Park City • Gavin Newsom asked the question others at a fundraiser in this Utah ski town may have been thinking: “Why the hell is the California governor here?”
The question got a laugh from the audience Saturday night, made up of some of Utah’s top Democratic officials and donors, gathered in a house above Park City.
The question also highlights Utah’s complicated political relationship with California.
In February, Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox complained to reporters outside the White House about problems associated with the Beehive State’s ballooning population, saying, “we would love for people to stay in California instead of coming as refugees to Utah.”
And in 2022, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson criticized Cox by comparing him to Newsom, a Democrat, primarily for past gestures of support for the LGBTQ+ community.
Newsom was in Utah on Saturday as the latest stop on Newsom’s tour of some of the country’s most crimson states. (A week earlier, he met with Democrats in Idaho.) His goal is to give his party a boost and color those states a little more magenta.
With leftover campaign funds, Newsom this spring launched a political action committee to target what he has described as a backslide of progress in Republican states in recent years.
“Every generation — expansion of rights,” Newsom told the group at the private Park City fundraiser. “And yet what I was starting to see, what we’ve all been experiencing, [what] you live through here in Utah, is this rights regression.”
Despite Democrats performing better than expected in last year’s midterm elections, Newsom said he became frustrated to see the GOP repeatedly defining the terms of the debate — especially on the front of the culture wars. This tour, he said, is his way of going on the offensive.
(Utah Democratic Party) California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, speaks at a private fundraiser in Park City, Utah, on Saturday, July 8, 2023.
The California governor spoke at length on what he called Republicans’ “banning binge,” and poked fun at the Utah law that led to the Davis School District temporarily restricting student access to the Bible.
In an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, Newsom lamented a new Utah law that effectively bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
“I never imagined the assault on the gay community,” Newsom told The Tribune. “I thought your governor said it right when he said, ‘Never has so much fear and anger been focused on so few people.’ But, sadly, he signed a bill around transition, [which] ran counter to that spirit.”
Newsom was referring to Cox’s 2022 statement after he vetoed a bill that would have banned transgender girls from playing on a high school sports team that aligns with their gender identity.
And what did he think of Cox telling Californians not to come to Utah?
“I don’t have the capacity to criticize where people came from,” Newsom said. “I’m just happy they’re here. So I would think the governor would be happy Californians are here as well.”
He added that Cox is a “decent and honorable person” who he likes “very much.” Addressing Carlson’s comparison of Cox and Newsom, the California governor said, “Republicans in Utah don’t have to feel threatened that his politics are just like mine. They’re not. We’re very different in our politics.”
As he aims to help Democrats make gains nationwide — not just in reliably blue or swing states — Newsom said the party needs to put more effort into amplifying President Joe Biden’s accomplishments during his presidency.
“There’s an amazing record that we need to amplify, and I’m here, just as a Democrat, really proud of this guy — proud of what he’s been able to produce with the cards that have been dealt,” Newsom said.
He continued, “So few cards — a divided Congress, Kevin McCarthy. Yeah, trust me, I know Kevin well,” the governor said of the House speaker and Republican California congressman, eliciting more laughter.
Newsom’s red states tour, ads in Republican-led states like Florida and an appearance on Fox News have prompted speculation that the governor is gearing up for a presidential run of his own in 2024, if Biden were to step down, or in 2028.
For now, though, Newsom said he just wants to help Democrats in states like Utah — where Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 3-to-1, and hold a supermajority in the Legislature — “push back and out-organize.”
The proceeds of Saturday’s fundraiser went to the Utah Democratic Party, and Newsom said he is cutting his own $10,000 check to the party.
“[I] hope that we can manifest some different headlines and create some, not headwinds, but create some tailwinds for this administration, for our party, in every part of this country,” Newsom said.
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