Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is scrambling to rewrite history — and reinvent himself — as his party lurches leftward and embraces candidate after candidate who’s younger and more extreme than the last.
Newsom, recognizing the appetite in his party for “insurgents” and agents of “change,” insisted that he could be all of those things while also bringing the experience that came with his more than two decades in elected office.
“I think what’s happening is there’s just a desire for change,” Newsom said. “I think this notion of insurgency over incumbency is the real message here, and people just want fighters — they want people with conviction, strength, clarity, people that get it and want to get things done. And they’re done with the status quo, and I totally respect that.”
Newsom went on to claim that despite his eight years as governor — and more than a decade in elected office prior to that — he was not an example of the “status quo” people were so desperate to leave behind. Instead, he still viewed himself as the “insurgent” rather than the “incumbent,” coining a new phrase to describe his position in the field: “established insurgent.”
“I’ve long felt like I’ve been an established insurgent,” he explained, adding, “I’ve always had that mindset. I’ve been in elected office a long time, but I’ve never been naive about people’s desire for change, including my own desire for change.”
Newsom’s comments came as he traveled to Michigan, where Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed eked out a narrow victory over the more established Democrat Rep. Haley Stevens. The likely 2028 hopeful brushed aside concerns about El-Sayed’s more extreme views and alignment with far-Left streamer Hasan Piker — who is well known for praising Islamist terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, idolizing communist dictators like Mao Zedong, and making outlandish claims like “America deserved 9/11.”
El-Sayed, despite being given multiple chances to denounce Piker, has doubled down at every opportunity — but Newsom did not appear to be bothered by that, and instead argued that El-Sayed’s success was simply a manifestation of the people’s “desire for change.”
Responding to Republicans who have argued that El-Sayed is just more proof that the Democratic Party is embracing the extremes, Newsom said that was “nonsense,” adding, “He’s not even a member of the DSA.”
The California governor, whose term ends in January, is expected to launch a presidential campaign ahead of the 2028 election cycle — and recent polls, which show democratic socialist darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) eclipsing him, might be the inspiration behind his attempts to reinvent himself.
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