{"id":45899,"date":"2025-11-10T01:11:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T01:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/45899\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T01:11:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T01:11:42","slug":"even-with-proposition-50-win-newsom-faces-rough-road-in-2028","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/45899\/","title":{"rendered":"Even with Proposition 50 win, Newsom faces rough road in 2028"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A week before California\u2019s special election<\/a>, Gavin Newsom made news by doing something practically unheard of. He told donors to stop sending money to pass Proposition 50.<\/p>\n

It was a man-bites-piranha moment \u2014 a politician turning away campaign cash?!? \u2014 and amounted to a victory lap by California\u2019s governor even as the balloting was still underway.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, less than 12 hours after the polls closed, Newsom sent another email. This one thanked backers for helping push the gerrymander measure to landslide approval <\/a>\u2014 and asked them to open their wallets back up. <\/p>\n

\u201cPlease make a contribution,\u201d he pleaded, \u201cto help us continue to go on the offense and take the fight to Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

One campaign ended. Another seamlessly continued.<\/p>\n

Though he\u2019s been publicly coy, Newsom has been effectively running for president for the better part of a year,<\/a> something even the most nearsighted observer can see. One envisions the restless governor, facing the end of his term, sitting in the Capitol and crossing days off his official calendar as he longingly gazes toward 2028<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Setting aside its dubious merits<\/a>, Proposition 50 was an unequivocal triumph for Newsom.<\/p>\n

He took a risk <\/a>that an esoteric subject \u2014 congressional map-making<\/a> \u2014 could be turned into a heartfelt issue<\/a>. He gambled that voters would overlook the cost of a special election \u2014 close to $300 million \u2014 and agree to hand back the line-drawing powers they seized <\/a>from Sacramento insiders and politicians who put their own interests first. In doing so, he further raised his national profile and bulked up an already formidable fundraising base.<\/p>\n

None of which makes Newsom\u2019s quest for the White House much more likely to succeed.<\/p>\n

His biggest problem \u2014 and there\u2019s no way to fix it \u2014 is that he comes from California, which, to many around the country<\/a>, reads as far left, nutty and badly off track. Or, less harshly, a place that\u2019s more secular, permissive and tax-happy than some middle-of-the-roaders are really comfortable with.<\/p>\n

Take it from a Republican strategist.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s obviously a talented politician,\u201d said Q. Whitfield Ayres, a GOP pollster with extensive campaign experience in Georgia and other presidential swing states. \u201cBut if I were trying to paint a Democratic nominee as too liberal for the country, having the governor of California be the nominee would be an easy task … Too coastal. Too dismissive of \u2018flyover\u2019 country. Too much like the elites on both coasts that [President] Trump has run so successfully against for years now.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not just a partisan perspective.<\/p>\n

The Democratic desire to win in 2028 \u201cis very, very strong,\u201d said Charlie Cook, a campaign handicapper who has spent decades impartially analyzing state and national politics. The presidential contest \u201cwill be determined by winning in purple states and purple counties and purple precincts,\u201d Cook said, in places such as central Pennsylvania, rural Wisconsin and Georgia, where issues play differently than within California\u2019s deeply blue borders. <\/p>\n

(Newsom\u2019s support for free healthcare for undocumented immigrants<\/a> \u2014 to name but one issue \u2014 is an attack ad just waiting to be written.)<\/p>\n

For many primary voters, Cook suggested, ideology and purity testing<\/a> will yield to a more cold-eyed and pragmatic calculation: a candidate\u2019s perceived electability. He minimized Newsom\u2019s smashing Proposition 50 victory. \u201cHe\u2019s got to impress people on the road,\u201d Cook said. \u201cNot just a home game in a state that\u2019s really tilted one way.\u201d<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, Newsom should savor his Proposition 50 afterglow<\/a> as long as he can. (On Saturday, the governor was in Texas, basking<\/a>.) Because it won\u2019t last. <\/p>\n

As Democratic strategist David Axelrod noted, \u201cthe nature of presidential politics is the bar gets raised constantly.\u201d Once the race truly begins, Newsom will be probed and prodded in ways he hasn\u2019t experienced since his last physical exam, all in full public view.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an army of opposition researchers, Republican and Democrat, who are going to scour every word he\u2019s spoken as a public official in California since his days as San Francisco mayor <\/a>and every official action he\u2019s taken and not taken,\u201d said Axelrod, who helped steer Barack Obama to the White House<\/a>. \u201cWho knows what they will yield and how he\u2019ll respond to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the moment, Newsom is giving off a very strong Avenatti energy.<\/p>\n

For those who\u2019ve forgotten, celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti<\/a> was seen for a time as the Democratic beau ideal, a brawler who could get under Trump\u2019s skin<\/a> and take the fight to the president like few others could or would. He traveled to Iowa<\/a>, New Hampshire<\/a>, Florida and other states in a quasi-campaign before his extensive personal and financial troubles<\/a> caught up with him. (Avenatti is currently residing in federal prison<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Newsom, of course, is vastly more qualified than the Los Angeles attorney ever was. But the political vibe \u2014 and especially the governor\u2019s self-styled role as Trump-troller-in-chief<\/a> \u2014 is very similar.<\/p>\n

Exit poll interviews in Virginia, New Jersey, New York and even California showed that economic concerns and, specifically, affordability were the main ingredient of Democrats\u2019 success Tuesday<\/a>. Not Trump\u2019s egregious misconduct<\/a> or fears for democracy<\/a>, which was the grounding of the pro-Proposition 50 campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re talking about democracy over the dinner table, it\u2019s because you don\u2019t have to worry about the cost of food on the table,\u201d Axelrod said. \u201cIf you have to worry about the cost of food on the table or your rent or your mortgage, insurance, electricity and all these things, you\u2019re thinking about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

To stand any shot at winning his party\u2019s nomination, much less the White House, Newsom will have to build support beyond his fan base with a message showing he understands voters\u2019 day-to-day concerns and offers ways to improve their lives. Success will require more than passing a Democratic ballot measure in a Democratic state, or cracking wise on social media.<\/p>\n

Because all those snarky memes and cheeky presidential put-downs won\u2019t seem so funny if JD Vance is inaugurated in January 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A week before California\u2019s special election, Gavin Newsom made news by doing something practically unheard of. He told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,30165,30162,1750,7363,30164,943,30163,48,52,51,47,50,49,3290,4763,6283,4489,225,8843,2805],"class_list":["post-45899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-california","tag-campaign-cash","tag-charlie-cook","tag-cost","tag-country","tag-dinner-table","tag-governor","tag-heartfelt-issue","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-newsom","tag-politician","tag-president","tag-proposition","tag-state","tag-way","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45899","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=45899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}