LOS ANGELES (AP) — If politicians write memoirs to generate online buzz and headlines, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is getting plenty of both — favorable and not.
Just a few days into a national book tour, the two-term Democrat who is widely expected to seek the presidency in 2028 is taking heat from conservatives who say some recent remarks were racist and from LGBTQ+ advocates bristling at his calls for the Democratic Party to be more “culturally normal.”
Newsom’s kickoff swing for “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery” comes as he’s sought to position himself as the leading Democratic adversary to President Donald Trump and a capable player on the international stage.
The book, released Tuesday, focuses heavily on carefully crafted biography over policy and is designed to introduce Newsom to a national audience who may be unfamiliar with the former San Francisco mayor and lieutenant governor. It’s been argued that all publicity is good publicity, but the six-city tour is also testing those limits as Newsom seeks to shake off the image, fair or not, of a liberal elitist out of touch with Main Street.
Remarks on his own academics draw pushback
Newsom’s middling academic record and lifelong struggles with dyslexia are a key piece of his narrative as he seeks relatability with audiences. But conservatives have seized on comments about those struggles made Sunday during a conversation with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who is Black.
“I’m just trying to impress upon you: I’m like you, I’m no better than you, I’m a 960 SAT guy,” he said, referring to a lower-than-average score on the commonly used college entrance exam.
Republicans said Newsom was disparaging Black people by suggesting they weren’t smart, an assertion Newsom and his office forcefully denied.
“Black Americans aren’t your low bar,” South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, who is Black, wrote on social media. “We’ve built empires, created movements, outworked, outhustled and outsmarted people like you. Stop using your mediocre academics as a way to patronize communities. Its ridiculous!”
Newsom’s office pushed back hard against another critic, Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, accusing him of being indifferent to racist remarks made by Trump and saying his comments amounted to fake outrage. “You’re going to call me racist for talking about my lifelong struggle with dyslexia?” Newsom wrote on X.
His office said the crowd, which can be heard laughing, was racially diverse. Dickens said critics were taking the comments out of context.
“That wasn’t an attack on anyone. It was a moment of vulnerability about his own journey,” the mayor wrote on Instagram. “We’ve gotten so used to loud, chest-pounding politics that when someone speaks about shortcomings, people try to twist it into something else.”
Other prominent Black Democrats also chimed in to defend Newsom.
The back-and-forth has put Newsom’s book tour in the national headlines for several days, a premium place to be in a fragmented world of political news.
“At this early stage of the pre-presidential race, just about any publicity is good publicity,” said Republican strategist Mike Murphy. To “have the spotlight is invaluable and Newsom has a real knack for attracting all the right enemies if you are running for the Democratic presidential nomination.”
Newsom’s press office later taunted in a social media post that he was dominating news coverage on the same day as Trump’s State of the Union speech. “FOX NEWS IS WALL-TO-WALL COVERAGE OF ME,” the post said.
Critics of his remarks in Atlanta were largely on the right but included some exceptions like Nina Turner, a co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, and Cornel West, who tried to launch a third-party presidential bid in 2024. Both are Black.
‘Culturally normal’ comments spark criticism at home
Meanwhile, he’s facing blowback from California Democrats over other remarks made this week.
He told CNN in an interview aired Monday that the Democratic Party needs to be “more culturally normal” and “less prone to spending a disproportionate amount of time on pronouns, identity” while emphasizing energy costs, child care and other kitchen table issues.
“It’s deeply concerning for anyone, especially our elected leaders, to be defining who or what is ‘culturally normal.’ By definition, it implies someone else is ‘not normal,’” the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus said in a statement.
“We cannot adopt the language of MAGA extremists who in the last year are actively seeking to roll back the rights of women, LGBTQ+ individuals and marginalized communities,” the caucus wrote.
Lindsey Cobia, a senior Newsom campaign adviser, noted his long history supporting the LGBTQ+ community including when, as mayor, he issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples before it was legal.
“Nobody’s been a bigger supporter of LGBTQ+ rights than Governor Newsom,” she said in a statement.
It’s not the first time Newsom has angered allies in the LGBTQ+ community. On the first episode of his political podcast last year, he said it was “ deeply unfair ” for transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports. Those comments were widely viewed as an attempt by Newsom to move to the political center.
Newsom’s last two stops on the book tour are in San Francisco and Los Angeles. With a year left in his governorship, some critics say he should stay focused at home.
“To go on a book tour when our state is in desperate need of revamping and revisions … its almost comical,” said Hollywood crisis manager Holly Baird, who is not a fan of the governor.
