In his quest to understand why Democrats suffered such a decisive defeat in November’s elections — and what they should do next — California Gov. Gavin Newsom asked an unlikely person for guidance on his new podcast.
“Charlie Kirk, give us some advice,” he said.
Kirk, a conservative activist whom many Democrats consider a fringe extremist, was the first guest earlier this month on the governor’s podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom.” Billed as a civil dialogue between political opposites, the unusual conversation ignited outrage among California Democrats when Newsom broke with his own party and agreed with Kirk that transgender women athletes present an “issue of fairness” in sports.
Condemnation and confusion from Democrats intensified when Newsom released chummy interviews with his next guests: conservative radio personality Michael Savage and Steve Bannon, a political strategist who played a major role in President Donald Trump’s first administration before serving four months in prison for contempt of Congress.
“Our governor shouldn’t be platforming extremists and bigots,” said state Assemblymember Alex Lee of Milpitas, chair of the legislative progressive caucus.
However, the divisive podcast isn’t an entirely new direction for Newsom — and it’s strategic, political analysts say.
Last year, Newsom launched “Politickin’,” a podcast with former NFL star Marshawn Lynch and agent Doug Hendrickson.
The new project is the governor’s latest form of outreach to independents and conservatives since his political ally, former Vice President Kamala Harris, lost to Trump in November. That defeat was a calamity for Democrats, but analysts said it presented Newsom with a clear opportunity to gun for the presidency after he leaves the governor’s office in 2027. In the wake of the election, Newsom quickly began making overtures to more-conservative voters and discussing the issues that helped fuel Trump’s landmark victory, including inflation. There’s also speculation that Harris will run for either president or for California governor in 2026.
Former Republican Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, said “it’s obvious” that Newsom is using the podcast to search for a lane to the Oval Office.
“There’s nothing in doing this podcast that advances public policy in California,” he said. “This is about his public profile.”
If Newsom intended to make a big splash with the controversial interviews, he quickly got to it. On Thursday, “This is Gavin Newsom” placed 11th on the podcast charts. His interview with Kirk had nearly 800,000 views on YouTube.
This year, Newsom also has garnered attention for his special legislative session to “Trump-proof” California and a recent revelation, first reported by Politico, that Newsom sent “burner” cell phones programmed with his number to executives of California tech companies, in an attempt to be more accessible.
Newsom is no stranger to dialogue — and debate — with Republicans. Shortly after Trump’s victory, Newsom began touring conservative counties in California to address voters’ anxiety about jobs and the cost of living. Newsom also stumped for former President Joe Biden this summer in swing states and fiercely debated Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Fox News in 2023.
While undoubtedly raising his profile, surveys by the progressive pollster Paul Mitchell suggest that Newsom’s foray into podcasting isn’t doing him any political favors — at least, not yet.
Mitchell’s 1,000-person online poll, weighted to represent voters in California, found that only 13% of voters had a more favorable opinion of the governor after watching parts of his first episode with Charlie Kirk. About 25% of voters said it soured their opinion of Newsom, and the majority — 58% — said it made no difference.
“Democrats felt like he was abandoning them and Republicans felt like he was lying to them,” Mitchell, vice president of Political Data, Inc., said.
But the negative response could be short-lived, said Mitchell, who recently began another poll on the podcast.
“He might have already recovered for all I know,” Mitchell said.
Democrats in the poll reacted negatively to Newsom’s friendly demeanor with his right-wing guests — a marked departure from his typical take-no-prisoners attitude toward other national conservative figures in recent years.
In the episodes, the governor occasionally pushed back against his conservative guests but overwhelmingly agreed with them. For instance, Newsom didn’t challenge Savage when he disputed human-caused climate change or speak up when Bannon falsely asserted that Trump won the general election in 2020.
That approach unnerved Newsom’s fourth guest, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who ran as Harris’ vice president in last year’s presidential election.
“I’m kind of wondering where I fall on this list of guests,” Walz quipped.
But Walz, who is also making overtures to conservative voters and may run for president as well in 2028, applauded Newsom for trying a new approach by welcoming conservative opponents.
“We’re trying to enter spaces,” Walz said. “And look, I don’t know if that’s going to work.”
In that conversation, Newsom noted that conservatives dominate the influential world of podcasting, putting Democrats at a disadvantage. Analysts have said that Trump’s embrace of nontraditional media last year — including the hugely popular podcasts “The Joe Rogan Experience” and “This Past Weekend with Theo Von” — helped push him over the finish line, whereas Harris relied more on mainstream media.
“The New York Times and MSNBC are no longer the determining factor of who is going to be the leader of the country,” said Mike Madrid, a Republican political strategist who co-founded the anti-Trump Lincoln Project.
Unlike Pitney, the political science professor, Madrid doesn’t think that Newsom will run for president. The governor’s actual goal with the podcast is simply to build a powerful media infrastructure that Democrats nationally are sorely lacking, he said in an interview.
“This is not an attempt to capture the (political) middle,” Madrid said. “If it is, it’s the world’s worst presidential rollout.”