California Governor Gavin Newsom runs ads on guns and abortion in TEXAS amid 2024
Fresh from baiting Governor Ron DeSantis with political adverts in Florida, now California‘s Democratic leader Gavin Newsom is running full-page newspaper ads in Texas on abortion and guns.
The cheeky campaign will fuel speculation that Newsom is laying down his 2024 credentials as a presidential candidate who is prepared to take the fight to Republican culture warriors.
And in an interview to coincide with the launch he criticized other members of his party for playing softball with opponents.
The new slate of ads will run will run in the Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle and El Paso Times.
They target Governor Greg Abbott, who recently said abortion was costing the lives of children in Texas.
It changes his line to say instead that gun violence is responsible for killing children in California.
‘If Texas can ban abortion and endanger lives, California can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives. If Governor Abbott truly wants to protect the right to life, we urge him to follow California’s lead,’ the ad reads.
It comes after Newsom sparked 2024 speculation with a $105,000 ad buy on Fox News hitting DeSantis, before last week criticizing Democratic timidity in Washington last week.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (left) is now going after his Texas counterpart Greg Abbott with full-page newspaper adverts about abortion and gun violence
Newsom’s ads are slated to run in the Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle and El Paso Times.
He told NBC News that Democrats had to get tougher in the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning nationwide abortion rights.
‘I think Democrats have been playing a little soft,’ he said.
Taking the moral high ground could only take the party so far, he added.
‘It’s absolutely true that I’d much rather follow, “When they go low, we go high,” he said, in reference to the philosophy of former first lady Michelle Obama.
‘But I also think we’d be completely missing the moment we’re living in. The door’s open.
‘It’s now fair play. The Supreme Court left the door open.’
To that end, Newsom is due on Friday to sign into law a gun control law that is modeled on the Texas abortion law by allowing citizens to sue anyone who makes or sells banned weapons.
His Florida ad already had Newsom sounding like a national player.
‘I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight – or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom,’ he said in the July 4th ad, which has the feel of a political campaign spot.
The following week he was in the nation’s capital to meet with First Lady Jill Biden at the White House.
Newsom attracted national attention when he bought airtime for TV ads slamming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Fox News. It triggered speculation he was preparing for a 2024 run
He said the two spoke ‘all things education’ including ‘what’s going on in many of those red states.’
He also collected an award from the Education Commission of the States.
The award comes ‘in recognition of its coordinated approach to educating all students from preschool to postsecondary, with explicit attention toward whole-child supports and services, as well as its historic financial investments to ensure educational equity,’ according to the group.
The state is on the way to achieving universal pre-K by 2025.
Newsom, 54, used the platform to blast GOP attacks on Critical Race Theory, at a time when some Demcrats are calling on Biden to more forcefully confront his critics.
‘What’s happening now–banning books? Suppressing speech? The other-ing of our students, teachers, parents? It’s alarming,’ he said.
He also said President Biden should run for reelection.
It comes on a trip where he planned to meet administration officials – with plans to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris in DC on Friday.
Newsom met privately with first lady Jill Biden, pictured at Tuesday’s White House congressional picnic
President Joe Biden slammed a reporter who asked about a poll that said Democrats would prefer another nominee in 2024
Newsom has gotten in political scraps with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, considered a leading challenger to former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination
The trip came while President Biden was out of the country on a trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia and a day after Biden tore into a reporter who brought up a New York Times / Sienna College poll that showed two-thirds of Democrats want someone else as the party nominee.
‘You guys are all the same’ he said, telling his questioner to ‘read the polls, read the polls. They want me to run.’
He cited a different poll question showing 92 per cent of Democrats would vote for him. The poll also showed him narrowly beating former President Donald Trump.
‘Read the polls. Read the polls, Jack. You guys are all the same,’ said Biden.
‘A majority of Democrats say the don’t want you to run in 2024,’ the reporter countered. Biden shot back: ’92 percent said I did, they’d vote for me.’
In his Independence Day ad, Newsom went straight at DeSantis and national party leaders.
Republican leaders are ‘making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors,’ he said in he ad.