What Kind of President Would Gavin Newsom Make If Elected in 2028?
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is having a brutal stretch.
Last month, Newsom was forced to respond after Ruby Rippey, a former aide with whom he had an extramarital affair more than two decades ago, publicly offered new details about the relationship.
Newsom and his wife are also facing increased scrutiny over his extensive use of “behested payments” as federal investigations related to the governor’s orbit, including an inquiry involving First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, continue to attract attention.
Now, Newsom is scrambling after California Democrats bucked his position on a major tax proposal.
California Democrats exposed a deep internal fracture this month when the party’s executive board voted to endorse a punitive one-time 5 percent tax on the state’s roughly 200 billionaires, openly defying both term-limited Newsom and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra.
The decision gave Proposition 40, formally known as the California 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, the California Democratic Party’s official endorsement ahead of the November 3 ballot.
The endorsement cleared the required 60 percent threshold during the party’s general session in San Diego.
The outcome lays bare a widening rift between the party’s elected leadership and its activist base over how aggressively Sacramento should target private wealth.
Newsom has consistently rejected a state-level wealth tax, warning that California would hand a competitive advantage to lower-tax states if it acted alone. Billionaires, he argues, can simply move.
He has instead pushed for federal tax changes targeting billionaires, arguing that a national approach would reduce the incentive to relocate between states.
Becerra staked out similar territory before the party vote, announcing his positions on several November measures.
He backed Proposition 3, which would permanently extend existing high-earner income-tax rates for education funding, but pointedly opposed the billionaire levy.
The party’s executive board rejected the position taken by both men.
That puts the party’s rank-and-file activists in direct conflict with the sitting governor and the Democratic candidate seeking to succeed him.
In a state where Democrats control every major statewide office and both legislative chambers, the split is unusually stark.
Newsom and Becerra are not fighting Republicans; they are fighting their own party’s left wing.
Proposition 40’s chief advocate is Dave Regan, president of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West.
Supporters cast the tax as essential to replace what they say are roughly $100 billion in federal healthcare cuts over five years under the Trump administration.
They project the levy would raise an estimated $100 billion from California’s roughly 200 billionaires.
Outside endorsements have come from Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Ro Khanna, AFSCME California, and Teamsters California.
The California State Council of Laborers opposes the measure.
The California Police Chiefs Association has also come out against it.
Even SEIU California’s statewide executive board—the broader labor organization that includes the affiliate driving the campaign—recently voted to remain neutral.
California already maintains the nation’s highest top marginal individual income tax rate.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin, ranked as the world’s fourth-richest person with an estimated net worth of about $284 billion at the start of this week, has now poured $102 million into efforts aimed at defeating California’s proposed billionaire tax.
His latest contribution of $20 million went to Building a Better California, a group backing ballot measures that could block Proposition 40.
Prop. 40, the so-called billionaire tax set for the November ballot, would impose a one-time 5% levy on the net worth of roughly 200 ultra-wealthy residents of the Golden State.
Critics, however, see it as a classic left-wing wealth grab that punishes success and accelerates the exodus of job creators from an already heavily taxed state.
Yet Newsom’s stance has done little to stop the measure from advancing, and competing ballot initiatives backed by the same anti-tax coalition could neutralize it if voters approve them by larger margins.
One such proposal, Proposition 41, would mandate audits of programs funded by new special taxes and apply new tax revenue to the state spending limit, potentially blocking the wealth tax if both measures pass and Proposition 41 receives more votes.
Brin’s massive spending reflects a broader rebellion among some of California’s tech elite against the state’s escalating tax-and-spend culture.
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, recently purchased a $170 million mansion on Indian Creek Island near Miami. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, and Google co-founder Larry Page have also reportedly relocated out of California in recent years.
Critics argue that these moves underscore how progressive tax policies can drive productive capital and talent to lower-tax states such as Florida and Texas.
Prop. 40 arrives as California faces mounting fiscal pressure.
Democratic leaders have long relied heavily on taxes paid by wealthy residents to support the state budget and expansive social programs, leaving revenue vulnerable when high earners move or their income falls.
Building a Better California’s campaign, heavily fueled by Brin’s contributions, aims to give voters a clear alternative: reject the wealth tax and support measures that demand greater accountability in how new tax dollars are spent.
