{"id":39118,"date":"2025-11-05T12:21:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T12:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/39118\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T12:21:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T12:21:17","slug":"newsom-scores-a-win-as-he-considers-possible-white-house-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/39118\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsom scores a win as he considers possible White House run"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 California Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a>, eager to raise his national profile as a Democrat willing to aggressively confront<\/a> President Donald Trump<\/a>, scored a campaign victory Tuesday that may help his party in the midterms as he moves toward a White House run.<\/p>\n

With Proposition 50<\/a>, Newsom successfully bet he could persuade California voters to throw out independently drawn U.S. House maps in favor of new districts designed to help Democrats<\/a> win five more seats.<\/p>\n

His gamble was a response to Trump\u2019s redistricting push<\/a> in Texas, where Republicans hope to pick up five seats of their own. Republicans have made similar moves in other states in an effort to maintain their grip on power for the remainder of Trump\u2019s term. Democrats have too, but they have fewer options. Newsom framed the campaign as a near-existential conflict<\/a>, arguing that democracy was at risk.<\/p>\n

The two-month campaign sprint cemented Newsom\u2019s status as one of Trump\u2019s leading adversaries<\/a> at a time when even many Democrats described the party as ineffective and weak<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe stood tall and we stood firm in response to Donald Trump\u2019s recklessness,\u201d Newsom said Tuesday. \u201cAfter poking the bear, this bear roared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats are eager for a fighter<\/p>\n

The contest further raised Newsom\u2019s profile among activists who are clamoring for Democratic leaders willing to battle Trump<\/a>, said Celinda Lake, a veteran Democratic pollster and strategist. Newsom can now point to a tangible victory, she said. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"California<\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night press conference at a California Democratic Party office Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez)<\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night press conference at a California Democratic Party office Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats think that finally someone\u2019s standing up and being creative and thinking outside the box and fighting back,\u201d Lake said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a very strong profile.\u201d<\/p>\n

The election win comes shortly after Newsom last month confirmed for the first time that he is considering running for president in 2028. He told CBS News he\u2019ll make a decision after next year\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I\u2019d be lying otherwise,\u201d Newsom responded when asked if he\u2019d give serious thought to a presidential campaign. <\/p>\n

Though the next presidential election is three years away, ambitious Democrats are jockeying for an advantage in a crowded primary field that\u2019s already taking shape.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s betting that Democratic primary voters will remember that he was standing as this bulwark against Trump as he\u2019s attempting to consolidate power,\u201d said Sawyer Hackett, a Democratic strategist and commentator. \u201cAnd I think that he\u2019s right about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

California is a \u2018blessing and a curse\u2019<\/p>\n

Newsom is nearing his last year in office as California\u2019s governor. He can use that time to continue stoking his national profile by fighting back against Trump while working on a vision for the Democratic Party, said Hackett, who managed former cabinet secretary Julian Castro\u2019s 2020 presidential campaign. <\/p>\n

He\u2019ll face a tangle of ongoing problems that affect not only the quality of life of California residents but the state\u2019s image in the rest of the country. They include an ongoing homelessness crisis, high energy bills, a struggling home insurance market, notoriously high taxes and housing costs that have been driving residents out of state in search of affordable living.<\/p>\n

Voters last year spurned fellow Californian Kamala Harris, then the sitting vice president.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia is a political blessing and a curse,\u201d said Thad Kousser, a political scientist at University of California, San Diego. \u201cIt rockets you to prominence and comes with the baggage of the state\u2019s political stereotypes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A majority of California voters \u201cstrongly\u201d or \u201csomewhat\u201d approve of the way Newsom is handling his job as governor, but support for a Newsom presidential run is lower.<\/p>\n

Just over half of California voters said they would not like to see Newsom run for president in 2028, according to the AP Voter Poll, while 45% said they would. That includes some voters who support him generally or share his party: About 2 in 10 voters who approved of Newsom\u2019s performance running the state don\u2019t want him to seek the Oval Office, and about 3 in 10 Democrats or voters who lean toward the Democratic Party don\u2019t want him to run.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re even less excited about Harris running again \u2014 about 7 in 10 California voters said they\u2019re opposed to her running in 2028.<\/p>\n

Kalinda Jones, who teaches social work classes at a community college outside Sacramento, said Newsom could be a possible choice for president, but she wasn\u2019t enthusiastic about him or any other candidate. Jones supported Proposition 50.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess right now, he seems like a good option,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

Republican Dennis Guerrero, a 67-year-old retired salesperson who voted against Proposition 50, said he faults Newsom for his inability to slow the homeless crisis, among other issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not vote for him for president,\u201d Guerrero said.<\/p>\n

Newsom seeks a place on the national stage<\/p>\n

The Proposition 50 fight gave Newsom something else that will be valuable if he decides to run for president \u2014 donors big and small.<\/p>\n

Newsom and his allies spent roughly $100 million. His campaign team says he collected 1.2 million contributions and brought in so much money that they asked people to stop giving. Campaign finance records show well over 100,000 donations came from outside California. <\/p>\n

Newsom has long sought<\/a> a more prominent voice on the national stage. As far back as 2022, Newsom was blaming<\/a> his own party for setbacks in the nation\u2019s culture wars, asking at the time, \u201cWhere is the Democratic Party?\u201d<\/p>\n

He has traveled extensively in recent years, including to crucial early-voting states<\/a> like South Carolina, and is appearing on television shows and podcasts with national audiences, making some obvious steps toward the political center. He stunned fellow Democrats by holding mostly chummy conversations<\/a> with prominent conservatives on a new podcast he touted as a way for the party to grapple with the \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d movement\u2019s popularity and reach out to young men who have soured on the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his press office has delighted Democrats and attracted widespread attention by mimicking Trump\u2019s bombastic, all-caps social media posts.<\/p>\n

\u201cNewsom is the one Democrat of this generation who has leaned into the culture wars and done quite well with that,\u201d noted Republican consultant Mike Madrid, a longtime Trump critic. Denting Trump\u2019s momentum is \u201cwhat the Democratic base has been looking for. They want a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 California Gov. Gavin Newsom, eager to raise his national profile as a Democrat willing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,7917,26848,26850,536,989,457,18,26849,9394,26853,26851,13,26852,6140,6141,1710,9111],"class_list":["post-39118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-campaign-finance","tag-celinda-lake","tag-dennis-guerrero","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-general-news","tag-julian-castro","tag-kamala-harris","tag-mike-madrid","tag-political-endorsements","tag-politics","tag-thad-kousser","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-voting","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}