Aggressive insults, grabbing all the headlines – Gavin Newsom is trying to be a Democratic version of Trump. Will voters buy it?
On Thursday, Gavin Newsom announced that he would ask the California legislature to vote to put an initiative to redraw the state’s congressional districts on the ballot in November.
This, of course, came in response to Texas Republicans, acting on behalf of Donald Trump, attempting to redraw their maps to give additional seats to the GOP in the House of Representatives. All the while, Newsom has roundly mocked Trump and, on social media, mimicked the president’s all-caps style of posting.
Newsom is clearly eyeing a run for president. But he’s also offering something unique: between his bombastic tone and his ability to grab headlines, he’s offering Democrats their own version of Trumpism.
When Trump first ran for president and then later stepped into the Oval Office, Republicans regularly would say, “At least he fights.” That refrain allowed them to accept Trump calling Mexicans rapists, impugning prisoners of war and his bragging about grabbing women without their consent.
“The guy’s a generational talent,” Mike Madrid, a Hispanic political consultant from California who worked for Republicans, told The Independent. “Most people rely on their own skillset. He’s able to adjust, see the political terrain and fight on that terrain and win.”
And Madrid saw Newsom’s skill up close in person when he worked on the campaign for Newsom’s 2018 opponent, former Los Angeles Democratic mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. That was the case in 2004, when Newsom presided over same-sex marriages during his time as mayor of San Francisco. In 2008, he famously said, “This door’s wide open now. It’s going to happen, whether you like it or not.”
“He is best in times of tension and conflict,” Madrid said.
It’s a major change of fortune for Newsom. After Trump’s victory in 2024, he faced severe criticism for his handling of the wildfires in Southern California.
When he launched his podcast at the beginning of 2025, he took heat from other Democrats when he agreed with conservative activist Charlie Kirk about transgender athletes in women’s sports. To this day, many Democrats and LGBT+ activists remain salty.
But many Democrats still find themselves pleased with his actions against Trump. In June, he sued the Trump administration for sending the National Guard into Los Angeles to quell protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
Now, he’s taking Trump on directly, and it seems to have appeal.
Earlier this year, Shannon Watts, a Democratic activist who raised $11 million last year for Kamala Harris, had largely refrained from giving money to Democrats in disappointment at the party’s inability to stand up to Trump.
But this week, she contributed to Newsom’s campaign.
“I have been waiting for Democrats to meet the moment and to show some fight and to stand up to this administration that is so clearly wanting to be authoritarian,” she told The Independent.
