NEWSOM '24: California Governor Running Preliminary Ads in Texas
We haven’t yet traversed the major political battlefield of the 2022 midterms, yet there are still a number of not-so-subtle 2024 presidential machinations beginning to lumber to life.
There is, of course, the constant winking and nudging coming out of Donald Trump’s camp, as the former President’s nigh-inevitable announcement seems to be zeroing in on a September launch date.
On the left side of the aisle, there have already been a number of prominent Democrats looking to distance themselves from the “Biden 2024” crowd, including precocious progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who danced around the question for nearly a full minutes during a recent television appearance.
And then there’s the strange case of California Governor Gavin Newsom, who seems to have signaled his own intent to run by buying airtime in Florida to attack fellow Governor Ron DeSantis – a man who consistently polls as the #2 choice for the Republicans in 2024.
Newsom now appears to be taking that show on the road.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is running full-page newspaper ads in Texas touting a new gun-limit law, the second time this month the Democrat has targeted residents of a conservative-led state.
On Friday, Newsom was set to sign a bill allowing Californians to sue those making, selling, transporting or distributing illegal assault weapons and ghost guns, legislation modeled after a Texas law letting people sue abortion providers.
Advertisement - story continues belowThe ad, running in the Houston Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman and El Paso Times, uses Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s quote about abortion and tweaks it to be about guns.
Newsom went after the Lone Star lawmaker by name:
“If Texas can ban abortion and endanger lives, California can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives,” Newsom, up for re-election in November, said in a statement from his campaign. “If Governor Abbott truly wants to protect the right to life, I urge him to follow California’s lead.”
Recent polling among Democrats has shown that Joe Biden’s support in 2024 is waning quickly, and Newsom may be looking to exploit that sentiment by being first in line to the power vacuum.
