Shaky Democrats who hope for a savior to rescue them from President Joe Biden’s increasingly unpopular re-election bid may have to look somewhere else besides California.
That’s because the leader of America’s largest state is himself hemorrhaging support.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, a new poll in the Golden State reveals that left-wing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is sinking in popularity.
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The poll, taken by the University of California-Berkeley and the Los Angeles Times, found that just 44 percent of California residents approve of Newsom, which reflects an 11-point plunge since February.
On the other hand, nearly 50 percent of Californians disapprove of their governor, which revealed a 10-point spike.
Newsom’s drop in popularity “spans nearly every major voter category,” including among Democrats and independents, the Free Beacon noted.
Much like Biden’s deflating popularity in his own coalition, Newsom’s support among his fellow Democrats fell 16 points from February, the Free Beacon reported.
The Free Beacon noted that a separate recent poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 55% of adults in California say the state is headed in the wrong direction.
Those respondents cited jobs, the economy and inflation, and homelessness as their top concerns.
But crime, illegal immigration, LGBTQ politics and housing costs may also be fueling discontent with Newsom, who became the first California governor to watch his state actually lose population.
As the Tampa Free Press reported last month, more than 800,000 people became former Californians between January 2020 and January 2023.
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As one reason, violent crime in California jumped 13% from 2019 to 2022, which was Newsom’s first term.
But Newsom also was a staunch advocate of COVID-19 lockdowns, he proposed taxing wealthy residents who left the state, he made his state a “sanctuary” for trans youth seeking to elude their parents, his administration opposed school boards who passed rules forcing schools to notify parents about trans kids seeking to charge their gender, he appointed a commission that supported slavery reparations for black residents to a tune of $800 billion, and more recently he went to China and cozied up to that nation’s communist leaders in an effort to promote green energy.
As for the UC-Berkeley/LA Times survey, pollster Mark DiCamillo told the Times that Californians are responding to Newsom’s focus on national politics.
Newsom is “kind of taking on a new persona,” said DiCamillo. “He’s no longer just the governor of California. He’s a spokesperson for the national party and basically voters are being asked to react to that.”
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