California Governor Gavin Newsom, keen to elevate his national standing as a Democrat unafraid to challenge President Donald Trump, celebrated a significant campaign victory on Tuesday. This achievement not only boosts his party’s prospects in the upcoming midterm elections but also strengthens his potential bid for the White House.
Newsom’s success came with the passing of Proposition 50, a move that saw California voters approving the replacement of independently drawn U.S. House maps with new district layouts. These changes are aimed at securing five additional seats for Democrats.
This strategic move was a counter to Trump’s redistricting efforts in Texas, where Republicans are intent on gaining five seats. Similar tactics have been employed by Republicans in various states to consolidate their power during Trump’s presidency. While Democrats have engaged in comparable strategies, their opportunities have been more limited. Newsom positioned this campaign as a critical battle for democracy itself, highlighting what he sees as a threat to its integrity.
The intense two-month campaign further solidified Newsom’s reputation as a formidable opponent of Trump, especially at a time when many within the Democratic Party feel it lacks strength and effectiveness.
In his victory speech on Tuesday, Newsom declared, “We stood tall and firm against Donald Trump’s recklessness. After being provoked, this bear roared.”
The Democratic Party is clearly eager for leaders who are prepared to take a stand and fight.
The contest further raised Newsom’s profile among activists who are clamoring for Democratic leaders willing to battle Trump, said Celinda Lake, a veteran Democratic pollster and strategist. Newsom can now point to a tangible victory, she said.
“Democrats think that finally someone’s standing up and being creative and thinking outside the box and fighting back,” Lake said. “And that’s a very strong profile.”
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’ll make a decision after next year’s midterms.
“Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom responded when asked if he’d give serious thought to a presidential campaign.
Though the next presidential election is three years away, ambitious Democrats are jockeying for an advantage in a crowded primary field that’s already taking shape.
“He’s betting that Democratic primary voters will remember that he was standing as this bulwark against Trump as he’s attempting to consolidate power,” said Sawyer Hackett, a Democratic strategist and commentator. “And I think that he’s right about that.”
California is a ‘blessing and a curse’
Newsom is nearing his last year in office as California’s 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’s 2020 presidential campaign.
He’ll face a tangle of ongoing problems that affect not only the quality of life of California residents but the state’s 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.
Voters last year spurned fellow Californian Kamala Harris, then the sitting vice president.
“California is a political blessing and a curse,” said Thad Kousser, a political scientist at University of California, San Diego. “It rockets you to prominence and comes with the baggage of the state’s political stereotypes.”
A majority of California voters “strongly” or “somewhat” approve of the way Newsom is handling his job as governor, but support for a Newsom presidential run is lower.
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’s performance running the state don’t want him to seek the Oval Office, and about 3 in 10 Democrats or voters who lean toward the Democratic Party don’t want him to run.
They’re even less excited about Harris running again — about 7 in 10 California voters said they’re opposed to her running in 2028.
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’t enthusiastic about him or any other candidate. Jones supported Proposition 50.
“I guess right now, he seems like a good option,” Jones said.
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.
“I would not vote for him for president,” Guerrero said.
Newsom seeks a place on the national stage
The Proposition 50 fight gave Newsom something else that will be valuable if he decides to run for president — donors big and small.
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.
Newsom has long sought a more prominent voice on the national stage. As far back as 2022, Newsom was blaming his own party for setbacks in the nation’s culture wars, asking at the time, “Where is the Democratic Party?”
He has traveled extensively in recent years, including to crucial early-voting states 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 with prominent conservatives on a new podcast he touted as a way for the party to grapple with the “Make America Great Again” movement’s popularity and reach out to young men who have soured on the Democratic Party.
Meanwhile, his press office has delighted Democrats and attracted widespread attention by mimicking Trump’s bombastic, all-caps social media posts.
“Newsom is the one Democrat of this generation who has leaned into the culture wars and done quite well with that,” noted Republican consultant Mike Madrid, a longtime Trump critic. Denting Trump’s momentum is “what the Democratic base has been looking for. They want a fight.”
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