Can Newsom’s California Still Lead the Trump Resistance?

SAN FRANCISCO—In the aftermath of another Donald Trump victory, no Democrat more swiftly charged to the defense of left-leaning policies than California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Within two days of the election, Newsom positioned himself at the forefront of the opposition, calling for state lawmakers to convene an emergency special session “to safeguard California values” in the face of an incoming Trump administration. 

Hours later, state Attorney General Rob Bonta seconded the notion, speaking beneath the Golden Gate Bridge about California’s role as a fortress for the resistance. 

“In the days and months and years to come, all eyes will look west,” Bonta said.

 

 

Will they, though? This is a tricky time for California liberals to anoint themselves the standard-bearers for a national party still licking its wounds from an election that saw most of the nation shift to the right. Not even California was immune. Progressives from Oakland to Los Angeles lost high-profile seats last Tuesday, when voters also overwhelmingly approved a tough-on-crime ballot measure that Newsom opposed.

Republicans, including governors in Texas and Florida, have long tried to portray California as an example of how not to run a state, but Trump successfully doubled down on the rhetoric. He soundly defeated Kamala Harris in the swing states after depicting her political home of California as the manifestation of liberal policies gone awry on immigration, homelessness and crime. The state even became a Trump rallying cry: “We’re not going to let Kamala Harris do to America what she did to California.”

If California is damaged, even temporarily, as a launchpad for national political aspirations, that complicates the path for Newsom, who is considered to be a presidential contender in 2028.

“That’s the rub,” said Andrew Acosta, a Democratic consultant in the state. “One would have a hard time as a national political consultant saying that someone from California could run and win the presidency after what we just saw happen.”

 

 

In many ways this should be Newsom’s moment. During Trump’s first term, the telegenic governor was a leading White House antagonist. Harris’s loss creates an opening just as Newsom will be term-limited in 2026. 

Partisan Democrats will demand Newsom take on Trump, but that might not be a viable route to the White House.

“There’s a good case to be made that he’s the embodiment of the Democratic Party that just got shellacked,” said Rob Stutzman, a Republican political consultant in California. “Particularly the California brand I think continues to take a beating, but I don’t know if he has any other path.”  

Relationship status: complicated

During Trump’s first term, Newsom forged a working relationship with the president on select issues, notably breaking Democratic ranks in 2020 to commend Trump’s assistance during the pandemic. 

Yet, California launched more than 120 lawsuits challenging actions taken by Trump’s administration.

Trump, meanwhile, has unleashed hundreds of salvos at the state. At a recent rally in Southern California, he mocked Newsom as “Gavin New-scum” and threatened to withhold federal funding to fight wildfires if the governor didn’t side with farmers in a water-rights dispute. Trump said that “in the first day” of his presidency he would end California’s regulations banning the sale of new gasoline-powered cars and trucks by 2035.

“I liken it to pro-wrestling where they get in the ring and they do their dance and each of their fans roar in approval,” Stutzman said of Trump and Newsom.

Trump is in a stronger position this time. He is winning a higher percentage of votes in California, 38% compared with 34% in 2020, though there are still 2.6 million ballots to count. Californians passed a ballot measure to increase penalties for shoplifting and drug possession with 69% in favor even as Newsom and other Democratic leaders opposed it. 

The shift hit local races. George Gascón, a leader in the progressive-prosecutor movement, was trounced by a tough-on-crime candidate for district attorney in Los Angeles County. In the Bay Area, the progressive mayor of Oakland and district attorney of Alameda County were recalled. And San Francisco elected a new mayor: Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, a moderate Democrat who said he would deliver “clean and safe streets.” 

While California is still decidedly blue, conservatives feel more emboldened by the results, said San Francisco Republican Party Chairman John Dennis.

“If you walked down a main thoroughfare in San Francisco wearing a MAGA hat a few years ago, it’d be dangerous,” Dennis said. “If you did it now, you’d get a lot of people honking at you in support.”

Citing the “extraordinary circumstances” of Trump’s victory, Newsom is calling for a special session in early December to provide additional funding for legal battles against Trump. Newsom has raised alarms about a potential rollback of clean-energy rules, mass deportations, limited access to abortion medication and the withholding of disaster aid “for political retribution.” The governor traveled to Washington this week and met with President Biden on Tuesday, a person familiar with the meeting said.

Newsom’s approach has some support: “We learned a lot about former President Trump in his first term—he’s petty, vindictive, and will do what it takes to get his way no matter how dangerous the policy may be,” California Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire said in a statement.

Counters California Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli: “We just had an election, I think we should give space for Trump to govern,” he said. “The left has just gone overboard.”

Newsom’s stance contrasts with that of Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has remained quieter than some other Democratic governors since the election. Shapiro made the shortlist of possible Harris running mates and has been discussed as a 2028 presidential prospect.

Dennis Roddy, a Pittsburgh-based political consultant who primarily works with Republicans, said he expects Shapiro to oppose some Trump policies, but thinks he will be sure not to waste the political capital—and elevated profile he has gained—by being perceived as a liberal Democrat. 

‘We won’t stand for that’

California appears headed toward a fight over education policy, including a law signed in July by Newsom that affects transgender students and was the first of its kind in the nation at the state level.

The new California law bars school districts from requiring teachers to notify parents if their child switches gender identities at school—such as changing pronouns—without the student’s permission.

Supporters champion the law as protecting transgender youth who fear repercussions at home. Detractors, including some medical professionals and parents across political lines, say such policies keep parents in the dark about important developments. 

In July, billionaire Elon Musk—a Trump ally who will help lead a government-efficiency effort in his new administration—cited the law as “the final straw” when he announced plans to relocate two of his company headquarters from the state to Texas.  

On the campaign trail, Trump assailed such policies and vowed to get the “insanity” out of schools. 

Trump’s education platform includes mandating that parents immediately be notified “if a teacher or other school employee has worked to change their children’s name, pronouns, or understanding of his or her gender.”

Trump could try to challenge California’s statute under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, federal legislation affording parents the right to access their children’s school records, said Max Eden, an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow.

“This seems like a fight that his administration would want to pick,” Eden said. “The pieces are there.”

Trump threatened last month in a Fox News interview to pull federal education funding from states if he disagrees with what is being taught in schools, or to eliminate the Education Department completely.

Tony Thurmond, California’s superintendent of public instruction, publicly urged Trump to walk that back. “We won’t stand for that,” Thurmond said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, calling some of Trump’s threats “a mean-spirited attack on children.” 

Deportation cops

Immigration looms as perhaps the most explosive battleground. In 2022, there were an estimated 1.8 million immigrants lacking legal status in California, the most of any U.S. state, according to the Pew Research Center.

“California’s deterioration stems primarily from unchecked illegal immigration and a governor who facilitates it,” Trump proclaimed at his October rally in the state’s Coachella Valley.

During Trump’s previous tenure, California sought to thwart his deportation efforts by passing a 2017 sanctuary law that limited local police involvement in immigration enforcement. The law prohibits them from asking about status or arresting people for immigration violations, and bars police from cooperating with immigration authorities in most cases. 

Trump tried to kill California’s sanctuary law but lost in courts.

Now, that sanctuary law stands as the state’s key weapon for foiling Trump’s new efforts. 

“We have put in place many protections for our immigrants and we are dusting off those important laws,” said Bonta, the attorney general. “Remember, we did this before.”

This time, Trump won’t be deterred in his plans to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally, said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. 

“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail,” she said. “ He will deliver.”

Kris Maher contributed to this article.

Write to Zusha Elinson at zusha.elinson@wsj.com and Sara Randazzo at sara.randazzo@wsj.com