California Governor Gavin Newsom is traveling to Republican states he banned official travel to with a new political action committee (PAC) as rumors of a presidential run swirl.
Newsom and his family are traveling to Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi this week to boost Democrat gubernatorial candidates in the deep-red states with his new PAC, the Campaign for Democracy.
The California Democratic governor’s travels come as his name is thrown around blue circles as a potential front-runner for the party, should President Biden opt out of running for re-election in 2024.
By traveling to red states to promote blue governor candidates, Newsom is testing the political waters while positioning himself to either be a fundraising force for Democrats in 2024 or try to take the White House for himself if the path seems clear.
What Newsom will become for the Democrats in 2024 is unclear, but it will be heavily influenced by whether Biden decides to try and keep his job at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Newsom’s travel also posed a unique risk for the vehemently pro-choice blue governor: the Democrat candidate for governor in Mississippi, Brandon Presley, is very pro-life.
The California governor recently cut ties between the Golden State and pharmacy company Walgreens due to the company’s refusal to distribute an abortion drug in 20 states.
However, Presley and Newsom did not meet, with the governor instead spending the day with Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. Presley said he did not meet Newsom due to Palm Sunday services.
However, the governor’s plans — while not official travel — violate the spirit of the widely-panned political ban on state-sponsored and state-funded travel to 23 GOP-run states.
Fox News Digital asked Newsom’s office if the governor’s travel involved state-funded security and if Newsom believed his travels violated the spirit of his own law.
Newsom’s office did not respond.
Newsom’s spokesperson Anthony York told the Washington Free Beacon the governor’s trip had nothing to do with a state Democrat’s attempt to repeal the law and that “no state paid staff will be on his trip.”
The California governor dropped $10 million into the new PAC last week, making wild claims about Republicans in the states, including calling their governors “authoritarian leaders.”
Newsom claimed in his video announcing the PAC that Republican states “criminalize doctors,” “intimidate librarians, kidnap migrants,” “target trans kids,” “stoke racism,” “condone antisemitism,” among other wild accusations.
The California governor, who famously broke his own draconian COVID-19 lockdown measures for a friend’s birthday dinner at the French Laundry restaurant in California, also claimed the state’s leaders “ignore the will of the people and make it harder to vote and easier to buy assault weapons.”
Georgia saw record voter turnout in the 2022 midterm elections after the enactment of the state’s voting law that Democrat critics falsely claimed suppressed voters.
Newsom has also taken to bashing states that rival his own, frequently attacking Texas and the Lone Star State Governor Greg Abbott.
Newsom has attacked Texas over its conservative values and laws on guns, abortion and taxes, even going so far as to put up billboards in the state promoting abortion access while running for re-election in California.
“Texas doesn’t own your body. You do,” one billboard depicting a woman in handcuffs said.
Another ad that Newsom ran in Texas said, “If Texas can ban abortion and endanger lives, California can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives. If Gov. Abbott truly wants to protect the right to life, we urge him to follow California’s lead.”