California Governor Gavin Newsom Visits Nashville on the First Stop of Book Tour
Tennessee Today

This weekend, California Governor Gavin Newsom visited Nashville on the first stop of his book tour. Leading up to his visit, the California Governor feuded on X with Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Senator Marsha Blackburn and drew criticism from other prominent state leaders. 

In an over an hour-long conversation with the Tennessee Holler’s Justin Kanew, Newsom spoke on everything from his early life to Tennessee’s politics.

As Newsom hit the stage, he almost immediately addressed Senator Blackburn, responding to Kanew’s welcome to Tennessee by quipping,  “Eat your heart out, Marsha.” The two briefly joked about how they could spend a whole hour addressing the Senator before moving on to questions regarding Newsom’s memoir, “A Young Man in a Hurry.”

Newsom described his book as “the opposite of a political memoir because so many political memoirs for politicians that are in office are sanitized…And so this is messy…It’s called life. It’s life: It’s humbling, it is what it is.” He then moved on to describe his relationship with his mom, who was disappointed that he pursued politics, and with his dad, who was extremely proud of his political success.

Kanew then pressed Newsom on his relationship with the Gettys, a prominent, wealthy family. Newsom’s father’s godson is John Paul Getty III, and Newsom describes himself as having a close relationship with the family. Newsom discussed various stories involving the Gettys, including the yearly exotic trip they would go on together, while emphasizing that he often felt like an imposter switching between his day-to-day life with his single mother and being part of society with the Gettys. Newsom summed up his experience by saying, “A lot of doors were opened, but the door that was opened 51 out of 52 weeks was my mom’s, and that was a very different reality.”

The conversation then switched to focus on politics, with Newsom addressing topics spanning from homelessness to LGBTQ rights. Here are the highlights:

• Homelessness: Newsom believes that the lack of housing built in the state is California’s “original sin.”
• President Trump: Newsom said “the Trump story is a corruption story,” describing the sweeping tariffs that Trump implemented last year as a scheme to enrich himself and his family. He also emphasized that the Trump presidency tested the bounds of the power of the president and opened up the door for the next president to take sweeping actions as well.
• LGBTQ Rights: Newsom detailed his role in the legalization of gay marriage as mayor of San Francisco, where he issued over 4,000 marriage licenses for same-sex couples before it was legal. In response to a question on Gino Bulso’s new bill that would reinforce private citizens’ ability to not recognize gay marriage, Newsom stated that “it’s America in reverse right now. You’re seeing it not just in Tennessee, you’re seeing it all over the country. These guys want to bring us back to a pre-1960s world.”
• Immigration: Newsom believes in reforming ICE, claiming “I believe [ICE] has an important mission if it provides the kind of public safety, as opposed to needing to have public safety police ICE as is the case today. But the reforms need to come.” He pointed to ICE anti-masking and ICE identification laws that have recently passed in California (and have since been blocked by federal judges) as steps towards reform.
• Abortion: Newsom expressed support for abortion to be made a right nationally.
• Assisted Suicide: Newsom shared the story of his mother undergoing a medically assisted suicide as she battled breast cancer, speaking of how in retrospect he thanked her for her decision because it allowed him to share her last moments with her. In regard to assisted suicide more broadly, Newsom explained, “you can moralize it or you can experience the lived reality.”

The remainder of Newsom’s book tour includes stops in Atlanta, South Carolina, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Many speculate that Newsom is utilizing this tour as an opportunity not just to promote his book, but to campaign for president.