Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has positioned himself as a top surrogate for President Joe Biden's reelection effort, leading Republicans to speculate the Californian could mount a 2024 primary challenge.
Democratic officials and operatives say he is priming the country for a 2028 White House run, however.
GAVIN NEWSOM ADMITS CALIFORNIA IS FAILING
In recent weeks, Newsom has blanketed the airwaves in what Democrats say is an attempt to draw a stark contrast between the Biden and Republican agendas, including issuing a debate challenge to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) during a prime-time interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity.
The second-term governor, who will term out of office in 2026, has also openly lobbied for a 28th amendment to the Constitution establishing new gun controls and launched a super PAC, the "Campaign for Democracy." The PAC has reportedly raised $4 million since March, on top of the $10 million Newsom transferred from his 2022 campaign, and plans to hold numerous events in red states throughout the current election cycle.
And while Republicans have openly speculated that Newsom is preparing to launch a 2024 bid of his own, Democratic officials maintain he is "100% behind the president's reelection effort."
"President Biden, at his core, wants to unite the country and ease the bipartisan divide that currently dominates Washington," one official told the Washington Examiner. "[Newsom] can go where the president might not be comfortable and say the things that need to be said, keeping Biden's hands clean."
"Think of him as an enforcer, not a challenger," a second official added. "If it raises his national profile ahead of a future run, so be it."
Newsom's political team did not answer questions about this alleged "enforcer" role and whether it's been in consultation with the Democratic National Committee and Biden's campaign.
The second-term governor has been particularly critical of DeSantis, especially his transportation of immigrants to California and other blue states and his increased attacks against Newsom himself.
"[DeSantis is] taking his eye off the ball," Newsom told the Associated Press. "And that's not inconsistent with my own assessment of him, which is he is a weak candidate, and he is undisciplined and will be crushed by Donald Trump, and will soon be in third or fourth in national polls."
When it comes to former President Donald Trump, however, Newsom has sounded a very different tune. During his interview with Hannity, the governor claimed to be "sad" when hearing about Trump's indictment.
"I didn't have a closed fist, I had an open hand. We actually had an incredible relationship during COVID," Newsom said. "He was incredible — he played no politics during COVID with California — none whatsoever. It's a fact."
One veteran Democratic campaign operative told the Washington Examiner that it's "no coincidence" Newsom is focusing his attacks on DeSantis rather than Trump.
That person heavily suggested that Biden and his allies prefer running against Trump to DeSantis in 2024 and added that Newsom is also "laying the groundwork" for a possible 2028 scenario in which the two governors face off against each other in the general election.
Newsom hosted Biden on Monday in Palo Alto to unveil new climate change investments. The pair celebrated being able to discuss something "not in the backdrop" of natural disaster. As president, Biden had previously joined Newsom on multiple trips to survey damage caused by wildfires and flooding.
Newsom, who, like Biden, wore a suit, baseball cap, and no tie, specifically recalled how climate change initiatives in California were first championed in a bipartisan fashion.
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"Back in the year of my birth, 1900 and 67, the California Air Resources Board was conceived by a Republican governor at the time. The Clean Air Act just three years later codified California's leadership with the work that President Nixon advanced. Again, Republicans, not just Democrats, were leading the way in terms of addressing our efforts to mitigate the most acute impacts of climate change," Newsom, standing in front of Biden's presidential seal, stated.
"That has significantly changed over the course of the last half-century, and we're here, mindful of that as a backdrop but also mindful of the extraordinary progress that President Biden has made over the course of the last number of years," he added. "There's simply no president in modern American history that's done more to deliver on the promise of addressing head-on the issue of climate change than President Joe Biden."