New York Times columnist Ezra Klein isn't content with opining about the Democratic Party — he's positioned himself as a powerbroker inside of it, including private briefings with top candidates, sources tell us.

Why it matters: Klein's columnist-turned-operative role is raising concerns inside the Times and the Democratic Party, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.

• 📣 Through his columns, a hit podcast, briefings with Democratic lawmakers and his bestselling book "Abundance" with Derek Thompson, Klein is helping to shape the party's strategies and policies during President Trump's second term.

Driving the news: Klein has spoken privately this year to potential 2028 candidates, including former Vice President Harris, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, sources with knowledge of the conversations say.

• He's also spoken with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro; their teams have discussed Shapiro appearing on Klein's podcast.
• When Newsom signed a California law aimed at making it easier to build housing, he posted on X: "We're urgently embracing an abundance agenda" — a reference to Klein's book that argues Democrats need to back pro-growth policies.

Klein's column in September urging Democratic senators to shut down the government to confront Trump's expansion of executive power influenced senators' decision to do that for an unprecedented 43 days, according to Senate Democratic officials.

• "Should Senate Democrats partner with Senate Republicans to fund this government? I don't see how they can," Klein wrote — words that swept through Senate offices.
• After some moderate Senate Democrats said last weekend they'd vote to end the shutdown, Klein urged them to keep fighting: "If I were in the Senate, I wouldn't vote for this compromise."

🤫 The intrigue: Klein privately briefed Senate Democrats at their summer retreat.

• Klein's role in the partisan event raised internal concerns at the Times, people familiar with the situation told Axios. The Times typically has frowned on such actions by its journalists, even opinion columnists.
• A Times spokesperson said Klein attended the event to discuss his book and told his editor in advance.
• Klein didn't respond to a request for comment.
• Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said: "Ezra is a tremendous talent .... he talks to people across the ideological spectrum; it's essential for his reporting to have those conversations, and he approaches them as a journalist. All of this makes him an ideal opinion columnist and host."

Klein's large audience and brand have endeared him to some in Times leadership.

• His columns consistently have produced some of the NYT's biggest online traffic, according to people who have seen internal numbers.
• Deputy managing editor Sam Dolnick, an influential member of the Sulzberger family, which owns the Times, has promoted Klein inside the paper and to other media reporters during the past year, people familiar with the matter told Axios.

Some advisers to potential presidential candidates are worried about Klein's influence with party elites as Democrats try to win back working-class voters, having suffered from being cast as too elite and coastal.

• "You're telling me this man who sits in a f**king West Elm-decorated office is going to be the thought leader for Democrats?" an aide to a potential 2028 contender said.

Keep reading.

— Alex Thompson and Holly Otterbein

California Gov. Gavin Newsom's profile-boosting campaign for Proposition 50 made him a big winner in this month's elections. But there was also a surprise victor in California: New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

📺 AOC — not Newsom or former President Obama — had the most effective ad supporting the Prop 50 campaign, according to private research by the Democratic Party's main super PAC, Future Forward. Axios obtained a copy of the group's analysis.

⭐️ Why it matters: Ocasio-Cortez's team is positioning her to run for president or the U.S. Senate in 2028, and the report is a sign the progressive star could be a formidable opponent against Newsom — even in his home state — in a presidential primary.

Future Forward tested voter responses to 16 ads backing Prop 50, the measure voters approved to give Democrats up to five more U.S. House seats in California and counter Trump-ordered redistricting by Texas Republicans.

• In an Oct. 21 email to Democratic operatives, Future Forward's Aaron Straus called AOC's spot "the clear winner," adding it "connects the perhaps-esoteric issue of redistricting to real-world impacts."
• In the ad, Ocasio-Cortez said President Trump "is redrawing election maps to force through a Congress that answers only to him," and that stopping him is crucial "for our health care, our paychecks and our freedoms."

Keep reading.

— Alex Thompson

MANCHESTER, N.H. — New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker railed against the Democratic Party and met privately with state lawmakers in New Hampshire on Friday, sounding a lot like a guy who's planning to run for president.