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Democratic divisions over the party’s ideological direction are spilling into Michigan’s closely watched U.S. Senate race after progressive nominee Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in the Aug. 4 primary.
El-Sayed, a former Detroit health director and longtime progressive activist, won the nomination by less than one percentage point and will face Republican Mike Rogers in November in a contest expected to play an important role in determining control of the Senate.
The result has prompted some longtime Democrats and former party officials to publicly question whether they can support the nominee, while Republicans are moving quickly to court voters who backed Stevens or identify with the party’s more moderate wing.
Julian Epstein, a veteran Democratic attorney who served as chief counsel to House Judiciary Committee Democrats during the Clinton impeachment proceedings and later worked with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, announced that he plans to support Rogers.
In an opinion article published by the New York Post, Epstein said he had spent decades supporting Democratic candidates but would back the Republican nominee in Michigan this fall.
“After decades of giving my all for Democratic House and Senate candidates, this fall I will support — and contribute to — Mike Rogers, Michigan’s GOP Senate nominee, instead,” Epstein wrote.
“And I’ll do everything I can to make sure other Democrats follow,” he added.
Epstein framed his decision as a protest against what he views as the growing influence of the Democratic Party’s socialist and activist left. In a subsequent interview with Fox News Digital, he said he believed the party had moved too far from the political center and had “lost its moral center.”
His criticism focused heavily on El-Sayed’s economic views, his positions on Israel and U.S. foreign policy, and the progressive figures who supported or appeared with him during the primary campaign.
El-Sayed campaigned on proposals including Medicare for All, campaign-finance reform and ending U.S. military aid to Israel. He received prominent support from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and overcame tens of millions of dollars in outside spending supporting Stevens or opposing his candidacy.
Another former Democratic official, Michael LaRosa, who served as press secretary to former first lady Jill Biden, has also said he would not support El-Sayed.
LaRosa has criticized El-Sayed over his association with political streamer Hasan Piker, who campaigned with him at events in Michigan and has faced years of controversy over a 2019 livestream remark that “America deserved 9/11.” Piker later walked back that statement and said he did not mean that Americans deserved to die.
El-Sayed has separately said he does not believe the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were justified. Before campaigning with Piker in April, he told Fox News that appearing with someone does not mean agreeing with that person on every issue.
The distinction has become a point of contention in the general-election campaign. Rogers and other critics have sought to tie El-Sayed to Piker’s rhetoric, while fact-checkers have noted that the 9/11 comment was made by Piker, not El-Sayed.
The intraparty tension gives Rogers an opening as he tries to appeal directly to Democrats who supported Stevens in the primary.
In a video released after El-Sayed’s victory, Rogers told those voters that there was still a place for them in his campaign.
“If you’re among the majority of Democratic voters that woke up on Wednesday feeling, well, hopeless, because the person who won does not represent your values, well, just know there is still hope,” Rogers said.
“Michigan deserves a senator who is ready to sit with you, hear from you and represent you,” he added.
Rogers also appealed to parents concerned about schools, families worried about young people leaving the state, voters focused on housing affordability and workers concerned about taxes and wages.
The Republican strategy reflects the unusually close Democratic primary. El-Sayed defeated Stevens by fewer than 15,000 votes out of more than 1.5 million cast, despite Stevens and allied groups holding a substantial spending advantage during the race.
Democratic leaders, meanwhile, have largely moved to unite behind El-Sayed for the general election. His victory has been celebrated by progressives as evidence that candidates running on an economic-populist platform can compete beyond deeply Democratic districts and cities.
El-Sayed has rejected accusations that his positions are extremist or antisemitic and has said his campaign is focused on economic issues, health care and challenging entrenched political and financial interests.
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The November race will test both arguments: whether El-Sayed can hold the Democratic coalition together after a bitter primary and whether Rogers can attract enough disaffected Democrats and independents to win an open Senate seat in one of the nation’s most competitive states.
For Democrats, the contest has become more than a conventional partisan fight. It is also emerging as a measure of how the party’s progressive and moderate factions coexist when a closely divided primary produces a nominee identified with the party’s left wing.
