis and put the state at a competitive disadvantage nationally.<\/p>\n
WATCH: How the new class of billionaires solidified outsized political influence<\/a><\/p>\n Sanders is planning a late afternoon rally near downtown, and in the past he has turned out overflow crowds in the heavily Democratic city.\u00a0The Vermont senator, a democratic socialist, is popular in California \u2014 he\u00a0won the 2020\u00a0Democratic presidential primary in the state in a runaway. He’s been railing for decades against what he characterizes as wealthy elites and the growing gap between rich and poor.<\/p>\n A large\u00a0health care union\u00a0is attempting to place a proposal before voters in November that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires \u2014 including stocks, art, businesses, collectibles and intellectual property \u2014 to backfill federal funding cuts to\u00a0health services\u00a0for lower-income people that were signed by President Donald Trump last year.<\/p>\n Sanders wrote on the social platform X that he strongly supports the tax “at a time of unprecedented and growing wealth and income inequality.”<\/p>\n “Our nation will not thrive when so few own so much,” Sanders wrote.<\/p>\n Debate on the proposal is unfolding at a time when voters in both parties express\u00a0unease with economic conditions\u00a0and what the future\u00a0will bring\u00a0in a politically divided nation. Distrust of government \u2014 and its ability to\u00a0get things done\u00a0\u2014 is widespread.<\/p>\n The proposal has created a rift between Newsom and prominent members of his party’s progressive wing,\u00a0including Sanders, who has said the tax should be a template for other states.<\/p>\n “The issues that are really going to be motivating Democrats this year, affordability and the cost of health care and cuts to schools, none of these would be fixed by this proposal. If fact, they would be made worse,” said Brian Brokaw, a longtime Newsom adviser who is leading a political committee opposing the tax.<\/p>\n Midterm elections typically punish the party in control of the White House, and Democrats are hoping to gain enough U.S. House seats to overturn the chamber’s slim Republican majority. In California, rejiggered House districts approved by voters last year are expected to help the party pick up as many as five additional seats, which would leave Republicans in control of just a handful of districts.<\/p>\n