Gavin Newsom says Democrats need to stop looking for a savior on a 'white horse'

SAN ANSELMO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom, widely viewed as a potential contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, had tough words for his own party — "We are as dumb as we want to be," he said — in an exclusive interview Monday with NBC News in this Marin County suburb north of San Francisco.

Democrats have been too focused on the personality of candidates at the top of the ticket, rather than building a platform that is bigger than the nominee and addresses how the party will fight for what voters want, he said.

"We just have to move beyond the guy or gal on the white horse that's going to come save the day — it's exhausting," the second-term chief executive of the nation's most-populous state said. "This party needs to rebuild itself from the bottom up, not top down. We are as dumb as we want to be."

In his nascent quest to help revitalize the Democratic Party, Newsom has been criticized by some progressives for hosting a pair of high-profile allies of President Donald Trump — Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk — on his new podcast, "This is Gavin Newsom." (The writer of this article sat for an interview on the podcast this week.)

In his talk with Kirk, Newsom further infuriated some allies in the LGBTQ community and on the left by announcing that he opposes trans athletes competing in women's and girls' sports. In the 2024 election, Trump weaponized trans issues, including Kamala Harris' past support for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming treatments.

Newsom said he has been surprised by the ferocity of the backlash against his interviews with MAGA figures, but he appears to be committed to learning from Trump's victories in two of the last three presidential elections. He was particularly struck by Trump's advantage with young men, which he attributed to the attention the current president paid to them — which was demonstrated in part by appearing on podcasts and YouTube shows popular with that cohort.

"He had no policy to back up for young men, how to take care of these kids," Newsom said. "But he at least expressed that — I see you, you matter, I care."

Newsom's approach to the shadow-primary phase of the next nomination fight is decidedly different from those of his potential rivals, some of whom are already making visits to states that have traditionally held early contests. Newsom may have less need for urgency because he has a robust fundraising network, a relatively high national profile for a governor and functional control of the state party that sends the most delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Democrats have been discussing internally how they might shake up their primary calendar — including possibly holding some contests as early as the fall of 2027 — according to one DNC official. Newsom doesn't like that idea.

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"It's ridiculous," he said, sticking to his view that Democrats have to focus on substance and message rather than personality and process.

Newsom reached back into the Democratic past to find a model for the kind of rebuild he seeks. In 1992, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton won the presidency running on an agenda that Clinton helped build through the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. But the DLC and its ideas were bigger than Clinton. Its influential members included then-Sen. Joe Biden, who would go on to win the White House in 2020. The point, Newsom argued, is that Democrats are too consumed with the idea of being rescued instead of saving themselves.

"I'm not worried about [whether] we will find a great candidate," he said. "But what do we stand for? What are we about? What are we going to fight for?"

He added that he has been part of the problem at times.

"Who are we? And if we're a bunch of dangling verbs and policy statements — I make this mistake often, too. I answer a question with 10 policy responses, as opposed to what do [I] stand for."