Why Kamala Harris losing may not boost Gavin Newsom’s presidential prospects

By Alexei Koseff (CALMATTERS) – As debate raged this summer over whether President Joe Biden should abandon his re-election bid, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stock soared. The California Democrat became a fixture on the national political stage as he stood behind Biden to the bitter end — a boost in profile, long cultivated by Newsom, that made him a serious prospect in conversations about who Democrats could select as a replacement nominee. That possibility was cut short when the party quickly consolidated behind Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden dropped out of the race in July. And though her loss to former President Donald Trump this week does reopen a path for Newsom to seek the presidency in 2028, he emerges from the wreckage in a considerably weakened state. While deeper analysis remains to be done about why the national electorate broadly shifted to the right in this election, Democrats are likely to be skeptical that another culture warrior from California represents their best chance of rebuilding the party after voters rejected Harris, who came out of the same San Francisco political circles as Newsom. Matt Rodriguez, a Democratic consultant who worked on presidential campaigns for Barack Obama, Dick Gephardt and...