Gavin Newsom is very similar to Kamala Harris

In 2004, Gavin Newsom was inaugurated as mayor of San Francisco. He won re-election in 2007 and served until 2011, when he became lieutenant governor of California.

In 2004, Kamala Harris was inaugurated as district attorney of San Francisco. She won re-election in 2007 and served until 2011, when she became attorney general of California.

Newsom was re-elected as L.G. in 2014, the same year Harris was re-elected as A.G. Then in 2017, Harris became a United States senator from California, while it took Newsom another two years to become governor of California. In 2021, Harris became vice president of the United States. Newsom was re-elected governor in 2022, and Harris became the Democratic Party nominee for president in 2024 after Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance. Harris lost, and shortly thereafter Newsom emerged as the Democratic front-runner for 2028.

In some respects, it makes a lot of sense that someone who is extremely similar to the 2024 nominee would be the front-runner for 2028. Oftentimes, political parties don’t want to change. Things are the way they are because people have strongly held convictions and they don’t want to abandon them.

And certainly I don’t want to stand around in February 2026 doing takes like GAVIN NEWSOM IS UNELECTABLE AND DEMOCRATS ARE DOOMED IF THEY NOMINATE HIM. Harris lost in 2024, but she was facing headwinds, notably on inflation, immigration, and Gaza. If you run an extremely Harris-like candidate in 2028 but he faces tailwinds in the form of public discontent about the economy, he could definitely win where she lost.

What disturbs me about Newsom’s front-runner status, though, is that I get the sense that most Democrats do not see this as a case of identifying the single most similar politician to Kamala Harris in the entire country and trying to run it back.

Their view is that because Harris is a Black woman, Newsom — who kinda looks like someone who might get cast as president of the United States on a television show — is a huge swing in the opposite direction. That things like accumulating a track record of unpopular stances on cultural issues based on attempting to climb the greasy pole of California politics don’t matter, and that what really matters is that Newsom is funny on Twitter.

And