Why Newsom is looking to spend $19M on an ad campaign to defend California’s image
Gov. Gavin Newsom has been burnishing his national image for some time, and is now angling to shore up California’s via a state contract to disprove “misinformation and political rhetoric” about his home state as he prepares to leave Sacramento.
Last month, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development began seeking a contractor to create a state-bankrolled ad campaign to “highlight California’s economic dominance and innovative spirit,” and “showcase its vibrant, diverse business community” while reminding people that “California is a world-class place for business investment, relocation, and expansion.”
“California and its business climate have been falsely and maliciously maligned for years, and the state has a right to tell the true story — California is a great place to live, work, invest and visit,” said Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos. “We lead the country in Fortune 500 companies and new business starts. We draw more visitors than any other state. And we lead the world in innovation and imagination. Setting the record straight will benefit every business, worker, and resident of this state.”
The contract, which is worth $19 million, is just one of several ways Newsom is shoring up his image for a national audience before he leaves office at the end of the year and potentially runs for president in 2028. The Los Angeles Times first reported the contract, which opened for bidding February 24 and closes on March 13.
The state is seeking a contractor to “execute a thoughtful, data-driven brand campaign” with up to $14 million going toward paid media, such as traditional ads like television commercials, as well as digital ads on social media and other online platforms.
In addition to his confrontational social media strategy attacking President Donald Trump and other Republicans, Newsom has increasingly turned to social media influencers to spread his message to millions of people online.
During the Proposition 50 redistricting campaign, he teamed up with national influencers, podcasters and content creators to livestream rallies, which his political team said boosted his name recognition and reached up to 150 million viewers at a time, far more than traditional cable networks and legacy media could.
“And if I go on Jake Tapper this afternoon? I’m f------ talking to eighty thousand people in California,” Newsom’s longtime political adviser Sean Clegg told the New Yorker.
Newsom tightly controls his media appearances when speaking with California journalists, but he frequently collaborates with or speaks to a coterie of influencers, whose interviews tend to be longer and wide-ranging on issues beyond California politics. Last summer, he sat for a 4-hour interview with MAGA-friendly podcaster Shawn Ryan, a Navy veteran whose views often veer into the conspiratorial realm.
Newsom’s rapid response director Brandon Richards recently noted most of the people who interviewed the governor during his ongoing book tour promoting his recent memoir were “creators/independent journalists/podcast hosts.”
“He (Newsom) diversified platforms: Snapchat, YouTube, IG, Twitch, TikTok, podcasts, newsletters, and of course IRL,” Richards said on X. “And he’s not done yet!”
Those include frequent appearances on liberal podcast networks like MeidasTouch and Pod Save America, and boosts from cheerleading posts by influencers like TikToker Harry Sisson, Texas centrist commentator Olivia Julianna, YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen, podcaster Jack Cocchiarella, and Substack blogger Aaron Parnas.
Julianna, Cohen, Cocchiarella and Parnas have ties to Chorus, a nonprofit cohort of Democratic influencers who are paid to post by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a liberal dark-money group that controls what its creators post and forbids them from acknowledging that they’re under contract, according to reporting by Wired Magazine and Columbia Journalism Review.
Earlier this month, Newsom’s team issued a news release boasting that his memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry,” had sold 100,000 copies according to USA Today. Newsom’s political team told reporters to wait until 5:30 p.m. to publish the news.
Moments after the embargo was lifted, Julianna, Sisson, Cocchiarella, Parnas and @NewsomNews, an X account that boosts Newsom-related news, all posted about the sales, suggesting that they were also asked to hold off posting until the deadline was lifted.
More recently, Newsom appeared on “The Adam Friedland Show,” a talkshow-style podcast by Adam Friedland, a Jewish democratic socialist known for his anti-Zionist politics. The same week, the governor came under fire for calling Israel an “apartheid state” for bombing Gaza, prompting outcry from Zionist groups.
“The current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don’t think you have a choice about that consideration,” he told Pod Save America about Prime Minister Benjamin Netnyahu and the U.S.’s continued support for the Israeli military.
His staff later met with representatives from the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, Jewish California, and the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles to reaffirm the governor’s support for Israel, which he visited in October 2023 to meet with survivors of a Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people.
Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but told the New York Times that Newsom “believes in Israel’s right to exist — and its right to defend itself. Period.”
