(New York) On July 4, viewers of the Fox News channel in Florida saw an astonishing ad featuring Gavin Newsom, Democratic Governor of California.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“It’s Independence Day,” said the elected Californian, in shirt sleeves, addressing the camera. “Let’s talk about what’s happening in America. Freedom. It is under attack in your state. Your Republican leaders are banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors. »
Then, as idyllic images of his state flashed across the screen, including those of a sun-drenched vineyard, he added, “I urge everyone who lives in Florida to join the fight, or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom, freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom to live without hate, and freedom to love. Don’t let them take your freedom. »
PHOTO FROM GAVIN NEWSOM TWITTER ACCOUNT
Excerpt from Gavin Newsom’s ad
What was the meaning of this advertisement broadcast in a state located more than 4300 km east of California, where Gavin Newsom will seek a second term as governor next November?
According to several observers, it announced neither more nor less the presidential ambitions of the 54-year-old politician.
Before going any further, a clarification: Gavin Newsom swears that he has no intention of running for the White House in 2024. Passing through Washington last week, he even answered “yes” unequivocally when asked. asked if Joe Biden should run for president again.
If he is sincere, he is not in phase with the voters of his party: 64% of them believe that the 46e President should instead step down after one term, poll suggests The New York Times/Siena College published last Monday. And many Democrats think their party needs new blood or a more progressive figure at the helm.
Even if he is neither a youngster nor a Bernie Sanders, Gavin Newsom corresponds to these criteria. And his actions in recent weeks seem to have only one goal: to make him known even more throughout the United States.
His Florida ad achieved that goal. She also demonstrated her desire to lead the Democratic counter-attack against the “culture wars” waged by the Republican Party’s headliners, including Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, respectively governors of Florida and Texas.
Gavin Newsom continued that counterattack last Wednesday in Washington, where he received a prestigious award in recognition of his state’s investments in public education. He took the opportunity to denounce the “ostentatious policies” of conservative governors in terms of education, notably evoking Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, the limits on teaching the history of racism and the blacklisting of books in public schools in Texas and elsewhere.
“I had no idea, no idea, that 1586 books had been banned just in the last 12 months in the United States of America,” Newsom said as he accepted his award. “We banned 42 children’s books. Mandela books. Books on Cesar Chavez. Books about Rosa Parks. »
Education is under attack in the United States of America. And we have an obligation, moral and ethical, to denounce what is happening in terms of the suppression of freedom of expression.
Gavin Newsom, Democratic Governor of California
Gavin Newsom feels all the more the need to attack the governors of Texas and Florida as they continue to denigrate his state, as do all American conservatives. He described himself last week in an interview with Los Angeles Times as “someone very proud of [la Californie]who are fed up with the state being denigrated 24 hours a day by the right”.
If he wants to secure a future on the national political scene, Gavin Newsom has an interest in changing the narrative framework of this right. Because many observers doubt that a governor of California, ex-mayor of San Francisco moreover, can pass the ramp in Michigan or Pennsylvania.
But one thing is certain: Gavin Newsom emerged stronger than ever from the dismissal procedure that targeted him last year.
Assured of being re-elected, he leads a state which today finds itself with a record budget surplus approaching 100 billion dollars.
And he is multiplying these days the actions likely to attract the admiration of Americans frightened by Republican radicalism in matters of abortion or firearms, among others.
He is preparing to enact a bill that will allow California citizens to sue manufacturers and sellers of firearms for at least $10,000 if a firearm has caused harm or injury.
The measure is modeled on the Texas anti-abortion law passed last year.