Courtesy: YES Market Media – Shutterstock– Juno Beach, Florida, USA – June 30, 2020: Governor Florida Ron DeSantis, Gavin Newsom rival, speaking to a crowd.
California Governor Gavin Newsom claims there is “no chance on God’s green earth” that he will run for president in 2024. However, he wants to make it apparent that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running, is “weak” and “undisciplined” and “will be crushed by Donald Trump.”
While asserting that Newsom’s “leftist government” is harming California, DeSantis enjoys making fun of the Democratic governor’s apparent “fixation” on Florida.
Welcome to one of the most bitter political battles in American history, between two term-limited governors of the two biggest and most powerful states in the country, who represent opposing ideological poles. Even though Newsom and DeSantis will not be on the same ballot in 2024, they are shaping the discussion as the presidential primary season begins from their respective parts of the country.
In a recent interview, Newsom discussed his disdain for DeSantis and his devotion to President Joe Biden, just as the Florida governor began a two-day fundraising tour that included at least five events in California. As he attempts to avoid a direct confrontation with his main Republican presidential competitor, Trump, and the former president’s increasing legal challenges, DeSantis has made the Golden State one of his favorite punching bags.
“He’s taking his eye off the ball,” Newsom said of DeSantis’ escalating attacks against him. “And that’s not inconsistent with my own assessment of him, which is he is a weak candidate, and he is undisciplined and will be crushed by Donald Trump, and will soon be in third or fourth in national polls.”
DeSantis was not available for an interview, according to his aides. However, strategists from both sides think there might be a mutually advantageous dynamic at work beneath the verbal battle. The governors are gaining support from their respective political bases, generating money, and enhancing their national brands as they criticize each other’s policies and personas in newspaper and social media comments.
On Monday, each man made a fundraising appeal that specifically targeted the other.
But not all of it is useful.
Less than a week after DeSantis challenged him to “stop pussyfooting around” and fight Biden in the primary, Newsom, in particular, is dealing with persistent concerns about his presidential aspirations.
Since comfortably defeating a recall attempt in 2021 and winning reelection last autumn, the California governor, whose second and last term ends at the end of 2026, has gained more national attention. With nearly $16 million in the bank at the end of the midterm campaign, he won. Additionally, in March, he directed $10 million for the Campaign for Democracy, a brand-new political action organization.
While Biden steps up his political operations, Newsom’s staff has been acting cautiously to prevent the idea that he is launching a shadow presidential campaign.
For instance, Newsom’s new PAC is first concentrating on taking on Republican leaders in states with a deep red color that will not matter much in the 2024 presidential election. On his first tour with the PAC, he campaigned in Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi in April.
For the near future, Newsom is anticipated to stay away from competitive states or important presidential primary states, according to his allies.
The deputy White House chief of staff and manager of the president’s 2020 campaign, Jen O’Malley Dillon, has been in regular touch with Biden and his senior advisers, including the governor of California and his team. The president’s team works closely with Newsom’s team, according to a Biden campaign official.
“Newsom is not going to run against Joe Biden and never would. But life is long, and Newsom is one of the prominent national Democrats. It’s part of that role to have these big national battles,” longtime Newsom adviser and friend Nathan Ballard said of the feud with DeSantis.
“There is the 2024 election, and then there is a 2028 election,” Ballard added.
The two governors are engaged in a battle that might serve as an early preview of the 2028 presidential election, according to seasoned Democratic consultant Roy Behr, whose clients include former California Sen. Barbara Boxer.
“It’s not inconceivable that four years from now, these two guys could be their respective parties’ nominees,” he said. In tangling with DeSantis, who is 44, the 55-year-old Newsom is building his national brand and visibility and is “certainly trying to create opportunities for himself.”
Democratic consultant Andrew Acosta, who is headquartered in Sacramento, predicted that the current conflict would continue because it helps both candidates win over their core constituencies. He called DeSantis and Newsom “enemies.”
