Newsom is wrong face of the coming anti-Trump movement in America. Stick to governing | Opinion
Gavin Newsom cannot lead the resistance to Donald Trump’s second presidency from Marin County, California. Newsom should resist his attention-seeking tendencies because appointing himself as the leader of liberal resistance to Trump would not be good for him or our state.
The current Governor of California is a rare Democrat whose political prospects improved after Trump’s thrashing of Kamala Harris in a presidential election result that defied mainstream predictions. Newsom and California could well wind up opposing Trump on a variety of issues.
But there is a difference between a governor defending his state and one seeking attention-grabbing conflict for self-serving political purposes.
Democrats right now are akin to America’s big blue void. Led by an octogenarian president who never should have run for a second term, it was left to Harris to quickly muster a candidacy in which she clearly did not connect with sufficient voters throughout the country.
The pundit class may seek out Newsom to fill that void. As he proved this election cycle, he is an articulate defender of his party and state. While a staunch supporter of both Biden and Harris, this election was not about Newsom.
Freed from surrogacy
Newsom is no longer a surrogate. He is one of the nation’s leading Democrats by fate and default. In this historic loss, Harris is no longer the undisputed leader of Democratic Party politics in California. It’s now Newsom.
However, the reasons a majority of voters in the nation embraced Donald Trump are also the same reasons that Newsom is not the right face, or voice, of an anti-Trump movement.
Americans are fed up with soaring prices that coincided with the Biden presidency. Border state residents in particular are tired of waves of uncontrolled immigration.
Newsom isn’t an effective counter-punch to the prevailing American sentiment for so many reasons. As much as we Californians admire ourselves and our state, the feeling isn’t universally mutual. California is the epicenter of unaffordability in housing, electricity, or gasoline. And while some red states like Florida and Texas have turned the corner on homelessness (they’re building proportionately more housing than we are), California’s unhoused problem ranks among the highest in the nation.
Donald Trump would probably love for Gavin Newsom to be his top heckler from the left.
Conflict is coming
Newsom will not have to seek conflict in order to find it. California is in a uniquely vulnerable position on so many issues in the coming years. The state will rely on the next administration, for example, for money to finish the Merced-to-Bakersfield initial segment of the long-troubled high-speed rail line. Huge unresolved water issues loom in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the Colorado River. Threats of mass deportation of immigrants could harm the Golden State more than all others.
Newsom doesn’t have to be some political wallflower and stutter his way through the last two years of his governorship. But he would serve his state and future if he toned his performative style of governing down.
California needs a singularly focused governor to address many serious problems, not one who appears angling for the next job. Newsom’s legacy as governor hangs in the balance in his final years. State finances are shaky. So is his relationship with legislative leadership in his own party. And while Newsom has done more to combat homelessness than any other governor, our urban centers like Sacramento are still suffering and bearing a disproportionate burden of this crisis.
California will never lose its voice in this nation’s political discourse. It’s a matter of how to use that voice. Newsom’s best counter to Trump is to hunker down and make progress on our challenges. Real governing doesn’t happen on camera.
This story was originally published November 6, 2024 at 12:50 PM.