California Gov. Gavin Newsom's national profile soars with latest Trump
fight, but there are risks
[August 23, 2025]
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gavin Newsom is having a moment.
In the national struggle over U.S. House control, perhaps no politician
has more at stake than the California governor, who has emerged as the
leading Democratic adversary to President Donald Trump in what many see
as a lightly masked trial run for his own future White House bid.
The liberal former San Francisco mayor, who is nearing the end of a
spotty tenure in Sacramento, is being cheered by Democrats and party
activists who see his scrappy, Trump-mocking, profanity-tinged speeches
and snarky social media posts as signs of new life in a party left
dispirited and rudderless after 2024 election losses.
Newsom "has been doing what I’ve wanted a Democrat to do for a long
time,” radio host Charlamagne Tha God said on his syndicated “Breakfast
Club” program. In directly confronting the president Newsom is “matching
energy, and I like it.”
Democratic pollster Ben Tulchin said Newsom is benefitting from a
torrent of national media exposure that “makes him look like a leader,
portraying strength.”
In a party that even many of its own members describe as ineffective and
weak, Newsom is challenging Trump and “punching the bully in the nose,”
added Tulchin, who worked for Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential
campaigns. With 16 months left in his final term — a time in his tenure
when many governors would be seen as fading away — he's "driving the
conversation.”
But Newsom’s strategy is not without risk as he plans to ask voters in a
November special election to approve new House districts. The new maps
have been jiggered to add five Democratic U.S. House seats in California
to offset Trump’s moves in Texas to gain five Republican districts
before the 2026 midterm elections.
The faceoff between California and Texas is spreading nationally, and
other states could soon begin redrawing House maps, which are crafted
state by state. That could lead to an even more deeply partisan
Washington, which already is strangled by gridlock.
Newsom ‘Should be ashamed’ with political maneuvers
While Newsom's maneuvers may be winning plaudits from the Democratic
base, "This is a train wreck,” said Boyd Brown, a former Democratic
National Committee member and legislator from South Carolina.
If states follow Texas and California and keep rigging House maps for
partisan advantage “that’s a good way to ruin a democratic process,”
Brown said, adding the Democrats could end up disadvantaged nationally
since Republicans control more than half of the state legislatures.
Newsom and Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott “should be ashamed of what
they are doing” Brown added. “We are going to have a polarized Congress
for decades to come," he said. "Who does that benefit?”
“It is government malpractice at its highest level,” he added. “It
should concern every American.”
[to top of second column]
|
Risk for Newsom in what could lead to 2028 campaign
For Newsom, an election win in November would be a springboard for
his national ambitions, with the fundraising he’s doing ahead of the
November election building out his list of national supporters. But
a loss in his heavily Democratic home state would inevitably dim his
luster on the national stage, even if Democrats give him credit for
trying.
And if new House maps are approved by voters, there's no guarantee
Democrats will prevail in the reshaped districts in 2026, when
Republicans will be trying to defend their party's fragile House
majority. A loss of the House would dramatically alter the prospects
for Trump's agenda in the latter half of his term.
But first, Newsom needs California voters to approve the new maps,
which some see as no sure thing.
“Republicans vote in higher propensity in elections that are off
cycle,” noted Democratic consultant Bill Burton, referring to this
fall's special election.
That means Newsom “is going to face that kind of natural pressure in
this one," said Burton, who was national press secretary for Barack
Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. "I don’t think it will be easy.”
A snarky social media style gets national attention
Newsom's salesmanship for his plan for new House districts has come
when he has been elevating his profile on social media — his press
office account has gotten national attention parroting Trump's
all-capital-letter posts peppered with off-color jokes and
dismissive comments about the president.
“WOW!!! MY MAPS (THE BEST MAPS EVER MADE) WILL SOON PASS IN THE
GREATEST LEGISLATURE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD (NOT JUST AMERICA).
AMERICA CAN THANK ME,” his press office riffed in a recent tweet.
It's part of a longer political evolution that has seen the governor
edge toward the political center while welcoming conservatives —
including Steve Bannon, an architect of Trump’s 2016 campaign — to
his podcast.
Newsom "is sort of mixing the funny posts and the hysterical digs at
the Trump administration with actual action. And I think that’s the
part that people are really appreciating and getting behind,” said
Lindsay Meyer-Harley, an online clothing retailer behind Still We
Rise, an Instagram page promoting progressive agenda.
At a recent rally in Los Angeles, Newsom veered away from discussing
the technical grist of reshaping districts and instead depicted the
looming battle as a conflict with all things Trump, tying it
explicitly to the fate of American democracy and echoing the 2024
presidential campaign.
“We can’t stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by
district all across the country,” Newsom warned.
___
Associated Press writer Tran Nguyen in Sacramento, Calif.,
contributed.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
