Thanks to Gov. Gavin Newsom, former President Donald Trump and a sweeping redistricting overhaul, deep-blue California is suddenly at the center of national politics.
The most populous state in the country — and the world’s fourth-largest economy — has produced two of the last three speakers of the House. Yet its reliably Democratic tilt and limited influence in presidential nominating contests have often kept it on the periphery of national debate.
Not this year.
In 2025, the Golden State has been thrust into the spotlight by a convergence of events, some expected and others unprecedented: a landslide vote to redraw California’s congressional map in Democrats’ favor; Newsom’s emergence as Trump’s fiercest gubernatorial critic and a potential 2028 contender; and a volatile, wide-open race to succeed him as governor.
Layered on top of it all are the intensifying clashes between California and the Trump administration over immigration enforcement, environmental rules and federal funding.
Newsom has proven adept at capitalizing on each confrontation. But the dynamic is just as much about Trump — and his decision to make California a political foil. He deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles after protests over immigration raids; rolled back a longstanding state environmental policy; threatened to withhold wildfire disaster aid; and attempted to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars to the state’s public universities. The grievences run long.
Each move has given Newsom an opening to cast California as the nation’s biggest Democratic counterweight to Washington — a posture that has only elevated his profile.
It’s a shift from recent years. After a steady slide in his approval ratings from 2020 to 2024, a UC Berkeley poll in April found voters believed, by more than two to one, that Newsom was more focused on positioning himself for a presidential run than addressing California’s problems.
But that sentiment has softened. Since June, when Trump federalized the National Guard and sent troops to Los Angeles, Newsom’s approval rating in California has climbed by 10 points. His portrayal of himself as the West Coast warrior against Trump appears to have energized a public that had grown weary of him — and it has helped cement his status as an early front-runner among potential Democratic presidential hopefuls in national polling.
For now, Newsom has managed to turn some of his most daunting governing crises into powerful political opportunities.