• "I have not written that off," Booker told Axios when asked about a White House run in 2028.

🥊 Driving the news: Whatever he decides, it's clear that Booker — who has a reputation as a center-left happy warrior — is channeling the anger of his party's base as he meets likely primary voters.

• "I want my party to get back to being for working people," Booker said at a town hall that drew about 200 people, echoing top Democrats who are betting on a Tea Party-style revolt on the left.

Democrats "need to start calling out our own party and telling the truth — that our party is not getting it right."

• On crime, for example, "We got screwed up … some voices in our party at exactly the wrong time used slogans that the Republican Party weaponized," he said, referring to the "defund the police" movement.
• Booker suggested Democrats can't go much longer simply defending Obamacare. "As much as I support the Affordable Care Act, it was a lot of Band-Aids on a broken system that didn't fix the system as a whole."

🕵 Behind the scenes: Booker had a private lunch with New Hampshire state Senate Minority Leader Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, state Sen. David Watters and other legislators, another sign he's setting up for a White House run.

• He also met with former state Sen. Jon Morgan, who along with Watters was an early supporter of Booker's 2020 presidential campaign.
• Booker traveled to New Hampshire with his longtime political aide Mike Frosolone, communications director David Bergstein, security staffer Kevin Batts, and a digital aide. Longtime New Hampshire strategist Jim Demers also joined Booker.

Keep reading.

— Holly Otterbein

A weekly look at what potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders are up to:

• Fresh off his Prop 50 victory, California Gov. Gavin Newsom flew to Brazil for COP 30, where he positioned himself as a shadow climate president, met with officials from other governments, and got into a mutually beneficial fight with the Trump administration. Newsom also told Politico's Jonathan Martin that he's publishing a book in February titled: "Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery."
• Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin's town hall with VoteVets in Kansas drew nearly 500 people. She pitched ideas for a liberal Project 2029 that included declaring a national housing emergency.
• Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy tore into fellow Democrats at a town hall Wednesday in New Hampshire, saying the party is "addicted to litmus tests." He met with state Democratic House leaders Alexis Simpson and Laura Telerski, and headlined a fundraiser for state senators, a source told us.
• After a 134-day impasse, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a budget that he boasted creates a new earned income tax credit. Environmentalists were furious because he agreed to take Pennsylvania out of a regional cap-and-trade system.
• Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker went on Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway's "Pivot" podcast, in which Swisher mocked his deflections about running for president. Pritzker spoke Friday at a Maine Democrats' dinner, where he said Democrats' "pity parties and the think tank brainstorming sessions, they need to be over," according to his prepared remarks.
• California Rep. Ro Khanna and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) finally secured the signatures needed to force the House to vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Khanna also not-so-subtly knocked Newsom after the governor's ex-chief of staff was hit with corruption charges.
• Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly held a CNN town hall in Utah at the campus where conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
• Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego penned an op-ed for MSNBC (now MS NOW) about appealing to Latino voters.
• Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz joined Democratic strategist Jennifer Palmieri at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, where he praised Newsom and Pritzker for standing up to President Trump. He also colorfully added: "I don't drink or smoke but I am a connoisseur of profanity."
• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer privately asked potential 2028 candidates Shapiro, Pritzker and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear not to criticize the deal to end the government shutdown. Pritzker and Shapiro bashed it anyway.
• Maryland Gov. Wes Moore sat down with Chelsea Clinton for her podcast "That Can't Be True." (Hillary also hyped it on Instagram).
• Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer discussed that state's budget with finance-focused YouTuber Caleb Hammer.
• The shutdown forced Kelly and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker to cancel events in Iowa and South Carolina, respectively.
• Beshear heads to Nevada on Tuesday to headline a fundraiser for Rep. Dina Titus and meet with labor officials.

As people — and campaigns — increasingly use AI for information and insight, we thought we'd probe ChatGPT about potential candidates for president.

• We asked it to write a haiku about Gavin Newsom's hair. Its response:

Golden waves cascade,

California's wind obeys —

not one strand rebels.