Gavin Newsom has served as governor of California since 2019. First elected in 2018, he survived a 2021 recall election and was re-elected to a second term in 2022. Given the state of California's constitution has a two term limit for the governorship, he cannot pursue an additional term.
Gubernatorial elections
2010 lieutenant gubernatorial election
On April 21, 2009, Newsom announced his candidacy for governor of California in the 2010 election.Leff, Lisa (April 22, 2009). Newsom in governor's race. Ventura County Star. He named state senator (and future U.S. senator) Alex Padilla to chair his campaign.CAMPAIGN WATCH. The Sacramento Bee. July 16, 2009. He received former president Bill Clinton's endorsement in September. Throughout the campaign, he had low poll numbers, trailing Democratic frontrunner Jerry Brown by more than 20 points in most polls. Newsom dropped out of the race in October and ran for lieutenant governor instead.
Newsom, who was the Mayor of San Francisco, defeated the Incumbent Republican lieutenant governor Abel Maldonado in the 2010 elections. Newsom started his four-year term as the lieutenant governor of California on January 10, 2011.
2018 gubernatorial election
On February 11, 2015, Newsom announced that he was opening a campaign account for governor in the 2018 elections, allowing him to raise funds for a campaign to succeed Brown as governor of California. On June 5, 2018, he finished in the top two in the nonpartisan blanket primary, and he defeated Republican John H. Cox by a landslide in the November 6 general election.
Newsom was sworn in on January 7, 2019.
2021 recall election
Several recall attempts were launched against Newsom early in his tenure, but they failed to gain much traction. On February 21, 2020, a recall petition was introduced by Orrin Heatlie, a deputy sheriff in Yolo County. The petition mentioned Newsom's sanctuary state policy and said laws he endorsed favored "foreign nationals, in our country illegally"; said that California had high homelessness, high taxes, and low quality of life; and described other grievances. The California secretary of state approved it for circulation on June 10, 2020.
Forcing the gubernatorial recall election required a total of 1,495,709 verified signatures. By August 2020, 55,000 signatures were submitted and verified by the secretary of state, and 890 new valid signatures were submitted by October 2020. The petition was initially given a signature deadline of November 17, 2020, but it was extended to March 17, 2021, after Judge James P. Arguelles ruled that petitioners could have more time because of the pandemic. Newsom's attendance at a party at The French Laundry in November 2020, despite his public health measures;Sources that reference Newsom's attendance at The French Laundry as a contributor to the recall petition:
voter anger over lockdowns, job losses, school and business closures; and a $31 billion fraud scandal at the state unemployment agency were credited for the recall's growing support. The French Laundry event took place on November 6, and between November 5 and December 7 over 442,000 new signatures were submitted and verified; 1,664,010 verified signatures, representing roughly 98% of the final total of 1,719,900, were submitted between November 2020 and March 17, 2021.
During the campaign, Newsom compared the recall effort to the attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election. On September 14, 2021, the recall election was held, and only 38% voted to recall Newsom, so he remained in office.
2022 gubernatorial election
In 2022, Newsom was elected to a second term, defeating Republican state senator Brian Dahle with 59.2% of the vote. This was a smaller margin of victory than in 2018, and the first time since 2010 that the Democratic gubernatorial nominee did not win at least 60% of the vote.
Analysis A CalMatters analysis published in 2019 found Newsom's political positions to be more moderate than those of almost every Democratic state legislator in California.
Appointments After U.S. senator Kamala Harris was elected vice president of the United States in the 2020 presidential election, Newsom appointed Secretary of State of California Alex Padilla to succeed her as California's junior U.S. senator. To replace Padilla as secretary of state, Newsom appointed Assemblywoman Shirley Weber. After the U.S. Senate confirmed Xavier Becerra as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Newsom appointed Rob Bonta Attorney General of California. In an interview with Joy Reid, Newsom was asked whether he would appoint a Black woman to replace Dianne Feinstein if she were to retire from the Senate or die before her term ended in 2024; Newsom replied that he would. Feinstein died in September 2023, and Newsom faced pressure to quickly appoint a successor. He fulfilled his promise and appointed Laphonza Butler to the seat.
Political disagreements with Donald Trump Newsom and Donald Trump have had a prolonged dispute over governance in California and federal policy. Trump has repeatedly criticized Newsom's handling of wildfires, immigration policies, and the general administration of the state, often using derogatory language. In response, Newsom has made sharply critical statements on social media, including personal insults aimed at Trump in 2025 and 2026.
