Even California Democrats don't want Newsom to run for president

Whatever dream Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) had of running for president in 2024 is dead, and Californians are the ones who have killed it.

A poll from Quinnipiac University found that just 24% of Californians want him to run for president, whereas 70% do not. Even among California Democrats, Newsom is still in the negatives, with 54% wanting him to sit out in 2024 and only 35% wanting him to run. This is despite the fact that 57% of Californians and 37% of California Democrats do not want President Joe Biden to run, according to a poll from the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.

Californians don’t want Biden to be the Democratic nominee, but they don’t want their own governor to run, either.

This tracks with the results of Newsom’s reelection campaign. On the surface, Newsom won yet another blowout, giving him three statewide victories since 2018. But a look at the numbers shows that he has lost steam. Every single county in California shifted to the right from the 2020 presidential election to Newsom’s 2022 reelection. His GOP opponent, the solid but unspectacular state Sen. Brian Dahle, flipped 10 counties.

Newsom won his first election and the 2021 recall by over 23 points, but his 2022 margin slipped to less than 19 points. He won 7.7 million voters in 2018 and 7.9 million during the 2021 recall. In 2022, he dropped to 6.4 million. The margins are still wide because California is a solidly blue state, but they are also unimpressive. For perspective, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) won reelection in a nominal swing state by 19.4 points, a wider margin of victory than Newsom’s 18.4-point victory.

While Newsom continues to insist he has no interest in running for president in 2024 (as have several eventual presidential candidates before him), his actions betrayed him. Newsom went as far as to take out advertisements in Florida and challenge DeSantis to a debate. He has obsessed over what other red states are doing, continuously trying to insert himself into the national political conversation.

Newsom has overseen the continuous decline of what should be the most successful state in the country. Even the Californians who haven’t moved out and remain content to elect whatever Democrat is put in front of them are sour on him. He gave away his opportunity while running California into the ground. Thankfully, he won’t be able to do the same to the country — at least not yet. 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/even-california-democrats-dont-want-newsom-to-run-for-president