“They both get points off it,” Acosta said. “There is a hard core of voters on both sides who think this is great.”
While polls indicate that many Democrats oppose Joe Biden, 80, running for reelection, Newsom insisted that he would never challenge a sitting president from his own party.
“Not on God’s green earth, as the phrase goes,” Newsom said in the weekend interview, adding that he would be with Biden on Monday and hosting a fundraiser for him Tuesday. “I have been pretty consistently — including recently on Fox News — making the case for his candidacy.”
On his fundraising journey to California, which began on Monday with stops in Sacramento and the Bay Area and continues on Tuesday with events in San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles, DeSantis had no plans to make any public appearances.
DeSantis reported that he observed an increase in “disgruntled Californians” relocating to Florida over the weekend in Nevada.
“Why would you leave like a San Diego to come to say, Jacksonville, Florida? I see people doing that,” DeSantis told thousands of conservative activists at a weekend gathering close to the California border. “It’s because the leftist government is destroying that state. The leftist government is destroying cities all over our country. It’s destroying other states.”
The event’s weekend host and head of the pro-DeSantis super PAC, Adam Laxalt, said the policy disagreement between the governors of Florida and California is “a debate that our whole country needs to have.”
“California has been the model for many leftist policies. I would take the contrast between Florida’s policies and its results led by Gov. DeSantis and the California policies, any day of the week,” Laxalt said in an interview. “We can already see what leftist policies do.”
Both DeSantis and Newsom were elected to their second and final terms in office in 2022 after taking office in 2019. Both have been supported while in power by multibillion-dollar budget surpluses and the assistance of statehouses run by their own party, which boosted their agendas.
No matter their immigration status, Newsom in California expanded the Medicaid program to encompass all eligible individuals. He approved numerous pieces of legislation, including $20 million in state funding to assist out-of-state residents traveling to California for abortions. In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a Texas abortion ban that was enforced through private litigation, Newsom signed a similar measure in California, with the exception that it was focused on firearms.
And earlier this month, he advocated rewriting the U.S. Constitution to enact what he called a “reasonable” waiting period for all gun purchases, a ban on so-called assault guns, all gun sales to be subject to background checks, and a 21-year-old minimum purchasing age.
“I think Gavin Newsom is a very useful foil for Ron DeSantis, quite frankly,” said Lanhee Chen, a California Republican who attended one of DeSantis’ five California fundraisers this week. “The more kinds of crazy things that Newsom does — at least, crazy in the eyes of Republican voters — the more I think Ron DeSantis frankly benefits as somebody who is seen as a counterweight to that.”
In Florida, DeSantis has leaned into culturally conservative issues in what he calls his “war on woke.”
To attract attention to the large number of immigrants from Latin America attempting to enter the US through Mexico, his administration flew groups of individuals from Texas to Sacramento earlier this month. Similar to the previous year, he sent a large number of immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, a place he frequently mentions in his campaign speeches.
Additionally, DeSantis expanded the Parental Rights in Education Act, often known as the “Do not Say Gay” law because it forbids teaching about or discussing LGBTQ+ topics in Florida public schools for all grade levels. After Disney World publicly opposed the law, he took over the organization’s leadership.
This year, the governor of Florida also approved legislation prohibiting abortions at six weeks—the point at which the majority of women get pregnant. And he seized control of a liberal arts university that he thought was exposing pupils to socialist philosophy.
Despite the fact that DeSantis is not involved in the same legal issues as Trump, Newsom suggested that Democrats may be mistaken in thinking it would be simpler to beat the former president in the general election of 2024.
“I see deep weakness — I refer to it often — weakness with DeSantis masquerading as strength,” Newsom said. “I think he’d be a more favored candidate. But I’ll leave that judgment to more objective minds.”
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Born and raised in South Florida, Krystal is a recent graduate from the University of Miami with professional writing experience at the collegiate and national news outlet levels. She’s a foodie who loves all things travel, the beach, & visiting new places throughout Florida.