Meet Gavin Newsom, Candidate For California Governor: Election 2022

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

Perhaps you’ve heard of this guy? Gavin Newsom has been generating headlines — and sparking speculation about his presidential ambitions — for nearly two decades. He came to widespread prominence in 2004 when, as the mayor of San Francisco, he briefly issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples until the courts stepped in. Newsom has been chasing history and occupying the cutting edge of liberal politics ever since.

Elected governor in 2018, his first term in office has been dominated by his frequent public battles with former President Donald Trump, and then the coronavirus pandemic. His aggressive leadership, including issuing the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order in March 2020, initially earned him national plaudits. But after an ill-timed dinner at the French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley, where he flouted his own COVID rules about mixing households, his pandemic response also became a rallying point for frustrated conservatives, who mounted an unsuccessful recall attempt against Newsom last year.

Newsom has kept many Democratic supporters satisfied with symbolically significant steps including a death penalty moratorium and diverse appointees to the state’s highest offices. But he disappointed progressives by backing away from his commitment to establish a single-payer health care system in California, one of his major campaign priorities. There is also growing frustration among the public that his promises to turbocharge housing production and address pervasive homelessness have yet to yield noticeable results.

EXPERIENCE

Governor of California: 2019-present

• Has overseen massive budget surpluses that allowed him to expand anti-poverty programs, transitional kindergarten and health care access for undocumented immigrants
• Signed executive orders to ban future fracking and phase out gas-powered cars, but has also come under criticism from environmentalists for not supporting more stringent efforts to establish buffer zones around oil wells and end drilling.
• Has taken liberal positions on criminal justice issues, including signing a bill to raise standards for police use of force and moving to close two state prisons

Lieutenant Governor of California: 2011-2019

• First bid for governor was cut short when Jerry Brown jumped into the race, so Newsom ran to be the state’s second-in-command instead.
• Though the position gave him little to do other than vote against tuition increases on the governing boards of California’s public universities — Newsom famously dissed Sacramento as “just so dull” while on the set of his short-lived Current TV talk show — it did provide a platform from which to launch another gubernatorial campaign.

Mayor of San Francisco: 2004-2011

• Launched his career through connections with San Francisco’s business and political elite, including family friend Gordon Getty, an investor in Newsom’s successful PlumpJack line of wineries, restaurants, hotels and retail stores
• Was appointed to the Parking and Traffic Commission and then the Board of Supervisors by then-Mayor Willie Brown, whom Newsom eventually succeed as mayor
• Reduced welfare checks for homeless people in exchange for housing, expanded health care subsidies for uninsured residents and signed the nation’s first mandatory composting law.

REFERENCES

• California’s Democratic establishment, including seven statewide elected officials and more than 100 members of Congress and the Legislature
• Major donors to his $25 million re-election war chest: tech moguls such as Jerry Yang, Reed Hastings and Sean Parker; Hollywood power players including Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Warner Bros. studio; plus developer Angelo Tsakopolous, The Wonderful Company owner Lynda Resnick, the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians and the state engineers union
• SEIU California and other unions

FUN FACT

• Newsom’s first childhood pet was an otter named Potter.

Want to know where Newsom stands on some of the biggest questions facing California? Visit CalMatters for more on his views on hot-button issues, fundraising efforts, and online links.

CHECK OUT THE FULL CALMATTERS 2022 VOTER GUIDE HERE.