California Democrats Already Have Governor Newsom as Biden’s 2024 Replacement

Voters in his home state of California indicate they are ready for change, making Gov. Gavin Newsom a frontrunner for the Democratic candidacy in 2024 if President Joe Biden doesn’t. The 79-year-old president’s dismal popularity rating raises severe doubts about his reelection chances in 2024.

A recent survey of registered California voters by the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found that 61% of respondents were opposed to President Joe Biden running for a second term, while 31% were in favor. Newsom ranked highly on respondents’ lists of candidates who could hypothetically head a presidential ticket.

Meanwhile, Newsom has gathered so much funding that he is spending it on a re-election tour throughout the country before he runs for re-election in November, taking potshots at high-profile Republicans and even some Democrats as members of his own party clamor for more combative strategies.

The campaign ad Gavin Newsom doesn’t want you to see. pic.twitter.com/IXrsAff40t

— Kevin Dalton (@KevinForBOS) August 22, 2022

There is a void in the top government of the Democratic Party. A political consultant in Sacramento commented on Newsom’s efforts to differentiate himself, saying, “He sees the opening and is trying to fill it.“

Nearly $24 million had been raised for Newsom’s candidacy by the end of June, per the San Francisco Chronicle, while Republican state Sen. Brian Dahle’s campaign disclosed $300,000 in recent filings. Though he has denied it repeatedly, the governor’s actions have stoked rumors that he has grander national aspirations.

If Biden will not run, the governor has backing in his home state, according to the survey. With 13% of the support among Democratic primary voters, Newsom and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) head the pack of prospective competitors if Biden decides not to run again in 2024. Kamala Harris, an erstwhile California senator, and current Vice President comes in at 10%.

An aide to Newsom told the Washington Examiner last year that if the governor develops momentum, “they might wind up both seeking the same thing, that being the White House,” confirming what state strategists have long speculated about a potential collision between Newsom and Harris’s ambitions.

People are STILL fleeing California — a democrat-run disaster under Commissar Gruesome Newsom (who the democrats are grooming for the Presidency!) https://t.co/hpG9WWy8Js

— David Wolfe (@DavidWolfe) August 19, 2022

When voters’ choices for third and fourth candidates are factored in, Newsom gains a commanding lead. If Biden will not run in 2024, Newsom has the support of 25% of California’s Democratic primary voters, while Harris and Sanders each have the support of 18%. The sampling error for the poll of 9,254 registered California voters is +/- 2%.

Over half of the 1,000 participants in a new NBC News survey worry that the nation’s best days may be behind us, indicating widespread dissatisfaction with the country’s direction among voters. According to the survey, an all-time high percentage of 74% of voters are pessimistic about the nation’s future, while only 21% are optimistic.

Almost half of the voters (48%) said they had unfavorable opinions of Biden, while he was supported by 42%. Because of this, a few Democrats have publicly broken ties with President Joe Biden and his administration. One Ohio Democrat, after welcoming President Joe Biden on his visit to the state a few weeks ago, struck out at his trade stance in an ad this week and declared she was “fighting back” against him.