In perennially blue California, Newsom, the son of a state appeals court judge, has relaunched himself as a flamboyant progressive hero around quieter legislative pressures. Meanwhile, in red-hot Florida, there’s DeSantis, the son of a Nielsen box salesman, who publicly clings less to two Ivy League degrees than to the anti-elitist, reactionary politics that have consumed the GOP. Newsom is now going on the air against DeSantis in Florida — in what he says is not the first ad of the 2024 or even 2028 presidential race — with the goal of trying to get Democrats to regain a sense of collective identity that it could allow them to defeat Trump in the long run. With $105,000 on Fox News, Newsom’s new ad, which first aired on CNN and will air on July 4, is a combination of a classic commercial, venture investment and one of those celebrity-studded California tourism ads that they say how much better it is there, wrapped in the existential dread that is wreaking havoc on progressives these days. “It’s Independence Day — so let’s talk about what’s going on in America,” Newsom says in the ad, standing in the California sun, tie-less, as “America the Beautiful” sings in the background. “Freedom is under attack in your state.” Those last words flashed across the screen in red, followed by a photo of DeSantis shaking hands with former President Donald Trump, then another of the Florida governor as Newsom picks on Florida’s laws banning the books and restricting voting, speech and access to abortion. “I urge all of you who live in Florida to join the fight — or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom: Freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom from hate and freedom to love,” Newsom says as The images progress from an aerial shot of the Santa Monica Pier to a rainbow flag waving in the hands of two women with their arms around each other. “Don’t let them take your freedom away.” The ad is being paid for by Newsom’s re-election campaign, though it’s apparently not about rallying potential absentee voters in the Sunshine State for what’s expected to be an easy victory for the California governor in November. “He’s running for president,” Newsom told CNN last week. “I care about people. I don’t like people being treated as less than they are. I don’t like being told they’re not worthy. I don’t like being used as political pawns. This isn’t just about him, but he’s the poster child ». “We are as different,” Newsom said of both governors and their states, “as daylight and darkness.” During a 20-minute phone interview, Newsom called DeSantis a bully, a con man, an authoritarian, a fake conservative, a traitor to Ronald Reagan’s legacy and, several times, “DeSantos.” “Everybody has pieces of the playbook,” Newsom said, comparing DeSantis to other Republicans. “He writes it.” DeSantis declined an interview request, but those around him say he’s happy to have this fight. “Gavin Newsom can also light up a bunch of cash,” said DeSantis campaign spokesman Dave Abrams. “Pass the popcorn for his desperate attempt to win back the California refugees who fled the hell he created in his home state to come to Florida.” The animosity between the two governors has been building for months. DeSantis said California was letting a “coercive biomedical device” guide its approach to the Covid-19 shutdown and called San Francisco — a city Newsom once led — a “garbage fire.” Newsom said DeSantis’ approach to the pandemic would have killed an additional 40,000 Californians and that he is “not looking for inspiration for this particular governor.” It’s also a matter of style. When Newsom was caught going maskless to a birthday party at an exclusive Napa Valley restaurant in November 2020, he sadly apologized. When DeSantis was spotted without masks at the Super Bowl months later in February 2021, he said, “How the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?” His campaign put the offer on a koozie and sold it online.
DeSantis on the rise
DeSantis’ popularity among Republicans soared during the pandemic, when he overruled medical experts and pushed Florida toward normalcy months before the rest of the country. DeSantis welcomed comparisons between the laissez-faire approach of Florida and California, where leaders implemented mask and lockdown mandates dictated by public health metrics such as case rates.
Look no further than how each state handled the House of Mouse. Disney World, outside Orlando, reopened in July 2020, just as Florida became the epicenter of the country’s deadly Covid-19 summer. Disneyland, in Anaheim, California, cautiously welcomed guests about 10 months later, in April 2021.
Sharp differences in approach became fodder for both governors.
In a recent interview with conservative political commentator Dave Rubin, DeSantis recalled a fundraising trip to California in June 2021 (he has received more donations from Golden State residents than any other state except Florida, and most of them $100 or less) . He had told staff he would not comply with any Covid-19 restrictions while in the state and recalled an incident he said showed how much he resonated there.
“These two guys in the masks come running up to me,” DeSantis said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, my God. Let’s go.” A guy walks right in front of me, pulls down his mask, looks me in the eye and says, “I wish you were our captain.”
If DeSantis vs. Newsom ever moves beyond a cross-country vote race and into a real campaign, Florida Republicans believe they have the ultimate winning argument: Florida is a growing state and California’s population is declining, if and there is a long way to go before the two approach each other. Florida has more than 21 million residents and California about 40 million.
“We have a product that works in Florida,” said Florida GOP vice chairman Christian Ziegler. “The No. 1 way you can measure the success of states is the economy, job performance and people moving into or out of states. And the state of Florida is winning that battle. They’re losing people. People they’re leaving California. A lot of them are coming to Florida.”
But unlike Texas leaders, who cheer every time a Silicon Valley company sets up shop in the Lone Star State, DeSantis recently urged California CEOs to stay away from Florida, fearing a progressive wave of workers in the field of technology would offset the GOP bunker he is building. When other Republican leaders in Florida publicly courted Elon Musk to move Twitter to the Sunshine State, DeSantis pushed back, saying, “They enjoy our lower taxes, but you know, what do they really offer?”
Newsom pushes back
For California’s governor, this runs deeper than a personal grudge or political anchor as he pushes legislation and lawsuits that move away from the right trend of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and further embrace the “Republic of California” on the state flag . DeSantis isn’t Newsom’s only GOP target. The California governor took to Trump’s social media site purely to troll the former president and his supporters. He repeatedly hit out at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and tweeted a response aimed at Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who noted last month that he would be comfortable defending the state’s ailing anti-sodomy law if the U.S. Supreme Court reverse its decision in 2003 to repeal the statute. “Hell. Not to mention during pride month,” Newsom wrote. “Hey, corporate America — where are your values? Stand up to these hateful states and come to California.” Newsom insists he’s not taking aim at President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when he says he’s trying to get his party angrier and more active. He called the hearings held by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill a “master class,” but said Democrats should look to Trump’s past and how Trumpism is evolving. After spending much of the pandemic watching and reading right-wing media, Newsom said he’s increasingly worried to see how much is taking root. “My expression is an expression of frustration, I’ve been watching now for many years, in many ways before the current climate and the current administration,” Newsom said in the interview. “The success of the right to define the terms of the debate, the success of the right to dominate the narrative … is winning in ways that worry me.” The ad, he promised, would be the start of many more. “Things have changed, the rules of engagement have to change,” Newsom said. “You have to give them the fight.”
