California governor Gary Newsom in frame for run at the White House

Gavin Newsom stokes speculation about a run for the White House by going on to Donald Trump’s social network to confront ‘Republican lies’.

California governor Gavin Newsom has been lifting his profile over the last couple of months. Picture: Getty Images

Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, has stoked speculation about a run for the White House by going on to Donald Trump’s social network to confront “Republican lies”.

Newsom, 54, is also gaining attention for his attacks on fellow Democrats for failing to fight effectively against the erosion of rights, notably the anticipated Supreme Court ruling likely to end universal access to abortion. Rock-bottom ratings for President Biden are casting doubt on his re-election plans.

The governor of the nation’s most populous state, which has produced three Republican presidents but no Democrat, is lifting his national profile as muttering grows in his party that Biden, 79, is too old and unpopular to pursue his stated intention of running for a second term.

Newsom’s emergence raises the potential of a clash with VP Kamala Harris. Picture: AFP

His emergence raises the potential of a clash with Kamala Harris, 57, vice-president and a fellow Californian, for the Democratic nomination, despite his previous statements that he would back her all the way. While unlikely to challenge Biden in a primary contest, Newsom is the kind of proven state leader the party might turn to should the president abandon thoughts of a second term after expected losses in November’s midterm elections.

“Recent developments with both Biden and Newsom have made the possibility of Newsom running in 2024 much more likely than a few weeks ago,” said Eric Ting, politics editor of the SFGate website, based in Newsom’s native San Francisco, where he became mayor at 36.

He said: “Newsom has dramatically escalated his national posturing in the past week - so much so it’s worth wondering whether his line about deferring to Harris should be ignored as much as his line about how a presidential run is ‘not even on [his] radar’.”

In Newsom’s first appearance on Truth Social, the Twitter-like network founded by Trump, he highlighted “a red state murder problem” with eight of the top ten murder rates in states run by Republicans.

“What are the laws and policies in those states that are leading to such carnage?” he asks. In one of his other “truths”, as posts on the network are called, he bashes Republican states for high Covid-19 death rates and singles out Florida for direct attack.

This happens to be led by Ron DeSantis, 43, widely seen as the most likely heir to Trump, leading to chatter on social media that a shadow 2024 presidential battle has begun.

Republicans would hammer Newsom’s liberal approach to immigration and other culture war issues if he were to run. But voters would have a clear choice if faced with DeSantis, who made his name by resisting pandemic curbs and presenting himself as a defender of traditional values.

Biden’s popularity hit a new average low yesterday (Wednesday) of 39.6 per cent, according to the 538 website aggregate calculation. Harris’s average approval rating is 35.5 per cent.

The Times