Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
Never let a crisis go to waste are words to live by if you are California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is cruising to re-election less than a year after beating a recall effort. Confident after being resurrected politically, Newsom is jumping into the void created by a president disinclined to take the fight to the opposition, and a Democratic Party afraid of its own shadow.
Newsom ran a cheeky ad on Fox News outlets in Florida, daring residents of the Republican-led state to “join the fight, or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom.”
A governor making a direct appeal to the voters of another state is highly unusual, and at first blush, the 30-second ad looks like Newsom is spoiling for a potential 2024 matchup against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose policies “banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors,” in Newsom’s recounting, are setting the Republican agenda.