Gavin Newsom wants to be president. Everyone knows it. He's been auditioning for the role for years — picking fights with Trump on social media, launching a podcast, touring Europe. He’s pretty much doing everything but printing yard signs. The question isn't whether he'll run. The question is whether, when he does, he has a shot.
Conventional wisdom says, “Of course he does.” He may be from California, but he’s no Kamala Harris. Still, a prominent Democratic megadonor is starting to think his California baggage is too much for him to overcome, and his presidential campaign may be over before it even starts.
John Morgan, a Florida-based attorney who has poured over $600,000 into Democratic causes in recent cycles, appeared on Chris Cuomo’s NewsNation show this week, and warned that Newsom's deeply left-wing California record could torpedo any real shot at the White House.
"Gavin Newsom's woke record in California will not play well nationally," he said.
And he didn't stop there. Morgan also torched Newsom's combative, mirror-Trump posture as a strategic blunder. "I think that by the time we get to 2028, America is gonna be sick of meanness and chaos and that type of banter," Morgan said. From where he sits, Newsom has chosen to become the Democratic version of Trump — minus the winning coalition. "He has chosen to embody the Democratic equivalent of Donald Trump. If you want to be unkind, I can be unkind. If you want to be unpleasant, I can be unpleasant. If you want to be difficult, I can be difficult. I told her [Nancy Pelosi], and I genuinely believe this, that it's a flawed strategy."
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This is all a fair point. But I think the bigger issue with Newsom is his record as governor.
"He will have to distance himself from everything he advocated for in California… remember the proposal for $350,000 in reparations for each black American?" That kind of woke garbage may play well with the coastal elites, but all those swing states that Kamala lost? Not so much.
Morgan's broader point is the one that stings: Deep-blue California is not America. Positions that win you standing ovations in San Francisco and Portland don’t win over the middle. And Newsom has spent years feeding the beast, staking out positions that the radical left-wing base demands of their nominee, but turn off the voters who actually decide presidential elections.
All of that said, writing Newsom off entirely would be a mistake.
His California record is genuinely problematic — homelessness that spiraled on his watch. This affordability crisis is literally chasing working families out of the state, turning his state into a sanctuary for transgenderism. That history doesn't vanish because he’s auditioning for the presidency.
But here's the thing — Newsom is not uniquely woke. Every serious Democrat eyeing 2028 carries the same woke baggage. They are all beholden to the same radical wing of the party. Nobody in that primary field is going to out-moderate him, because the base won't allow it. If it is disqualifying, then the entire Democratic bench is disqualified.
Democrats would nominate a turnip if it promised taxpayer-funded gender transitions for illegal immigrants and convicts. And right now, the two top turnips are Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom, according to most 2028 Democrat primary polling. So while Morgan's warning is legitimate, I dare say that any Democrat who wins the nomination is a threat because there are still millions of people who will vote for the Democrat, no matter how woke or radical the candidate is.
