Gov. Gavin Newsom sounded the alarm last week on President Donald Trump ordering a federal investigation into the governor, his wife and their associates, but those in Newsom’s inner orbit may have heard a different sound: cha-ching!
Within hours of releasing a video accusing the president of weaponizing the Department of Justice, Newsom’s political action committee, Campaign for Democracy, sent out an email pleading for money to help with his potential legal defense and political strategy — the latest cash grab for the PAC dedicated to raising his fame with mass text blasts, a book tour, pro-Newsom merch and podcast promotion, all while spreading the wealth to his allies.
Officials close to Newsom declined to say how much he has raised in the last week, but federal campaign records shows he has used the PAC and its connected entities — Campaign for Democracy Committee and Campaign for Democracy Group — to pay for millions in digital advertising as the California governor seeks to raise his national profile.
Newsom has also used the PACs to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to current and former staffers in the Governor’s Office, covered more than $90,000 in podcasting expenses and underwrote his recent book tour, renting out venues and spending more than $1.5 million on copies of “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery.”
By the end of March, the Campaign for Democracy PAC already had $7.7 million in cash. But combined with the two other entities — the Campaign for Democracy Group and the Campaign for Democracy Committee — Newsom’s federal war chest totaled almost $14.5 million as of this spring.
The PACs, which were formed in 2023, have spent millions on political advertising and polling, and supported other Democratic candidates while boosting Newsom’s profile ahead of his expected White House run in 2028.
Among the biggest beneficiaries are Aisle 518 Strategies, a digital advertising firm that has received more than $4.5 million from the Campaign for Democracy PAC.
The Campaign for Democracy Group sent more than $4.07 million to Aisle 518 Strategies while also paying about $350,000 to Newsom’s longtime consultants at Bearstar Strategies.
The money to Aisle 518 Strategies included torching more than $800,000 in July 2024 on a mass text messaging campaign to support Joe Biden just days before the former president dropped out of the 2024 race due to health concerns.
Lindsey Cobia, Newsom’s former senior counselor and an adviser who serves as treasurer of all three Campaign for Democracy entities, received approximately $334,000 in payments in 2025 alone from the PAC, including a single salary-and-bonus payment of more than $213,000 in December.
Abigail Prizmich, the Sacramento Kings’ director of communications and external affairs and a former Newsom administration official, received almost $27,000 during late 2025 on top of her NBA gig, and she continued drawing thousands of dollars in payments in 2026.
Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s lead spokesperson in the Governor’s Office, declined to say how much has been raised since last week, but he also appears to now be working for the PAC, based on email exchanges with The California Post. Brandon Richards, another communications operative in the governor’s office, received approximately $27,000 from the PAC in late 2025 and another $9,300 in travel reimbursements this year.
The Campaign for Democracy PAC intends to combat Trump and take an active role in the 2026 midterm elections, according to officials.
Meanwhile, Mackenzie Smith, an employee of the Governor’s Office who handles communications for Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s California Partners Project, also received a travel reimbursement of nearly $3,400 from the political operation.
Dan Schnur, a professor of political communications at USC and UC Berkeley, told The Post that Newsom’s actions with PAC money may be legal, but it represents “the type of behavior that makes most voters so disdainful of politics and politicians.”
He added that Newsom was smart to go on the offensive in accusing Trump of weaponizing the DOJ before any investigation was announced.
“Newsom and his team understood that defending even the legal activity was not going to look particularly good for him, so instead he couched this in purely partisan terms,” Schnur said.
“Newsom is essentially saying, ‘Don’t judge me on my actions, judge me on my opponents.’”
More recently, records show Newsom’s political committees helped finance the governor’s book rollout, which included hawking kneepads with Trump’s signature to further fund his PAC.
Campaign for Democracy PAC spent tens of thousands of dollars renting out venues across the country while the Campaign for Democracy Committee purchased more than $1.56 million worth of books from Milwaukee-based Porchlight Book Company alone.
Additional expenditures flowed to bookstores across the country, including locations in San Francisco; Brooklyn; Nashville; Washington, D.C.; Austin; Chicago; Cincinnati and Pasadena.
Newsom’s personal financial disclosures in March show his agency, Elyse Cheney Literary Associates, paid him more than $100,000 for “publication payment and royalties.” It’s unclear if the Newsom PACs’ purchases of his memoir may have led him to receiving greater royalty payments.
