“Me and many fellow supporters are siding with Republicans when it comes to stopping the podcast… This is just awful,” remarks Newsom supporter Heather Wilson.
In case you missed it, California Governor Gavin Newsom recently launched a new podcast. The show, titled This is Gavin Newsom, sees the Democrat lawmaker inviting guests with whom Newsom politically disagrees to “talk about the most pressing issues of the day… inviting listeners from around the country to join the conversation.” Some have theorized it’s a ploy by Newsom to appear more favorable—or at least less hostile—to conservatives as he looks towards the national stage and a 2028 U.S. Presidential campaign.
If that’s the goal, it doesn’t appear to be achieving its aim. A Capitol Weekly poll found that nearly half of respondents hadn’t ever heard of the podcast; and of those that had, only one-half of 1% actually tuned into it.
Thus far, the featured guests—including Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk and Breitbart’s Steve Bannon—have mystified his Democratic fan base. The episode featuring Kirk in particular drew backlash from LGBT groups in response to Newsom’s attempts to come across as moderate with regard to the topic of transgender athletes in women’s sports.
But again, if Newsom hoped to win over the other side of the aisle, the existing polling data suggests that hasn’t exactly come to fruition. Only 24% of reported listeners—both Democrats and Republicans—felt they viewed him as more moderate after listening to the podcast, while 17% responded that they viewed him as less moderate. Nearly 60% of listeners felt as though it made no difference.
This is Gavin Newsom is not the Governor’s first foray into podcasting. All the way back in 2013, when he was Lieutenant Governor, Newsom went on The Adam Carolla Show to promote his book Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government. Over the course of the now-infamous hour, Newsom and host Adam Carolla argued over California’s myriad problems—from homelessness to overregulation and bureaucracy. Carolla, who believes Newsom only gave non-answers and platitudes, has since joked that he’d like to get the Governor back on the show, but that he won’t agree to come back.
But appearing on podcasts and hosting them are two entirely different things. Newsom wouldn’t create his own show until 2024, when he teamed up with former NFL star Marshawn Lynch to create Politickin’. The podcast is still going strong as of March 5, 2025, with no indication that it will cease to free the Governor up for This is Gavin Newsom. At the time, Newsom drew some ire for the optics of hosting a podcast instead of delivering results for Californians—but it would be more accurate to describe the public’s reaction as apathetic. Twitter/X was full of responses such as “this guy will do anything except his job for the people of California.”
But that was before California was ravaged by the most devastating fires in its history. The announcement of Newsom’s second podcast was met with palpable discontent. “California just burned to the ground and Gavin Newsom launches a podcast. That says it all,” says one Twitter/X user. “California needs a new governor, not another sh*tty podcast,” says another.
In an interview with POLITICO, Newsom explained his justification for speaking to guests his typical followers might find controversial: “We already know what our disagreements are with the MAGA movement. I want to understand what the motivations are, the legitimacy of those motivations, and just really understand where people are coming from. They are influential—they are. They explain more things in more ways on more days about what’s going on and if we’re not trying to understand their motivations, we will be victims of their motivations.”
Heather Wilson, a loyal Newsom supporter who claims to vote for him due to his environmentalist agenda, has shared her thoughts on the podcast: “We all want him to stop. Like, what is he doing? Why did he think this was even remotely a good idea? You didn’t need to show us a poll to tell us that his podcast was hurting him.”
“Me and many fellow supporters are siding with Republicans when it comes to stopping the podcast. In fact, both of them. At least until he is out of office,” Wilson continued. “This is just awful.”
When one has built their political career by being deeply entrenched on one side of the political spectrum, the fence is a dangerous place to sit. Newsom increasingly looks to the center and right-of-center to broaden his coalition, but in doing so he risks enraging and isolating those who support him in favor of those who likely never will. Media analyst Lydia Hart sums this up perfectly: “He seems to be getting some broader appeal, which is what he wanted. But it is coming at the expense of overall support, particularly from the far left, which has been an important part of his base.”
