Gavin Newsom’s absence looms over 2025 California Democratic Party convention
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s absence at the California Democratic Party convention was met with a range of emotion — from indifference to outrage — as party officials, delegates and activists flocked to the Anaheim Convention Center to strategize how to protect LGBTQ rights, immigrants and health care access from the White House and Republicans in Congress.
Newsom planned to attend a Democratic Governors Association conference in Portland, sparing him potential conflict with members of his own party who have recently taken him to task on his views about transgender athletes, proposed suspension of new Medi-Cal enrollments for undocumented residents and an ongoing feud with the oil industry.
During his keynote speech, members of California’s supermajority party faithful cheered as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz name-checked Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Newsom’s name was mostly met with silence.
Gavin Newsom and ‘DC aspirations’
The California governor has been one of the highest-profile Democrats calling for his party to publicly reckon with how they lost swaths of voters like young men and Latinos as the party looks to claw its way back to power in the 2026 midterms. His soul-searching journey, played out on podcasts and talk shows, and attempts to moderate have rankled some of his allies in the Legislature, the labor movement and reproductive health care.
His discussions with content creators on how to address the “male loneliness epidemic” and the “abundance movement” earned an eyeroll from Lorena Gonzalez of the California Labor Federation.
“I don’t think right now, Gavin Newsom thinks of himself as the head of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party that he created, quite frankly,” she said. “He created this, and some of the things he rails against, he was always on the ground floor of. I think everybody has an experience with family members who kind of start the fight at Thanksgiving, then walk away.”
Antonio Villaraigosa, whom Newsom beat in the 2018 gubernatorial race, shrugged his onetime opponent’s absence off.
“Frankly, I mean, I don’t think governors come every year (to the convention),” said Villaraigosa, who is running in the 2026 governor’s race. “I think they come during the presidential one, for sure. And then when they’re running, and so I don’t take fault with him for it. I’m assuming he’s got work, a lot of work.”
Earlier this month, Newsom updated his budget proposal for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, calling for pauses in Medi-Cal expansion for undocumented adults while levying $100 monthly premiums, angering members of the Women’s, LGBTQ and Latino legislative caucuses.
Kesab Gupta, 17, took an Amtrak train from his La Jolla home to Anaheim to call attention to Newsom’s proposed budget, which calls for shifting $1.5 billion for Cal Fire from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a fund that supports climate projects like high-speed rail, transit and affordable housing.
“I think we’re just really frustrated that he didn’t make the effort to come here. It’s such a pivotal time for Democrats,” Gupta said as he passed out fliers about the budget cuts. “Democrats just lost in the last election, but they didn’t listen to the voters who are calling for change. He refuses to engage on major issues, and he’s been turning his back to his party in every single corner, and he’s not going to win the presidential election”
Despite his “deep disagreement” with Newsom’s proposal to slash the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said he was optimistic the Legislature would reach a deal with the administration to prevent that, citing lawmakers’ ability to overcome past deficits.
“Governor Newsom has been a strong ally on a lot of our efforts to make it easier and faster and more affordable to deliver the things that people need, such as housing,” Wiener said. “And you know ... I’m optimistic we’re going to be able to do some really good things this year around housing, around permit streamlining, around CEQA, and the governor has been a staunch ally on all of these issues.”
Judy Rickard, a delegate from San Jose who sported a rainbow t-shirt and “Protect Trans Kids” sticker, said she was disappointed in Newsom’s recent remarks that it was “unfair” to allow trans athletes to compete with cisgender people.
“The governor was ahead of his time on some things for the LGBTQ+ community, but I feel like he’s moving more to the center now that he’s got some, you know, DC aspirations,” she said.
“He’s been a good governor, I think, most of the years over here, but I’m a little off him now because of some of the things he’s done. And I think he’s becoming more of a centrist, so he could be more popular to a larger population.”
Others, like UC Davis student Simone Ferrigno, said she wanted Newsom to lean into his past political positions if he runs for president as expected in 2028, even if he was dismissed as a “radical extreme lefty” from California.
“I just want like, a powerhouse, like, someone who’s really competent and stands up to this insanity,” Ferrigno said of the Trump administration. “I do take issue with a lot of decisions that Newsom has done (on homelessness). So I feel like if I were to really, if he would have my full support, I would just want him to really check in with himself, like, check in with his morals.”
The California Legislature and Newsom
After criticizing him earlier this month for wanting to cut $500 million in reproductive health care funding, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California president Jodi Hicks said her relationship with the governor was “fine.”
“We are working with the Legislature and with the administration on ensuring that Planned Parenthood is able to provide all of the care that we need to provide, and we’re having conversations even in expectation of what might happen with that congressional bill coming down and what that means for California,” she said. “So we fully expect the Legislature and the administration to work with us to ensure that no Planned Parenthood center closes in California this year.”
Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, D-Delano, earned the administration’s ire in recent days for calling upon Liane Randolph, the head of the California Air Resources Board, to step down after Randolph told lawmakers that her agency does not perform cost analyses when setting clean air standards.
“CARB is directly responsible for the affordability crisis in California, many families are suffering day to day to pay to put food on their tables,” Bains said Saturday. “They’re having to make decisions whether they can afford the food on their table or to go see a doctor.”
In a statement first reported by KCRA, Newsom spokesperson Daniel Villaseñor said Bains, whose district is California’s largest oil-producing region, had “joined Trump in carrying water for big polluters.”
As Democrats struggle to coalesce on a counter strategy, Gonzalez said the party should be having conversations with young voters instead of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway or former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, both of whom Newsom invited onto his podcast.
“Why are you not talking to the electrician that just graduated from their apprenticeship and whose job and future depends on having PLAs (project labor agreements) in California and building things with standards?” the former legislator said.
“Let’s have discussions, but let’s have it with people who actually can help us understand the working class, can help us understand the young men who are leaving our party.”
