Gavin Newsom persists in selecting the types of arguments that presidential contenders like fighting the most.
On Thursday, he joined the social media network that Donald Trump maintains in order to refute what he called “Republican falsehoods.” On Monday, he published another so-called “truth” on the website of the former president, using the site as a forum to advocate for what he saw as the better economic performance of blue states.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is 54 years old, has been poking jabs at Republican governors from other states who are known to have presidential aspirations for many months.
In May, after Politico published a draught Supreme Court decision that would strike down Roe v. Wade, Newsom groused that Republican cultural warriors were winning on issues like abortion and L.G.B.T.Q. rights with no vigorous response from the left. He has also criticised Democrats without naming them.
“What the hell happened to my party?” Newsom said. Where is the defence against the onslaught?
Always cautious to stress that he does not intend any disrespect toward the gerontocratic formal leaders of the Democratic Party, such as President Biden (who is 79), Speaker Nancy Pelosi (82) and Senator Chuck Schumer (71), the majority leader, he makes it clear that he is referring to them.
And despite the fact that Newsom has stated that he has “zero interest” in running for president — and his aides insist that he is being completely sincere about that statement — it seems as though he is not only positioning himself as a point man for blue states but also laying the groundwork for a potential run for the White House in the near future.
In an interview that took place in March with my coworkers Shawn Hubler and Jill Cowan, Newsom said that he had a “strong sense of commitment” to speak out against the situation.
He said, “I simply believe we’ve been sleepwalking, because there’s something very deep going at the state level, and I just think we’ve been ignoring it.”
Newsom presents the appeal of a successful candidate at a time when disenchanted Democrats are looking for political heroes. The previous year, he successfully defeated a recall effort and emerged much stronger. In the most recent primary election in the state of California, he finished over forty percentage points ahead of his nearest opponent.
Mike Madrid, a former Republican political strategist located in Sacramento, made this prediction about the next election: “On election night, Newsom will be the victor of the greatest state and by the largest margin,” Madrid said about November. There is no way that he cannot be a part of the discourse that is taking place on a national level.
The editorial choices made by The Atlantic, the so-called “in-flight magazine” of Air Force One, were especially striking the previous week: Ron Brownstein, an influential Los Angeles-based pundit and CNN analyst, gushed over Newsom’s leadership in one breath while Mark Leibovich, a former New York Times writer, raised doubts about Biden’s re-election chances in another breath.
During the administration of Donald Trump, blue-state governors engaged in a heated struggle with the White House on healthcare limits and immigration policies. During this time, California Governor Gavin Newsom frequently seemed to be battling with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for power. Newsom is now the most powerful Democratic governor in the country as a result of Cuomo’s resignation in 2021, which came after accusations of sexual misconduct against Cuomo.
According to David Atkins, a member of the Democratic National Committee from the state of California, “He is filling a vacuum.” “Newsom really comprehends the present political climate as well as what the contemporary Republican Party has evolved into.”