California Governor Gavin Newsoms much-hyped book tour, intended as a soft launch for a 2028 presidential bid, is rapidly turning into a rolling self-inflicted disaster.
According to RedState, what was supposed to be a carefully choreographed national image-burnishing exercise has instead exposed Newsoms thin skin, questionable political instincts, and glaring vulnerabilities on the national stage. His recent stops in Georgia and South Carolina, far from projecting strength or inevitability, have highlighted a politician who appears overconfident, underprepared, and increasingly desperate to stay relevant in a post-Biden Democratic Party.
On Monday alone, Newsom managed to do significant damage to his own brand. He flipped out at Fox News host Sean Hannity, reportedly cursing him out, even as he faced accusations that his remarks at a Georgia book tour stop carried racist overtones. For a man trying to sell himself as a polished, future national leader, losing his composure on camera and stepping into racial controversy is not exactly the image Democrats were hoping to project.
His South Carolina swing did little to repair the damage. At one event, Newsom triumphantly claimed the audience was fired up, posting, South Carolina, its always great to be back. A fired up room on a Monday morning in @NancyMaces own backyard says everything about where this country is headed in 2026. Were taking back the House. Yet the visuals told a different story: aside from one visibly enthusiastic attendee, the small crowd appeared largely bored, disengaged, or simply going through the motions.
The optics problem only grew worse at his stop in Rock Hill. There, Newsom appeared in a larger auditorium, reportedly with about 750 seats, and it seemed the organizers struggled to fill the venue. Less than two hours before An Evening with Governor Gavin Newsom was scheduled to begin, tickets were still available for $49.33 each, sold in blocks of ten the maximum allowed per online purchase suggesting that demand was far from overwhelming.
Newsoms spokesperson, Nathan Click, tried to spin the situation as a sign of success rather than weakness. Click insisted the empty seats were merely the result of expanded capacity, stating, "Actually, the original ticket allotment quickly sold out and we added capacity. Even those additional tickets are almost gone as you can see by Eventbrites only a few left tag, in an email. Yet Eventbrites only a few left and selling fast labels are widely recognized as standard marketing tactics designed to spur sales, not necessarily proof of a sellout crowd.
If the attendance questions were embarrassing, they were soon overshadowed by a remark that may echo well into the 2028 Democratic primary season. During the Rock Hill event, moderated by former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison, Newsom made a pointed comment about Vice President Kamala Harris that some observers immediately labeled the first real shot in the coming nomination fight. For a governor already stumbling through his tour, it came across as a risky, even reckless, escalation.
Newsom recounted how his own political career began with the help of former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who appointed him first to the citys Park and Traffic Commission and later to the Board of Supervisors. Then he pivoted to Harris, drawing a direct line between her rise and Browns patronage. "For those who don't know Willie Brown, you wouldn't know Kamala Harris without Willie Brown," Newsom declared, a line that landed awkwardly in the room but detonated quickly online.
Oh my, he actually went there, was the immediate reaction from many on social media, where users instantly understood the subtext that seemed to elude parts of the live audience. One commentator described it as A truly stunning moment. The political calculation that Newsom is making to say something like this the way he did is wild. The remark revived long-standing questions about Harriss early political trajectory and the role Brown played in it.
The history is not in dispute. Brown, then 60 and still married but separated, had a relationship with the much younger Harris. During that period, he appointed her to the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and later to the Medical Assistance Commission, positions that, according to SF Weekly, paid her more than $400,000 over five years. Brown himself later acknowledged his role in boosting her career, writing, "And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco," in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle endorsing her 2003 campaign.
By resurfacing that connection in such a blunt way, Newsom appeared to be throwing some shade at the sitting vice president, fully aware of the baggage it would drag back into the spotlight. For a Democratic Party already fractured and anxious about its post-Biden future, watching two of its leading 2028 prospects edge toward open warfare is hardly a sign of stability. It is also likely to infuriate Harris and her allies, many of whom are already sensitive to any suggestion that her ascent was anything other than earned on merit.
Newsom, of course, is hardly in a position to cast stones. His own career was also jump-started by Willie Browns patronage, and without that early boost, it is doubtful most Americans would know his name today. If Democrats are about to embark on a contest of mutual character assassination between Harris and Newsom, the resulting spectacle could be politically devastating and deeply revealing about the state of their party.
That these two figures are consistently near the top of early 2028 Democratic polling underscores just how weak and shallow the partys bench has become. While Republicans rally around a resurgent President Trump and a message of restoring strength, prosperity, and constitutional governance, Democrats appear poised to choose between a deeply unpopular vice president and a California governor who cannot even manage a book tour without repeatedly stepping on political landmines. For conservatives, the spectacle is instructive: a party that governs by identity politics and coastal elitism is now trapped between its own factions, with its would-be standard-bearers already sniping over old scandals before the race has even begun.
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