California Gov. Gavin Newsom used his final State of the State Address on Thursday to tout accomplishments from labor to tax policy, while providing a hint of how his future stump speeches might sound.
The 58-year-old former San Francisco mayor deployed the trappings of the California state capitol to offer up a sort of alternative to his foil, President Donald Trump (R), and what he called a “carnival of chaos on the national stage.” Newsom, in his final year of his second term, has sought to portray himself as a leader of the Democratic Party with an eye on the 2028 presidential race.
“The federal government is unrecognizable, protecting the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. Their credo is fear — fear of the future, fear of the stranger, fear of change,” he said.
Under his leadership, he touted policies to help ease the burden of the state’s high cost of living on California families with a $20 per hour minimum wage for fast-food workers and $11 for insulin pens.
“We are proving that inclusive democracy works. We are proving that expanding human rights works. We are proving that legal immigration works. And we’re proving that a progressive tax structure works,” Newsom told lawmakers.
Newsom doesn’t give many formal speeches, preferring podcasts, magazine interviews, and a feisty social media account to get his message out. Open about his struggles with dyslexia, he hadn’t delivered a formal State of the State Address in California’s capitol since 2020 until this week. In 2021 during the pandemic, he gave the speech at an empty Dodger Stadium.
The speech was light on policy ideas as the state faces a budget deficit, projected in November at $18 billion. Newsom instead previewed the issues he is likely to embrace as a future presidential candidate and how he would counter opponents already well-rehearsed in criticizing his approach, especially on fiscal matters. He cited Texas and Florida as examples of “the two most regressive taxes in America, they are hammering their low-income earners.”
GOP Bashes Speech
Republicans argued the address was a stump speech in the worst sense, glossing over challenges the state has faced during Newsom’s tenure and providing too few policy details. Republican critics have cited crime, homelessness and the state’s high cost of living as examples of the topics that still are prevalent.
“He wants to introduce himself nationally, and it’s almost like he’s putting lipstick on a pig,” state Sen. Tony Strickland (R) said.
The lack of detail left some Democrats guessing, too, as to what exactly the governor plans on issues like housing or the budget. His administration will unveil a more detailed spending package on Friday.
But he also embraced some of the very issues that critics often seize on as liabilities, announcing a decline in the number of people living without shelter over the last year, citing a 9% decrease over the past year in the number of unsheltered homeless people in California. He also cited the state’s chronically delayed high speed rail project, noting 60 miles of guideway has been completed. Both issues threaten to dog him well beyond his final year in office.
And the governor touched on issues that he argues Democrats have traditionally ignored to their detriment, describing men and boys as facing a crisis, for example, and highlighting an initiative to involve more as mentors, volunteers and coaches.
Newsom, who has close ties to Silicon Valley, mentioned a new Australian law that bans young teenagers from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. But he didn’t take a position on it, though one prominent Democrat is considering sponsoring a similar measure.
Democrats have been sensitive to concerns about affordability in the high-cost state, even opening up oil drilling in the Bakersfield area last year to bolster the state’s fuel supply and create jobs. The governor, however, talked about climate change as being an issue of economic competitiveness as much as a planetary crisis. He maintained Trump’s budget cuts on the issue are handing China an edge in developing technologies like electric vehicles.
“They are dominating this space. They’re locking in markets, locking in supply chains, locking in their influence across the globe. They’re cleaning our clock,” he said.
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