Most Democrats looking at 2028 are trying to move past Joe Biden.
Gavin Newsom is doing the opposite.
That is not an accident. It is a strategy.
While other Democrats are distancing themselves from Biden’s failed reelection bid and the political wreckage that followed, California’s governor is leaning in. Newsom has praised Biden’s presidency, defended his record, and positioned himself as one of the party’s most visible Biden loyalists.
He has called the Biden presidency a “masterclass of policymaking.” He has said he will never turn his back on Biden. And last week, he went further.
He hosted Hunter Biden on his podcast.
That matters.
Most ambitious Democrats would not go anywhere near Hunter Biden. They would treat him as a political liability. Newsom did the opposite. He gave the former president’s son a friendly platform at the moment the Democratic Party is trying to figure out what to do with the Biden legacy.
That was not just a podcast booking. It was a very public message to Biden’s orbit.
Newsom appears to be telling Biden-world that he is different. He is not running away. He is not joining the chorus of Democrats suggesting Biden should have stepped aside earlier. He is not using Biden as a punching bag to prove he represents the future.
Newsom is making himself available as Biden’s heir.
REUTERS
That may sound odd, given Biden’s age, unpopularity, and Democratic frustration over 2024. But presidential primaries are not general elections. Democratic primary voters are older, more partisan, and more loyal to party figures than pundits suggest. Among many Democratic voters, especially older voters and key constituencies in early primary states, Biden’s name still carries weight.
Newsom may be betting that those voters will reward loyalty.
There is another reason this matters: Kamala Harris.
If Harris runs in 2028, she begins with the most obvious claim on Biden’s political inheritance. She was his vice president. She was his running mate. She inherited his campaign after Democrats finally admitted the obvious in 2024.
A Biden endorsement of Harris would be expected.
But a Biden endorsement of Newsom would be explosive.
Jim LoScalzo – Pool via CNP
It would say Biden passed over his own vice president and chose the governor of California as the better carrier of his legacy. That would be a brutal blow to Harris and a major boost to Newsom.
Even if Biden never endorses Newsom, blocking or complicating a Biden endorsement of Harris has value. In politics, sometimes denying your opponent a weapon matters almost as much as gaining one yourself.
This is where the Hunter Biden podcast becomes more important. Newsom was not merely praising Joe Biden from a distance. He was cultivating the Biden family directly, in public, on his own platform.
That is not what a politician does when he is trying to make Biden disappear from the conversation.
It is the behavior of a politician who sees upside in being seen as loyal when others are not.
And now there is another layer.
Newsom is facing federal scrutiny tied to the financial network surrounding him, his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and their nonprofit operations. Federal investigators have been examining the finances of those organizations. The governor has framed the probe as politically motivated retaliation for his presidential ambitions.
That framing pays real dividends. Standing close to Biden places Newsom inside a larger Democratic narrative of persecution and loyalty — and connects him to a network of donors and operatives who remain loyal to the Biden family.
The public pattern is clear.
At the same time other Democrats are putting daylight between themselves and Biden, Newsom is moving closer. At the same time he is trying to frame federal scrutiny as political retaliation, he is strengthening ties to the family of the last Democratic president.
That may be coincidence. But in presidential politics, it looks a lot like strategy.
The risk for Newsom is just as real.
If Newsom becomes Biden’s heir, he may inherit Biden’s baggage, too. Republicans would be thrilled to run against a candidate who can be branded as both the California model and the Biden model.
High costs. Homelessness. Open-border politics. Soft-on-crime instincts. Bureaucratic arrogance. A governing class that insists failure is success.
That attack writes itself.
But Newsom’s first problem is not the general election. His first problem is surviving the Democratic primary, and especially Harris. Seen that way, his Biden gamble makes sense. Loyalty to Biden could pay dividends if Biden-world has to choose between Harris and him.
It could work. It could also saddle Newsom with exactly the baggage other Democrats are trying to shed.
Newsom is not just defending Joe Biden. He is positioning himself to inherit Biden’s place in the Democratic Party — and betting that play is enough to clear Harris before Republicans ever get their shot.
Jon Fleischman, a longtime strategist in California politics, writes at SoDoesItMatter.com