Over the past month, California Governor Gavin Newsom has been making headlines for all the right reasons: he's led an effort to respond to Texas Republicans' push to further gerrymander their state, used his profile to pressure Border Patrol and ICE, and found a very effective-and hilarious-way to get under Trump's skin through his Press Office's parodies of the president's writing style. All of these actions have catapulted him to national stardom, where he's taken on the role of leading the fight against the Trump administration.
However, to the trans community, his rise only brings fear. Because before these developments, he was trying to win over potential voters in a very different way: by abandoning the LGBTQ+ community.
In the United States, California has long had a reputation. And not just for its stereotyped sunny weather, surfer culture, and affluent, snobby culture, but for its liberal politics as well. California Democrats are synonymous-especially in more Republican-leaning areas-with the liberal style of politics conservatives detest. It's so difficult to overcome that despite California's large population and plethora of Democratic figures with a national profile, of the three presidents from California, none of them have been Democrats.
Evidently, Newsom is facing an uphill battle. So he's set off to appear more palatable to conservatives, starting with LGBTQ+ issues. Beginning in 2024, he started attempting to suppress pro-LGBTQ+ bills while they were still in the legislature in order to keep him from having to either veto them-losing progressives-or sign them-angering conservatives. Then, he went public with his new opinions during a conversation with Charlie Kirk on his podcast earlier this year, calling trans athletes' participation in girls' and women's sports 'deeply unfair.' And more recently, he signalled he changed his stance on gender-affirming care for minors as well.
Newsome is an awful candidate, he’s positioning himself to loose in the same way Harris did. Trying to lean to the right, ether to pick up disaffected republican voters, or to simply seem less scary to them so they’ll be less likely to vote out of fear.
It’s the strategy that Clinton used during his second election to massive success, but, the republicans have been armoring themselves against that strategy for over 3 decades now, largely by building a base of support that only sees news and information they want them to see. At this point, a Democratic candidate could run on the same exact platform as a republican, and that core base of voters would still vote for a republican.
The democrats need to embrace the 50 states strategy that helped Obama win. Focus on partnering with grass roots organization to bring in blocks of voters who don’t traditionally show up by speaking to issues they care about. Don’t dictate the “correct policy” and then try and convince voters it’s what they want, ask them what policy they want and run on that.