Democrats anoint Gavin Newsom as new party leader

Telegraph

11-06-2025

Democrats are lining up to throw their support behind Gavin Newsom and anoint him as the new leader of the party in the wake of the LA riots.
Donald Trump called for the arrest of the California governor earlier this week, prompting Mr Newsom to call his bluff – which attracted widespread praise from Democrats.
A former Los Angeles mayor commended him for 'standing up to a bully', while other Democrat figures said he had gone 'toe-to-toe' with Mr Trump and was 'fighting' for the state.
Commentators now think arresting Mr Newsom would turn him into a 'martyr' and cement his status as Mr Trump's most effective critic.
The 57-year-old governor, who on Tuesday night accused the US president of using the unrest to mount an illegal power grab in his state, has emerged as the figurehead of a party struggling to stand up for itself following last year's crushing election defeat.
Some Democrats are frustrated by the lack of 'resistance' from current party leadership, who fear isolating voters that flipped for Mr Trump by attacking the president.
Until his face-off with Mr Trump, Mr Newsom had been no exception to the problems gripping the party, with his poll ratings declining and a diminishing reputation as what Mr Trump would describe as a 'radical Left lunatic'.
'I've criticised him in the past… but I commend him for what he's doing,' Antonio Villaraigosa, a former mayor of Los Angeles, told Politico.
'You stand up to a bully. You don't let a bully take away our First Amendment rights.'
'We've been waiting to feel like the governor is standing up and fighting for California and every Californian, and he seems to be doing that,' said Lorena Gonzalez, the California Labour Federation leader.
'Democrats are looking for leadership'
Larry Ceisler, a Democrat strategist, told The Telegraph Mr Newsom was 'the first governor who has been given the opportunity to go toe-to-toe with President Trump and his advisers'.
'Democrats are just looking for leadership… Newsom becomes top of mind because his slot is based on real-time substantive and consequential stepping-up to confront a true crisis,' he said.
'He gave a kick-off to his 2028 campaign,' Steve Bannon, Mr Trump's former chief strategist, told The New York Times. Mr Newsom is often spoken of as a frontrunner to claim the Democrats' presidential nomination ahead of the next election.
Mike Madrid, a California-based Republican strategist, said he believed the protests were helping Mr Newsom, adding: 'Especially if he gets arrested.'
The Wall Street Journal, the centrist newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch, said this week that the governor had emerged as 'leader of the opposition'.
Before Mr Trump sent the National Guard into Los Angeles last weekend, Mr Newsom was thought to have tarnished his brand among party allies by attempting to broaden his appeal ahead of a potential presidential run.
He has hosted a number of figures aligned with Mr Trump's Maga movement on his new podcast, including Mr Bannon and Right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, and labelled biological men participating in women's sports 'deeply unfair'.
Mr Newsom labelled Mr Trump a threat to democracy in a presidential-style address on Tuesday evening, where he spoke straight into a camera for around nine minutes.
'This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next,' he said.
'Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault right before our eyes, this moment we have feared has arrived.'
Mr Newsom's administration filed an emergency motion with the courts on Tuesday, arguing Mr Trump overstepped his legal authority by mobilising the National Guard and US marines in California in response to the protests.
'Thanks to our law enforcement officers and the majority of Angelenos who protested peacefully, this situation was winding down and was concentrated in just a few square blocks downtown,' he said.
'But that's not what Donald Trump wanted. He again chose escalation, he chose more force. He chose theatrics over public safety,' Mr Newsom continued, labelling the president a 'failed dictator'
He claimed Congress had failed to stand up to Mr Trump as he took a 'wrecking ball' to the Constitution and 'our founding fathers' historic project'.
'There are no longer any checks and balances… The rule of law has increasingly been given way to the rule of Don,' he said.
Mr Newsom concluded with a call to arms for his party and disaffected voters: 'What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence, to be complicit in this moment. Do not give into him.'
Mr Trump and his 'border tsar', Tom Homan, have previously suggested Mr Newsom should be arrested – something the governor has quickly embraced.
'He's a tough guy. Why doesn't he do that? He knows where to find me,' he said of Mr Homan on Sunday. 'That kind of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let's go.'
Mr Trump made political capital out of his own legal problems two years ago, when he returned from the political wilderness following a series of criminal indictments he blamed on a 'weaponised' justice system.