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California Gov. Gavin Newsom is turning to a former president for political inspiration as speculation builds around his potential 2028 White House bid.
“I don’t have a problem fighting,” Newsom told Vanity Fair when discussing a potential 2028 presidential run. “Nor do I have a problem getting roughed up and getting back up. I’ve been road tested. It’s not small ball out here in California.”
Newsom, who is nearing the end of his second and final term as California governor, named former President Bill Clinton as his political model, telling Vanity Fair he is a “master of his craft.”
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California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is considered a likely contender for the 2028 presidential election, speaks about his new memoir “Young Man in a Hurry,” during a book tour event in the state which traditionally holds the nation’s first primary election for president every four years, at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
“I watch videos of Clinton. I seek his counsel, his advice, and even in his absence, do that. I’ve been a student of his from day one,” he told the outlet.
Newsom said the relationship extends beyond admiration from afar, revealing that he and Clinton frequently speak late at night about policy, political strategy and how to address California’s challenges.
“He calls me late at night, wanting to talk about it, and he goes, ‘I’ve been thinking just nonstop about this. I just think you represent what they fear,’” Newsom said.
He praised Clinton as an exceptional problem-solver, despite scrutiny surrounding the former president’s past association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and sex scandal with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton has denied knowing about Epstein’s crimes or engaging in wrongdoing.
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Former President Bill Clinton speaks onstage during the Clinton Global Initiative September 2023 Meeting at New York Hilton Midtown on September 18, 2023, in New York City. (Noam Galai/Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative)
“[There is] no greater problem solver in that respect than Bill Clinton, in my mind. Master of his craft. Next-level,” Newsom said.
The California governor’s embrace of Clinton also comes as he navigates an evolving Democratic Party, where democratic socialist figures have gained prominence alongside the more moderate political tradition Clinton once represented.
The governor made it clear that he does not associate himself with the Democratic “establishment,” instead casting himself as a political “disrupter.”
“I’m notoriously a disrupter at heart,” he told Vanity Fair. “I’ve never been for the status quo. Quite the contrary. I have a record that consistently challenges the status quo, and I tend to take risks to a degree that few elected officials do.”
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom gestures at an event promoting his book “Young Man in a Hurry” on Feb. 28, 2026, in San Francisco, California. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)
Newsom, who said he won’t run in 2028 if former Vice President Kamala Harris does, also discussed a 36-page book he is writing, full of policy ideas for what he calls “Project 2029,” a governing framework modeled in name after MAGA’s “Project 2025.”
“No one touches these,” Newsom said about his pages of ideas. “These are my own little version. This is just policy, not narrative, the kinds of things we need to do: zoning reform, corporate tax, junk-fee stuff, new domestic strategies and tariffs, preschool things, a cap on childcare, family leave, paid sick leave, child tax credits, industrial decarbonization, anti-monopoly stuff, immigration, whistleblower protections.”
Democratic strategist Doug Friednash told Digital that Newsom is wise to take after Clinton, while warning if the Democratic Party continues to move to the far-left, it could make the 2028 Democratic nominee “toxic.”
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“At a time when the Democratic Party brand is incredibly unpopular with Americans, Newsom would be wise to take a page out of Bill Clinton’s playbook recognizing that Democrats need to appeal beyond its progressive left,” Friednash said. “Newsom’s challenge will be authentically casting himself as a disrupter when he has spent decades as part of the California political establishment.”
Democratic strategist Kaivan Schroff agreed with Friednash, arguing that Clinton understood the importance of putting the country’s necessities over those of activists or party leaders — an instinct he says Newsom is “clearly trying to learn.”
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“Clinton’s lesson was that successful Democrats could move the party in new directions without losing touch with voters who did not speak the language of the activist left,” Schroff told Digital. “Newsom seems to understand that distinction. The harder question is whether he can actually pull it off.”
