Newsom excites red-state Democrats, but some worry about a Californian

Washington Post

10-07-2025

PICKENS, S.C. — Gavin Newsom played coy about his 2028 White House ambitions as he traveled to churches, community centers and coffee shops in eight of South Carolina's rural counties this week — insisting he was here to energize red-state Democrats and pressure the Trump administration for federal disaster relief.
But Rep. James E. Clyburn — the Democratic kingmaker in this state that holds a pivotal early presidential primary — quickly punched through that pretense.
Clyburn told some 200 activists packed into a sweltering meeting room Tuesday, during Newsom's fifth stop of the day, that they should lean on the excitement generated by these 'presidential candidates' visiting the Palmetto State to help Democrats win control of Congress in the midterm elections.
To laughter, Newsom playfully peered over his shoulder and out the back door as if to ask who Clyburn could be referring to.
The California governor may not be ready to reveal his thinking about 2028. But he has cemented his standing in the top tier of potential Democratic contenders, thanks in part to last month's dramatic clashes with President Donald Trump over federal immigration raids in his state and the president's deployment of the U.S. military amid the ensuing protests in Los Angeles. Interviews with more than two dozen Democratic and independent voters who came to see Newsom here showed many want a brawler, and appreciate his willingness to confront what they see as Trump's brash tactics and authoritarian leanings.
'He's up for the fight,' said Joanne Peterson, a 78-year-old retired health care administrator from Wallace, South Carolina. 'And I'm up for the fight with him.'
But Newsom's rural tour also illustrated the obstacles he will face if he decides to run after his final term as governor ends next year. Some Democrats said they worried that he would be an easy mark for his GOP opponents who would cast him as a California liberal who struggled to fix the state's homelessness and housing affordability crises. They fretted that his combativeness and defense of abortion and LGBTQ rights make him a lightning rod on the right.
'We think his history could be used against him, even though we think it's positive,' said Ann Carroll, a 64-year-old Democrat who owns a furniture store with her husband. 'It almost seems like a candidate with no history is better. We're just thinking, because California has had a lot of crime, problems with wildfires — all of those issues, Donald Trump will use that stuff against somebody.'
Tim Hauser, a 65-year-old Army veteran and retired teacher, brushed aside concerns about Newsom, including some from the left who chafe at Newsom for inviting conservative guests like Stephen K. Bannon and Charlie Kirk onto his podcast.
'If you don't understand what the other people are saying, how are you going to craft a message against it?' said Hauser, an independent who came to see Newsom at a church-owned coffee shop in Mullins and now ranks him in his top five 2028 contenders.
Johnnie McLendon, the senior pastor at Fisher Hill Community Baptist Church in Chesterfield County, said the governor had emerged as someone who 'has been through the storm, the trials and everything — and he's still standing strong.'
'He's bringing hope, he's bringing encouragement, he's bringing stability,' said McLendon, who told Newsom that he would help organize voters in the surrounding rural counties if he runs. 'That's what we want: stability, because that's what this country has always had.'
But protesters also turned out at Newsom's low-key events in Seneca, Pickens and Laurens, holding signs with slogans like 'Abortion Salesman' and 'Where's your mask Gavin?' — accusing him of following different rules than his constituents during the coronavirus lockdowns in his state. 'I fled California,' another sign read. 'Newsom: Go Home!'
'He stands for everything we are against as a majority in this part of the country,' said Melissa Smith, a 45-year-old stay-at-home mom and Republican from Pickens, South Carolina. 'He stands for abortion rights, which we do not. And I don't like the behavior that he exhibited during the 2020 lockdowns — the way that he believes the rules are for other people and not for him.'
'You can't afford to live in California,' said Tim Scott, a 78-year-old Republican and Air Force veteran who came to listen to Newsom in Mullins. 'We don't want the rest of this country to be like California. Nobody does.'
Patty Hampton, a 69-year-old veteran and Democrat from Myrtle Beach, cited some of those same concerns about California's affordability crisis and homelessness issues as baggage that could hinder Newsom and his party if he were to become the Democratic nominee in 2028. After listening to Newsom in Mullins, she said she hoped to see former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg run: 'He's got good moral standing. Plus he's been in the military,' she said.
Newsom began his red-state travels in 2023 when he launched his Campaign for Democracy political action committee with the aim of fighting what he characterized as rising authoritarianism and bolstering struggling state and local parties in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and other deep-red states.
Before he had even touched down in South Carolina this week, he raised about $160,000 for the South Carolina Democratic Party through a text and email solicitation, according to his aides and officials with the party.
Across 10 stops, Newsom gave different variations of a stump speech, warning against giving in to cynicism, anxiety and fear. The president 'has declared a war within' America, he said, 'on our people and our values.' He recounted the scene of masked and armed immigration agents sweeping through a Los Angeles park on horseback on Monday, calling it an intimidation tactic.
'Cruelty is the point, but the point as well is to instill a sense of unease, is to reinforce your anxiety, your fear, so you become apathetic and cynical, so that you no longer have agency, that you become a bystander as he rolls back the last half-century [of progress] and that's why I'm here. We cannot allow that to happen,' Newsom told the crowd in Mullins.
In Pickens, Newsom said rural working-class voters 'got screwed' by the tax and spending bill signed by Trump last week that cuts more than $1 trillion from Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act.
'They lied to you. They said they'd have your back — they don't have your back. You're going to get slammed,' he said. 'There's 15 rural hospitals in South Carolina. Five are going out of business. I assure you the hundreds of thousands of people who are going to lose their Medicaid is only going to make that condition worse.'
Newsom deflected numerous questions from voters about his plans, whether South Carolina should remain the first-in-the-nation primary state and even whether he favored vinegar- or mustard-based barbecue. 'Trick question,' he said.
'You're running for president, right?' one man asked him as he thanked him for his 'courage' and shook his hand at Fisher Hill Baptist Church.
'Who the hell knows,' Newsom answered, laughing.