California Gov. Gavin Newsom's national profile soars with latest Trump fight, but there are risks

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gavin Newsom is having a moment.

In the national struggle over U.S. House control, perhaps no politician has more at stake than the California governor, who has emerged as the leading Democratic adversary to President Donald Trump in what many see as a lightly masked trial run for his own future White House bid.

The liberal former San Francisco mayor, who is nearing the end of a spotty tenure in Sacramento, is being cheered by Democrats and party activists who see his scrappy, Trump-mocking, profanity-tinged speeches and snarky social media posts as signs of new life in a party left dispirited and rudderless after 2024 election losses.

Newsom "has been doing what I’ve wanted a Democrat to do for a long time,” radio host Charlamagne Tha God said on his syndicated “Breakfast Club” program. In directly confronting the president Newsom is “matching energy, and I like it.”

Democratic pollster Ben Tulchin said Newsom is benefitting from a torrent of national media exposure that “makes him look like a leader, portraying strength.”

In a party that even many of its own members describe as ineffective and weak, Newsom is challenging Trump and “punching the bully in the nose,” added Tulchin, who worked for Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns. With 16 months left in his final term — a time in his tenure when many governors would be seen as fading away — he's "driving the conversation.”

But Newsom’s strategy is not without risk as he plans to ask voters in a November special election to approve new House districts. The new maps have been jiggered to add five Democratic U.S. House seats in California to offset Trump’s moves in Texas to gain five Republican districts before the 2026 midterm elections.

The faceoff between California and Texas is spreading nationally, and other states could soon begin redrawing House maps, which are crafted state by state. That could lead to an even more deeply partisan Washington, which already is strangled by gridlock.

Newsom ‘Should be ashamed’ with political maneuvers

While Newsom's maneuvers may be winning plaudits from the Democratic base, "This is a train wreck,” said Boyd Brown, a former Democratic National Committee member and legislator from South Carolina.

If states follow Texas and California and keep rigging House maps for partisan advantage “that’s a good way to ruin a democratic process,” Brown said, adding the Democrats could end up disadvantaged nationally since Republicans control more than half of the state legislatures.

Newsom and Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott “should be ashamed of what they are doing” Brown added. “We are going to have a polarized Congress for decades to come," he said. "Who does that benefit?”

“It is government malpractice at its highest level,” he added. “It should concern every American.”

Risk for Newsom in what could lead to 2028 campaign

For Newsom, an election win in November would be a springboard for his national ambitions, with the fundraising he’s doing ahead of the November election building out his list of national supporters. But a loss in his heavily Democratic home state would inevitably dim his luster on the national stage, even if Democrats give him credit for trying.

And if new House maps are approved by voters, there's no guarantee Democrats will prevail in the reshaped districts in 2026, when Republicans will be trying to defend their party's fragile House majority. A loss of the House would dramatically alter the prospects for Trump's agenda in the latter half of his term.

But first, Newsom needs California voters to approve the new maps, which some see as no sure thing.

“Republicans vote in higher propensity in elections that are off cycle,” noted Democratic consultant Bill Burton, referring to this fall's special election.

That means Newsom “is going to face that kind of natural pressure in this one," said Burton, who was national press secretary for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. "I don’t think it will be easy.”

A snarky social media style gets national attention

Newsom's salesmanship for his plan for new House districts has come when he has been elevating his profile on social media — his press office account has gotten national attention parroting Trump's all-capital-letter posts peppered with off-color jokes and dismissive comments about the president.

“WOW!!! MY MAPS (THE BEST MAPS EVER MADE) WILL SOON PASS IN THE GREATEST LEGISLATURE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD (NOT JUST AMERICA). AMERICA CAN THANK ME,” his press office riffed in a recent tweet.

It's part of a longer political evolution that has seen the governor edge toward the political center while welcoming conservatives — including Steve Bannon, an architect of Trump’s 2016 campaign — to his podcast.

Newsom "is sort of mixing the funny posts and the hysterical digs at the Trump administration with actual action. And I think that’s the part that people are really appreciating and getting behind,” said Lindsay Meyer-Harley, an online clothing retailer behind Still We Rise, an Instagram page promoting progressive agenda.

At a recent rally in Los Angeles, Newsom veered away from discussing the technical grist of reshaping districts and instead depicted the looming battle as a conflict with all things Trump, tying it explicitly to the fate of American democracy and echoing the 2024 presidential campaign.

“We can’t stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across the country,” Newsom warned.

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Associated Press writer Tran Nguyen in Sacramento, Calif., contributed.