A new poll found that the majority of California residents believe Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s (D-CA) presidential ambitions are distracting from his gubernatorial duties. 

In a survey conducted by the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, 54% of registered state voters said Newsom is doing things that might benefit him as a presidential candidate. By comparison, only 26% said the governor is focused on managing the Golden State and tackling its problems, such as the fires that devastated Los Angeles at the start of the year, and California’s homeless crisis, which stands as the worst in the country.

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Newsom, who is widely seen as a 2028 presidential contender, has publicly downplayed a run. But he refused to rule out the option during a recent interview with journalist Mark Halperin.

“I might,” Newsom said. “I don’t know, but I have to have a burning why, and I have to have a compelling vision that distinguishes myself from anybody else. Without that, without both, and I don’t deserve to even be in the conversation.”

The governor’s efforts in recent months to extend an olive branch to Republicans, including working with President Donald Trump on a federal film tax crediting benefiting Hollywood and backtracking stances on controversial issues such as transgender-identifying males competing in women’s sports, have fueled speculation that he could be moving to the center to position himself for a presidential run. In such a race, he may need to present a moderated image to achieve an electoral victory. 

One of Newsom’s biggest attempts to reach across the aisle came in February when he launched a podcast to have “honest discussions with people that agree and disagree with us” and as an avenue to have conversations with “some of the biggest leaders and architects of the MAGA movement.” In the same spirit as the venture, the governor has reiterated concerns in recent days that Democrats haven’t done enough to articulate what they stand for, setting themselves up for continued devastation after suffering bruising losses during the 2024 elections.

However, Newom’s first guest on the podcast, conservative personality Charlie Kirk, warned the GOP afterward that the Democratic governor is a wolf in sheep’s clothing attempting to hide his true radical Left colors ahead of a presidential run.

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“One thing I learned in my podcast experience: The governor isn’t a joke. He has a shark’s instincts and is hoping that voters will have a goldfish’s memory,” Kirk wrote in an op-ed. “He knows his current record can’t win him the White House, and so he’s trying to rewrite what that record is.”

The poll was conducted from April 21-28 among 6,201 Californian voters. The margin of error is plus or minus two percentage points.