Government Gavin Newsom gave a State of the State address on Tuesday that could easily be viewed across the country — and, by the way, also delivered at the party’s national convention in August.
It was the kind of speech a president or presidential candidate might give. In fact, Joe Biden did just that while running in 2020, addressing Congress in March.
Newsom, whose term as governor ends in 2027, has repeatedly said he will not run for president in 2024. His office did not return a request for comment.
For months, Newsom has taken the kinds of steps that potential presidential candidates do, traveling the country to raise money, vigorously defending the Biden administration and aggressively spreading its message.
On Tuesday, he delivered his State of the State address in an unusual way, as a video message that could just as easily be viewed in New Hampshire or Iowa as in Sacramento. Instead of speaking to the state legislature in person, he was on camera, flanked by three flags: two American and one from California.
It was a speech whose early parts focused on broad themes.
“He is very aware of his national audience when he does something. The fact that he focused on macro issues is not surprising,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which conducts the NPR/PBS Marist News National poll.
Newsom emphasized how California’s successes and qualities could be those of the nation.
“Our state and this Legislature are called upon to show America that an agenda of freedom over fear is not only achievable, but inevitable,” Newsom said.
Newsom gets national attention
Analysts said speeches like Tuesday’s could keep Newsom part of the national conversation about presidential politics, a dialogue that is dominating news talk shows this week.
“There may be some news sources that Newsom doesn’t mind being mentioned,” said John Fortier, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
Suppose, for example, that Biden does not do well in Thursday’s debate with former President Donald Trump.
Newsom won’t criticize Biden, but others may talk about the governor as an alternative. “If someone is on that list and talks about the party as a whole, maybe people can be reminded that they are part of the story,” Fortier said.
While Newsom’s speech contained the traditional list of boasts, wishes, and promises, it also had the power of the kind of speech delivered at the national level.
“We face a choice between a society that embraces our values and a world darkened by division and discrimination,” Newsom said.
That’s a similar message to Biden’s in his March State of the Union address: “What makes our moment rare is when freedom and democracy are under attack at the same time, both at home and abroad.”
And here is Newsom Tuesday on his opponents: “They want to tear down the very things that have made us successful as a tactic to push America into a darker future. They do this in the name of ‘freedom’ and ‘freedom’.”
Then here is Biden accepting the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020: “America is at a turning point. A time of real danger, but of extraordinary opportunity. We can choose the path of becoming angrier, less hopeful and more divided,” he said.
Newsom and the administration also had identical views on abortion.
“Today our daughters have fewer rights than their grandmothers. This is a health care crisis,” Vice President Kamala Harris told an audience in Maryland on Monday.
Newsom emphasized this point Tuesday.
“For our opponents, the warped prism of political pandering means cutting health care benefits and telling a woman she is not in charge of her own body,” the governor said. “When it comes to reproductive rights, their lies are designed to control.”
Newsom in the summer spotlight
Newsom could have a vibrant summer in the national spotlight. Newsom will likely be a surrogate touting Biden’s performance in Thursday’s debate.
The Republicans will meet for their national convention on July 15. Democrats traditionally offer their own speakers elsewhere to counter the Republican Party’s claims.
Then comes the Democratic Convention, which starts on August 19. Although no formal schedule has been announced, a powerful convention speech has long been a ticket to stardom. Most famously, Barack Obama, then a little-known candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, rose to national fame when he delivered the convention’s prime-time keynote address.
Newsom has created the kind of political infrastructure that those thinking about a presidential election normally use. He has set up fundraising committees, including one that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money.
The money can be used to build loyalty within the party by boosting turnout and running ads with the Democratic message. Newsom has traveled around the country campaigning and meeting with Democrats in person.
Any presidential bid in 2028 faces immediate hurdles. The most obvious is that if Biden wins a second term, Harris would be the favorite to succeed him.
Harris’ political resume is similar to Newsom’s: three statewide victories in California, about the same age (Harris 59, Newsom is 56), both from the San Francisco Bay Area. However, Harris could be the first Asian American and Black woman to win the White House, giving her a constituency that Newsom will find harder to tap.
