Gavin Newsom elected governor in win for resistance against Trump
SACRAMENTO – Gavin Newsom won a decisive victory for governor of California on Tuesday night, placing the risk-taking liberal at the center of the resistance to President Donald Trump at a critical moment for the state.
Newsom is expected to shift state politics and policy even further to the left after eight years of Gov. Jerry Brown, a pragmatic Democrat known for his fiscal restraint and distaste for expensive new social programs.
An outspoken champion of LGBTQ rights, strict gun control and the legalization of marijuana, Newsom campaigned with an ambitious and expensive agenda, including proposals for a state-sponsored health care system, universal preschool and increased funding for higher education.
Newsom also promises to heighten California’s role as a foil to the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress, vowing to fight the president’s crackdown on immigration and dismantling of the nation’s environmental protections.
California’s two-term lieutenant governor handily defeated Republican challenger John Cox, a multimillionaire businessman and political newcomer in the state who dipped into his own fortune hoping to overcome long odds.
Underpinning the race between Newsom and Cox was the political upheaval stirred by Trump.
Newsom enthusiastically embraced Trump as his main foil in the campaign, rarely mentioning his GOP opponent by name. Cox, meanwhile, touted the president’s endorsement before the primary, which helped him consolidate the Republican vote in California and finish in the top two in a crowded field of candidates. Days after the primary, Cox said he hoped Trump would come to California to campaign for him, but that never happened and the president fell silent about the candidate Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom
he backed in May.
“I don’t wake up every morning looking to pick fights,” Newsom said while campaigning in Sacramento last week. “But if he attacks the values of this state, he attacks the people of this state, he attacks our clean air, our clean water, he attacks our diverse communities, I’ll have the back of the people of this state and the values that we hold dear.”