After easily winning his reelection last November, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said he wasn’t going to run for president in 2024, even if President Biden decides not to run. In fact, during a phone call on Election Day, Newsom said he assured Biden he was fully on board if the president planned to run again.
But as Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette argues, don’t discount Newsom’s 2024 intentions just yet. If Biden decides not to run, a lot of things can and will change.
In politics, timing is everything. One minute it looks like your political career is over. The next minute your future in politics is brighter than ever. Consider in the winter of 2023, the rapidly shifting fortunes of California Governor Gavin Newsom. As future presidential candidates go, his stock has risen, then fallen. And now it’s rising again. Having mastered the art of getting elected statewide in the most populous state in the country, and even having beaten back a recall attempt, there is nothing left for Newsom to win out west.
He wants to go to Washington, and he won’t be satisfied with a seat in the Senate. No, he wants to go to the show. He wants to run for president in 2024, which explains why the governor spent so much of the last two years campaigning around the country appearing on national talk shows and raising money from coast to coast. Newsom is building a massive war chest, which he hopes will prove his viability if the Democratic Party finds itself looking for a replacement for President Joe Biden–one not named Kamala Harris. By early 2022, it was clear to political observers that Biden who had – while running for president – implied that he would only serve one term, that Biden had lost the spin off his fastball. He stumbled over details, meandered in remarks, struggled to remember things.
At one point, he even appeared to shake the hand of someone who wasn’t there. The 79-year-old was acting his age. Even liberal media outlets like the New York Times implied that Biden was too old for the job, and the Democrats should vet a possible replacement.
Then just 54-years old, Newsom seemed like a natural, with his movie star good looks, disarming charisma and sharp political skills. In addition, California has 55 electoral votes, or 20% of the 270 electoral votes that someone needs to win to be elected president. That’s one heck of a head start.
