Asked by CBS News today if he had seriously considered launching a bid for the White House in 2028, Newsom responded: “Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise. I’d just be lying, and I can’t do that.”
“I think the biggest challenge for anyone who runs for any office is people see right through you. If you don’t have that ‘why,’ you’re doing it for the wrong reasons,” he said.
“Fate will determine that,” Newsom answered when asked if he had worked out a reason for a presidential run.
In June, he insisted he was “not thinking about running” but left the door open to the possibility, saying it was a “path I could see unfold”.
Newsom was seen as a potential replacement to head the Democratic ticket in the final days of President Joe Biden’s re-election bid last year.
Ultimately, he declined to challenge Harris, then US Vice-President, for the party’s nomination.
Harris, who went on to lose the election to Trump, is seen as a potential rival to Newsom for the party’s nomination, telling the BBC she was “not done” and leaving the door open to another presidential run.
However, her candid campaign memoir has raised the ire of a number of senior Democrats, which could hinder another bid.
Critics also point to her total failure at the ballot box, when Democratic support waned across the country and Trump won a second term.
Other potential rivals to Newsom include: Pete Buttigieg, the former Transportation Secretary; JB Pritzker, the Illinois Governor; and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
Newsom has emerged as the Democrats’ leading voice of opposition to Trump, who suggested in June that the California Governor could be arrested for blocking immigration enforcement.
When the President deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles the same month, ostensibly as an attempt to prevent rioting, Newsom led a legal challenge to the move which is working its way through the courts.
He has also sought to neuter Trump’s attempts to redraw congressional districts to collect more Republican seats in the Midterms by pushing plans that would create five Democrat seats in his state.
The proposition will be decided on by California voters on November 4 in a referendum.
Newsom has also bolstered his profile by launching his own podcast, on which he speaks to figures from both the left and right of American politics, while mocking Trump in viral social media posts.
In March, he sought to push his party towards the centre by arguing that allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports was “deeply unfair”, breaking ranks with Democrats on the issue.
Harris was hammered on trans issues by Trump in last year’s election campaign. One prominent advertising campaign finished with the tagline: “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you”.
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