After Donald Trump on the 2024 presidential election, Newsom called for California lawmakers to convene later in 2024 to safeguard California's policies from the upcoming second Trump administration.
Criminal justice Capital punishment
On March 13, 2019, three years after voters narrowly rejected its repeal, Newsom declared a moratorium on the state's death penalty, preventing any execution in the state as long as he remained governor. The move also led to the withdrawal of the state's current lethal injection protocol and the execution chamber's closure at San Quentin State Prison. In a CBS This Morning interview, Newsom said that the death penalty is "a racist system... that is perpetuating inequality. It's a system that I cannot in good conscience support." The moratorium granted a temporary reprieve for all 737 inmates on California's death row, then the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere.
In January 2022, Newsom directed the state to begin dismantling its death row in San Quentin, to be transformed into a "space for rehabilitation programs", as all the condemned inmates are moving to other prisons that have maximum security facilities. The state's voters upheld capital punishment in 2012 and 2016, with the latter measure agreeing to move the condemned to other prisons. While a 2021 poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times suggested declining support for capital punishment among California's voters, Republican opponents criticized Newsom's moves to halt capital punishment in California as defiance of the will of voters, and capital punishment advocates said they denied closure to murder victims' families.
Clemency In response to the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants with criminal records, Newsom gave heightened consideration to people in this situation. A pardon can eliminate the grounds for deportation of immigrants who would otherwise be legal permanent residents. Pardon requests from people facing deportation are given expedited review by the state Board of Parole Hearings, per a 2018 California law. In his first acts of clemency as governor, Newsom pardoned seven formerly incarcerated people in May 2019, including two Cambodian refugees facing deportation. He pardoned three men who were attempting to avoid being deported to Cambodia or Vietnam in November 2019. They had separately committed crimes when they were each 19 years old. In December 2019, Newsom granted parole to a Cambodian refugee who had been held in a California prison due to a murder case. Although immigrant rights groups wanted Newsom to end policies allowing the transfer to federal agents, the refugee was turned over for possible deportation upon release.
On January 13, 2022, Newsom denied parole to Sirhan Sirhan, Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, who had been recommended for parole by a parole board after serving 53 years in prison. Newsom wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times saying Sirhan "still lacks the insight that would prevent him from making the kind of dangerous and destructive decisions he made in the past. The most glaring proof of Sirhan's deficient insight is his shifting narrative about his assassination of Kennedy, and his current refusal to accept responsibility for it."
Police reform Newsom has spoken in favor of Assembly Bill 1196, which would ban carotid artery restraints and choke holds in California. He has claimed that there is no longer a place for a policing tactic "that literally is designed to stop people's blood from flowing into their brain, that has no place any longer in 21st-century practices."
In September 2021, Newsom signed legislation raising the minimum age to become a police officer from 18 to 21. Also in the bills were restrictions on the use of tear gas and a ban on police departments employing officers after misconduct or crimes. Among the bills was the George Floyd Bill, requiring officers to intervene when witnessing excessive force on the part of another officer.
Transgender prisoners In September 2020, Newsom signed into law a bill allowing California transgender inmates to be placed in prisons that correspond with their gender identity. An inmate's request can be denied based on "management or security concerns". In response, the Women's Liberation Front filed a lawsuit claiming that the bill is "unconstitutional and creates an unsafe environment for women in female facilities".
Disasters and emergencies COVID-19 pandemic
Newsom declared a state of emergency on March 4, 2020, after the first death in California attributable to the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). His stated intention was to help California prepare for and contain COVID-19's spread. The emergency declaration allowed state agencies to more easily procure equipment and services, share information on patients and alleviated restrictions on the use of state-owned properties and facilities. Newsom also announced that mitigation policies for the state's estimated 108,000 unsheltered homeless people would be prioritized, with a significant push to move them indoors.
Newsom issued an executive order that allowed the state to commandeer hotels and medical facilities to treat COVID-19 patients and permitted government officials to hold teleconferences in private without violating open meeting laws. He also directed local school districts to make their own decisions on school closures, but used an executive order to ensure students' needs would be met whether or not their school was physically open. The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the Newsom administration's request to offer meal service during school closures, which included families being able to pick up those meals at libraries, parks, or other off-campus locations. Roughly 80% of students at California's public schools receive free or reduced-price meals. This executive order included continued funding for remote learning opportunities and child care options during workday hours.