In a political climate plagued by toxic acrimony, it’s refreshing to see people from opposite sides of the aisle find agreement on, well, anything. Possibilities abound here in Donald Trump’s America, though, and every once in a while we get treated to little miracles.
One could fill a metaphorical shipping container with reasons why Gavin Newsom shouldn’t be crowned the 2028 Democratic nominee for president just yet. Yes, he’s the hot ticket right now, lo these few years out, but it’s easy to dominate early polling for potential candidates who already have very high national name recognition. That doesn’t mean popularity three years before the fact should be dismissed. Getting out of the gate way ahead of everyone else can lead to an early fundraising advantage. Newsom is already chummy with some very wealthy donors simply because there are so many of them in California, and most of them are Dems.
Newsom’s name has been floating around the Democratic nomination conversation since 2023, when people were wondering if the Democratic National Committee was going to give the desiccated husk of Joe Biden enough Adderall to run again in 2024. The DNC didn’t want to, of course, the plan always was to have Biden be a one-term placeholder. They forgot that their placeholder was spaz who goes off-script a lot. Doctor MAMA Jill Biden wasn’t quite finished with living in a mansion with a household staff and, right after wiping Cheerios crumbs off of his face before naptime, she ordered Joey Scranton to tell everyone he would seek reelection.
That was never going to work out for the Dems, and once they realized that, the Newsom chatter began anew. It wasn’t just the Democrats who were talking about it, most conservatives I know were sure that Newsom would somehow end up replacing Biden once he dropped out of the race. That was never going to happen.
There are two problems with Newsom’s viability as a presidential candidate, and I’ve been highlighting both for a long time. The little miracle agreement I alluded to at the beginning of this column has to do with the first one: Newsom’s brand of crazy leftism doesn’t play well once it moves inward from the West Coast. This is from a recent Axios newsletter:
🤺 Gavin Newsom’s Democratic rivals are plotting how to take down the early 2028 frontrunner, with a heavy emphasis on how unpopular his left-leaning views are outside deep-blue California.
Driving the news: Our conversations with more than 20 Democratic operatives, including several working for 2028 hopefuls, reveal that they see the California governor as the guy to beat — and a guy with a lot of personal baggage that’s exploitable for a presidential primary.
The consensus themes to expect in attacks on Newsom:
- The “too liberal, coastal elite” argument
- If primary voters prioritize electability, Newsom — a former San Francisco mayor — could be seen as a risky choice, the operatives say.
- Newsom has defended providing health care for undocumented immigrants because he supports universal health care — a mainstream position in the 2020 Democratic primary some Democrats have since abandoned.
- Affordability, housing and homelessness remain big problems in California, despite Newsom initiatives as mayor and governor.
- The wealthy Getty family has been a key backer of Newsom’s political and business career, leading some of his foes in California to call him a slick “Davos Democrat.”
I should point out right here that two of those four bullet point negatives are things that Newsom would tout as positive.
It’s easy to be completely delusional about the nature of reality when one is a Democrat in California, and Newsom is certainly off in an alternative reality. He’s surrounded by people who are still having the “Socialism just hasn’t been done right yet,” conversation. They want to give him the chance to try it on a national scale.
The other baggage that Newsom carries with him is his lily whiteness. The Democrats are still all-in on DEI, and stinging from the failures of their two female presidential candidates. They all truly believed that Kamala Harris was going to win last year and the death of that fantasy has left a mark.
This was the reason that I knew that Newsom would never be the substitute nominee last year if and when Biden dropped out. There was no way that the party who is all-in on diversity was going to chuck aside the Black female vice president for a guy who’s whiter than a sheet in a Clorox commercial.
Newsom obviously has more wiggle room now that Princess Cackles is sidelined, but the Dems are still jonesing for another HISTORIC FIRST president. Even the Dems who are singing Newsom’s praises are secretly hoping that there is a handicapped Black lesbian somewhere out there who wants to run for president.
Don’t get me wrong, Newsom is still in a very strong position. However, even if he should be knocked out of the top spot, the problem will remain. Gavin Newsom is far from being the only representative of coastal elitism among the Dems. The entire party has become one of coastal elites, with a generous assist from Illinois and Minnesota. Newsom’s radical left ideas aren’t “California ideas,” they’re mainstream Dem ideas.
So, it’s interesting that some Dems are seeing that this could be a problem, but they might want to get some mirrors before getting too loud about it.
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