Gavin Newsom said that he may be making a run for president come 2028. At a Sunday South by Southwest featured session where New York Times bestselling author Vivian Tu held a live-taping of her podcast Networth & Chill with Newsom, the governor of California told the audience that his name appearing on the 2028 ballot for president of the United States is contingent on one thing: Democrats winning back the U.S. House of Representatives.
“I do not believe we will have a fair and free election as we know it in 2028 if we don’t take back the House of Representatives,” he said.
Throughout the hourlong conversation, which Tu framed as a “first date” between her, Newsom, and the audience, the politician took the time to discuss the current state of the country under the Trump administration’s oversight. As Tu prompted a question regarding much of Donald Trump’s support coming from those who are hoping he will boost the economic state of the country, Newsom responded with a simple question: “How’s that going for you?”
Pointing to content from his newly released memoir Young Man in a Hurry, which paints a picture of his childhood, young adulthood, and early days as a politician, he told the crowd that he’s a “small-business person,” having built his way up from a wine shop that he founded in San Francisco.
Working the crowd with each word, all Newsom had to do was simply point to the work that Trump’s regime has conducted during his time in office: ICE raids around the country, the rollback of DEI representation, the war in Iran, the tariffs, voter suppression, and more.
“They are putting America in reverse civil rights,” Newsom said. “Voting rights, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights. They want to bring us back, truly. Maybe it’s not even a 1960s world. Sometimes I wonder if it’s an 1860s world.”
Of course, there was absolutely no lack of Trump jabs during the conversation, with Newsom calling the president the biggest financial obstacle in the country, a “man child,” “an invasive species,” a “jackass,” and on his list of favorite villains, both fiction and nonfiction.
“He doesn’t care if he’s the hero, he doesn’t care if he’s the heel, he cares only that he’s the star,” he said.
As the conversation came to a close, Tu asked Newsom if she and the audience are going to get a “second date” in November 2028. That now rests on what will happen this fall. “The work that needs to be done between now and then to get Speaker [Hakeem] Jeffries that gavel – If we could do that, then you and I could go on a second date.”
