The Biggest Winner of This Year’s Elections: Gavin Newsom

Gavin Newsom has his eye on the prize — the American presidency — more than anyone else.

His latest tactic to achieve his lifelong, long-professed goal has been his mission of unrepentant gerrymandering with Proposition 50, dubbed the “Election Rigging Response Act.” The proposition’s adoption by voters on Tuesday means that the California Constitution will be amended so as to replace the current electoral state map that was drawn by a bipartisan commission — and five House seats will be flipped in the Democrats’ favor.

The aggressive partisanship is the point. Newsom is taking an approach to Trump that satisfies Democrats’ desire for their leaders to show an urgency that “meets the moment,” a moment in which they believe the president is a fascist leading the country down a path toward the elimination of democracy.

With the proposition’s massive victory — by a vote of 64 percent to 36 percent — Newsom’s reputation as the Democrats’ attack dog against Trump has been sealed.

The passage of Proposition 50, Republican strategist Matthew Bartlett told Politico, represents “the rise of Gavin Newsom as a prime political opponent of Donald Trump.” (RELATED: Post Prop. 50, California GOP Needs Reality Check)

To celebrate the passage of Prop. 50, Newsom’s press office posted an AI image of Trump as a baby having a tantrum while Newsom forces him to eat his carrots. Newsom himself said that his victory in California, as well as Democrats’ wins in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City, mean that the Democratic Party is “in its ascendancy.”

The sense that Newsom has made himself into the undisputed leader of the Democratic Party, while also putting Trump and the Republican Party into a defensive stance, comes perfectly timed for Newsom’s presidential ambitions. It was only last week that the governor appeared on CBS Sunday Morning to tease, publicly for the first time, the launch of his presidential campaign. This means that Newsom has put the idea of his presidential run on everyone’s minds just as he has his moment in the spotlight for his Proposition 50 victory. (When asked last week whether he has given running for president serious thought, Newsom said, “Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise. I’d just be lying, and I can’t do that.”)

Without his Proposition 50 gambit, Newsom could very well be struggling to maintain his prominence in the party, as his second term in office is winding down and California Democrats are fully engaged in the primary campaign to replace him. Instead, Newsom seems as nationally relevant as ever. And that’s not to mention Proposition 50’s added benefit of amassing a roster of national small-dollar donors that can easily be transitioned to presidential donors.

According to Politico, Republicans believe that Newsom “looks more politically formidable than at any other point in his career.”

That is saying something, especially given the numerous times Newsom has been chatted about as the future of the Democratic Party.

In 2004, GQ speculated over whether Newsom would become the next Bill Clinton. In 2015, when Newsom was still lieutenant governor, a column in the San Francisco Chronicle called for him to drop out of the governor’s race and run for president. “If by some cosmic roll of the dice Newsom does decide to declare his candidacy for president, all this gauzy talk of [Hillary] Clinton’s inevitability and lock on the Democratic nomination will take a hit,” said Bill Katovsky. “Dare I say game-changer?” In 2023 and 2024, Newsom’s extensive efforts to raise his profile on the national stage led to the inevitable (and correct) conclusion that he was prepping for a presidential bid to challenge the cognitively addled Joe Biden.

While Newsom played his cards wrong in 2024, choosing to retreat into Biden-supportive mode when his presidential aspirations became too obvious, he has essentially already been running for president for years.

And now, with just three more years to go, he is in his strongest position ever. Come 2028, we may see Gavin Newsom splashed across Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC as the president-elect of the United States.

Ellie Gardey Holmes is the author of Newsom Unleashed: The Progressive Lust for Unbridled Power.

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