California Gov. Gavin Newsom is preparing a run for the White House in 2024 if President Joe Biden chooses not to seek reelection, according to a new report.
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Speculation over Newsom’s national political ambitions has grown as the governor spars with prominent Republicans, meets with political donors, and strikes at Democratic Party inaction on issues such as abortion.
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“After this midterm election is over, he absolutely is going to announce that he is running for the presidency once Biden announces that he is not running,” a top California fundraiser close to the Newsom family told the Wrap. “No ifs, ands, or buts. He will run if Biden does not.”
One fundraiser said Newsom was trying to move toward the center on some issues, pointing to the governor’s recent decision to veto a bill that would have allowed three California cities to set up supervised drug-injection areas, a controversial program supported by some Democrats.
Newsom has said he has “sub-zero interest” in a White House bid and pushed back repeatedly against the question. The governor has also said Biden should run for reelection. A spokesperson for Newsom denied the report and reiterated the governor’s prior statements.
Yet Biden’s reelection plans remain an open question. On Sunday, the president told CBS’s 60 Minutes that it’s “much too early” to say whether he intends to seek another term in the White House. “Look, my intention, as I said to begin with, is that I would run again,” Biden said. “But it’s just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen.”
A source who has known Newsom since the start of his political career tempered the suggestion that the governor was raring to jump into the race and was instead responding to the anticipated political landscape if Biden chooses not to.
“Newsom is only putting himself in a position to run, if the situation dictates an opportunity,” the source told the Washington Examiner.
This person called “absurd” any notion that Newsom had made a final decision.
Newsom is currently running for reelection in California against Republican Brian Dahle but is expected to win reelection easily.
One of the Wrap’s sources, a Los Angeles philanthropist who backed Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential bid in 2020 and supported her during her time as district attorney in San Francisco, said some in the party have questioned whether she will be the automatic forerunner if Biden chooses to step aside.
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“There’s going to be a ton of people coming out against Kamala if Biden doesn’t run,” the source said.
