The New Yorker:

California’s governor has been touted as the Democrats’ best shot in 2028. But first he’ll need to convince voters that he’s not just a slick establishment politician.

By Nathan Heller

“He has been very careful not to get himself in a position where negatives become a liability,” Willie Brown, a former mayor of San Francisco, said.Photograph by Jeff Minton for The New Yorker

At a union hall in San Diego last November, Gavin Newsom—the tall, coiffed governor of California, and, since last year, one of the Democrats’ best hopes for pulling together a shattered country—stood to one side in white shirtsleeves and waited for his turn to address the crowd. His gaze moved carefully across the audience as union leaders spoke. A recurrent phenomenon among California governors, who tend to run glamorous, is playing against type. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a man once known for toting a bazooka, turned himself into a sober-suited policy wonk. Jerry Brown, a onetime figure of “pop politics,” emerged as a curmudgeon. For Newsom, a middle-aged man with a large, young family, a glow of professional attainment, and, most days, enough Oribe Crème in his hair to dress a good Crab Louie, the challenge has been to look both humble and concerned. He slumped his shoulders as he listened, as if to shrink his frame. When he nodded, he bent from the waist—not just agreeing but offering small, grateful bows.

“I think we all know why we’re here,” he said, taking the microphone. It was a few days before a statewide special election, and Newsom was speaking to a local chapter of the United Domestic Workers, whose members, largely women of color, had assembled for a rally with the Governor. “Trump knows he’s going to lose the midterms,” he said.

“He knows that, this time next year, there’s not going to be a Speaker Johnson, that there’s going to be a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. He knows that his Presidency, as we know it”—he slowed his speech portentously—“is going to come to an end.”

Go to link