Gavin Newsom faces national spotlight: 2024 year in review

As President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign imploded this summer, Gov. Gavin Newsom was at the center of the furor.

He became arguably the most prominent and forceful surrogate for Biden through the chaos that followed the president’s debate debacle in June, championing Biden in interviews and on the campaign trail as fellow Democrats increasingly questioned whether the president was still up to the job. 

Newsom’s role as head cheerleader raised his own political capital in the process, thrusting him into the top tier of prospects bandied about as a possible replacement nominee, even though Newsom publicly denies any presidential aspirations.

That opportunity eventually went to Vice President Kamala Harris, after Biden finally dropped out of the race in late July and endorsed her. But her November loss to President-elect Donald Trump has surfaced questions anew about what might await Newsom when he terms out of the California governorship in two years — just in time to potentially run for the White House in 2028.

He won’t be ceding the national spotlight that he grabbed this summer any time soon. Just days after Trump’s victory, Newsom was already positioning California as the leader of the resistance to a second Trump administration, calling a special legislative session to seek funding for expected litigation against the federal government.

Could returning to the role of resister-in-chief boost Newsom’s appeal to the loyal Democrats, even beyond California’s borders, who will decide the next presidential primary? Or would another California liberal just be seen as too risky?

In the meantime, Newsom still has a state to manage.

It was a tough year for the governor, who had to negotiate a state budget closing an estimated deficit of tens of billions of dollars. His political capital took a bruising when California voters barely adopted his plan to overhaul how the state cares for people with serious mental illness, a major policy priority, and then again when he unsuccessfully maneuvered to remove a tough-on-crime measure from the November ballot, which ultimately passed overwhelmingly.

Newsom got a boost by leaning into his ongoing feud with the oil industry over gasoline prices. Despite facing some resistance from lawmakers and skepticism over the effectiveness of his proposal, Newsom pushed a bill through the Legislature this fall to smooth out seasonal price spikes by increasing state oversight of refinery maintenance. He celebrated with a rare public signing ceremony in the rotunda of the state Capitol.

2025 outlook

Those headwinds are not going away next year. State fiscal officials project California is entering a period of growing budget deficits, imperiling Newsom’s ambitions for big, expensive new programs to reboot the state’s sluggish economy and fight back against a second Trump administration. After a disappointing election for Democrats in which voters broadly swung to the right, California’s legislative leaders are also urging a renewed focus on lowering the cost of living in the state. If he finds there is a diminished appetite for anti-Trump resistance the second time around, Newsom will need to decide whether he keeps playing to a national audience or turns his attention more fully to the problems of California.