Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) credited Charlie Kirk for his work engaging young men on college and university campuses, saying he did a better job than the Democratic Party in the last election.
“What he was able to achieve in terms of organizing the campuses, engaging these young men, addressing their grievances, giving them some sense of hope, that someone cared, that they mattered, that they were seen, he was able to produce and organize around that in a deeply meaningful way,” he said on Wednesday at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting in New York City.
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“The Democratic Party was nowhere to be found on the issue.”
Despite their political differences, the governor extended a podcast invite to the late Turning Point USA cofounder earlier this year to discuss the issues that young men face today. Kirk was the first guest on This is Gavin Newsom.
Newsom also gave credit to Steve Bannon, one of his early podcast guests, for galvanizing young men in the conservative movement.
“The reason I had them on [the podcast] was this issue,” he said, “because they have weaponized this grievance and electorally, they achieved remarkable results.”
In the 2024 presidential election, an Associated Press VoteCast analysis found that 56% of men aged 18 to 29 turned out to reelect President Donald Trump. This represented a major swing from 2020, when more than half of men in the same age group favored former President Joe Biden over Trump.
Newsom recognized Trump’s sway over young men and urged Democrats to match his game.
“We need to address the issue because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s also the smart thing to do,” he concluded in his remarks.
Newsom has taken action in California to address what he calls an “epidemic of loneliness” by launching a statewide initiative to mentor boys and young men looking for guidance.
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Before speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative event, Newsom appeared on outgoing late-night host Stephen Colbert’s show, where he recounted how Democrats gave him a “lot of grief” for extending an olive branch to conservative figures, such as Kirk and Bannon, to appear on his podcast. The governor, and likely 2028 presidential prospect, said Democrats should engage in open dialogue with Trump voters because “divorce is not an option” for the nation.
“They were successful in the last election. People need to understand what motivates them, how they keep winning,” he said of Republicans on Colbert’s Tuesday night show, “in the context of how they keep organizing and building a coalition, particularly young men.”