The case against Gavin Newsom

Newsom has spent the past several years trying to do anything but his job. That includes his multistate campaign to shame Republican politicians for running their states better than he ever could, which culminated in Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) carving Newsom up on a debate stage on Fox News. It also included the other podcast Newsom launched, in which he palled around with former NFL star Marshawn Lynch and Lynch’s agent.

Newsom’s first podcast was all about his desire to be famous, which is much of what he has focused on in his governorship. This new one is all about trying to reappoint himself once again as the Democratic debate warrior against MAGA Republicans, as he tried to do before DeSantis ended that fantasy for him. Newsom’s new podcast, unsurprisingly and egotistically called I’m Gavin Newsom, will see him talk about the “cost of eggs,” the effects of tariffs, and the Department of Government Efficiency. Newsom has also promised that he will “be sitting down with some of the biggest leaders and architects of the MAGA movement.”

What that really means is Newsom will be talking with influencers and social media personalities who are in any way associated with right-wing politics. Case in point, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy claims he was asked to join the podcast. Portnoy is a “leader” of the MAGA movement in the sense that he endorsed Donald Trump a few days before the election and does not adhere to left-wing activists’ social and political demands.

Newsom is going to try and bring on CPAC-level “conservatives” to score points in order to show that he is the best fighter against MAGA politics to take on Vice President JD Vance or whoever else Republicans might nominate in 2028. He is going to be a candidate focused entirely on offense because, as DeSantis showed in their debate, the moment he has to defend his own record in California is the moment everyone recognizes Newsom as the incompetent leader he is and California as the failed state he has turned it into.

Look around at any facet of California’s governance, and you can see the decline that can be attributed to Newsom or, at the very least, the proof that Newsom is incapable of solving a problem and reversing the decay. The wildfires that tore through Los Angeles were the second and third most destructive in the history of the state, thanks in part to Newsom’s unwillingness, or inability, to conduct controlled burns to keep the state from becoming a tinderbox. Newsom has even misrepresented the statistics to make it seem like he has been productive on this issue.

The fires also exposed that California is regulating the insurance industry out of its state, with insurers fleeing to avoid state law and regulations from effectively turning them into charities. Letting California’s wooded areas turn into wildfire fueling stations has even set back the state’s climate change progress that Newsom and Democrats so enthusiastically support. The 2020 wildfires produced enough carbon emissions to erase 20 years of emissions reductions from the state’s power plants.

On the economy and quality of life, California under Newsom gets more failing grades. California has the highest poverty rate in the country when adjusted for the cost of living. California spent $24 billion over a five-year stretch under Newsom to combat homelessness, only for the state to fail to track the progress (or lack thereof) from that spending. California’s homeless population jumped up to over 187,000 at the start of 2024, an increase of over 5,000 from the previous year. As with homelessness, Newsom has funneled billions into affordable housing to address the state’s housing crisis only to make little difference.

Newsom can’t even take credit for the state’s reversal on handling crime. Newsom opposed Proposition 36, the statewide referendum that allowed prosecutors to get tougher on career criminals, fentanyl dealers, and organized theft rings that were running businesses out of cities such as San Francisco. In a testament to his unflinching desire to become president and the spinelessness that comes with it, Newsom opposed the referendum but not enough to try and campaign against it, trying to placate his liberal base now while hoping he can rely on his half-measures on crime to secure him independent voters.

On education, California consistently ranks near the bottom in math and reading scores. Newsom oversaw the disastrous COVID lockdowns that hit students the hardest, keeping them out of school for no benefit and leading to tens of thousands of students disappearing from the public school system. As of 2022, California had the worst literacy rate of any state.

The only point Newsom has been able to hang his hat on is the state’s GDP. In 2022, Newsom flaunted the fact that California’s GDP was poised to pass Germany’s, the world’s fourth-largest economy. Newsom even told his GOP rivals in Texas and Florida to “eat your heart out” over this while all of the aforementioned milestones on poverty, homelessness, housing, and other problems remained. Newsom is essentially playing out the old stereotype of the sinister Republican who doesn’t care how people are suffering as long as the GDP number goes up.

There is no single bigger indictment of Newsom’s leadership than the fact that California’s population decreased multiple years in a row after not decreasing for over a century. Newsom became the first governor of California to oversee the state not gaining House seats and electoral votes and then the first governor to oversee California losing those seats and votes. Newsom has had to make constant budget cuts to dig the state out of multibillion-dollar budget deficits as a result despite Californians being among the most taxed residents of any state in the country.

GAVIN NEWSOM BEGINS ‘DETERMINATION OF CLEMENCY’ FOR MENENDEZ BROTHERS

You would be hard-pressed to name a worse-governed state over the past decade than California under Gavin Newsom. He has failed in every aspect of governance, whether it be letting his Democratic supermajority in the legislature push some of the craziest progressive policies on the country, his own terrible decisions in times of crisis (such as COVID), or in preparation for crises (the lack of forest management under the threat of wildfires). Newsom is the poster child for failed governance, as his dismal list of achievements shows.

Newsom’s incompetence is matched only by his arrogance. Despite his track record of failure, Newsom thinks he is God’s gift to the country. That is about the only explanation that can justify his continued pursuit of the presidency while he ignores his current job and all the problems he has made worse in California. Newsom is going to spend the next few years posturing as a liberal debate warrior while using California’s GDP to pretend that his California model is the one the country needs. All the while, he is going to blow off his last two years as governor while he tries to raise his profile as a podcast host.