Who is Gavin Newsom, Trump's California governor rival

The governor of California has always spoken well of his dyslexia, saying it was the best thing that could have happened to him because it helped his great memory and oratorical skills that always made him avoid any hump.

The son of divorcees, he grew up with his mother who worked a variety of jobs to support him and his sister. He was not born rich, but has always been able to count on the support of wealthy Californian families, including the Getty family, who treated him like a son and supported him from the time he was a restaurateur and winery owner taking his first steps into politics.

A meticulous article in the Los Angeles Times recounts all the endorsements of the most influential families the governor has long enjoyed and illustrates well how Newsom is synonymous with connections in his state.

As mayor of San Francisco, he promoted same-sex marriages in 2004. He is a champion of clean energy and renewables (he recently passed a law requiring large companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, but more importantly in October he flew to Beijing where he met Xi Jinping with the ambitious plan to make China a partner in the fight against the climate crisis, even coining the slogan 'divorce is not an option').

With regard to the endemic Californian emergency, he has dedicated himself to the state's 170,000 homeless by providing health care even for those who do not have a regular residence permit and has worked on a measure to force those with mental problems to seek treatment and not remain on the streets (a measure that has been openly challenged by civil rights activists and mental health experts). He has invested in trying to solve the housing crisis plaguing the state. He was the only politician in the state in 2014 to pass a ballot measure that reduced a number of crimes to misdemeanours. He also spearheaded an initiative to require background checks when purchasing ammunition and, needless to say, was a driving political force when the decision was made to legalise marijuana. In 2019, he suspended the death penalty statewide, arguing that it is unbecoming of a civilised country. He recently signed a law making sites such as Tik Tok, Instagram and other social media outlets liable if they fail to combat the spread of child pornography content. He also signed a law preventing schools from banning textbooks whose teachings come from people with different racial backgrounds, sexual orientation or gender identity. On social issues he is a progressive, on taxation he is a moderate. Faced with the budget deficits of recent years, Newsom has not backed down and in the latest state manoeuvre presented at the beginning of January, he included cuts in housing, climate and school programmes.

Accused of being a made-for-Hollywood politician and a narcissist, Newsom has faced harsh criticism from his political opponents for his promise to keep California a 'sanctuary state' for immigrants, as well as for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw businesses across the state shut down while he dined with lobbyists at a chic Napa Valley restaurant. There are those who point out that his presidential ambitions shatter in the face of certain considerations: Newsom won his second term with 60 per cent of the vote in a predominantly Democratic state and has never faced a tough Republican; the California dream is in crisis; the last California governor elected president was Republican Ronald Reagan.

In January, Newsom outlined his manoeuvre for 2024 and reiterated that no tax on the rich would be enacted, thus debunking the Wall Street Journal: these journalists are 'ideological warriors' and the editorial board 'a broken clock', he said. The media has long seen the governor in the running to lead America and not just California. He has always repeated that he worked for Biden and when the elder president withdrew from the White House race he certainly didn't step up and left the field open for Kamala Harris. But his domestic commitments are well known and have long fuelled speculation. He spent last summer travelling to six Republican-led states. He challenged DeSantis on TV, indeed on Fox News, the enemy television by definition (although he has good relations with a few anchormen). He put together a small staff of political advisers and created a fundraising committee (PAC) that had raised $3.5 million for the Democrats by the autumn. The plan to raise his profile without hurting Biden, wrote the New York Times, also involved Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker and Michigan Governor Gretchen Withmer, but the telegenic Newsom made himself the most visible of the bunch. He assured that everything he did he did in consultation with and with the approval of the White House, which White House officials confirmed. Biden's staff assured that the Californian leader was 'a huge organisational and fundraising asset'.