In Bluffton to stump for Biden, California’s governor woos independents. What he said
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, while speaking in Bluffton on Wednesday, presented a simple dichotomy between President Joe Biden and his likely opponent in this year’s election, former President Donald Trump. One wants to protect your rights, he explained, and the other wants to take them away.
After an introduction from South Carolina state Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, who called Newsom “a nice glass of tea,” Newsom addressed the crowd of about 300 people gathered at the 55-plus community of Sun City Hilton Head. “I’m old enough; I’m eligible to be your neighbor,” he said.
Newsom is on the campaign trail ahead of South Carolina’s Democratic primary Feb. 3. He also made stops in Sumter and Orangeburg on Wednesday.
He noted that his birth year, 1967, was the same year as Loving v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court case that said states could not ban interracial marriages.
“The year of my birth. In my lifetime. That wasn’t that long ago,” Newsom said. “But my entire life, our lives, have been about the expansion of rights. Decades and decades of nationalization of fundamental rights, fundamental freedoms.”
During the Trump presidency, that changed, he said. “We had rights expansion. Now, it’s rights regression.”
Mentioning South Carolina’s six-week abortion ban, Newsom listed the rights he says are at risk: voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, contraception.
Newsom told the crowd they should be proud of the work Biden has done in office.
He touted Biden’s unemployment rate as the lowest since the 1960s. He added that both the Black and Hispanic unemployment rates were the lowest in the country’s history.
“We’ve got a president that, just this week, was able to announce 14.3 million American jobs being created in three years,” Newsom said.
As Newsom implored the crowd to talk to the independents they know and to try and sway them to vote blue, a request the crowd seemed eager to indulge.
Robin Heath, 73, said she would use the unemployment stats to do so.
“I mean, those are things that are important, and I think independents need to recognize that in the first place,” Heath said.
After hearing Newsom, Heath said she was much more confident going into the election later this year. “He gave us some things we can really sink our teeth into, and we’re so proud he came here,” she said.
Eli Young said he was somewhat worried about the election because of the two very different directions the candidates are facing.
”Hopeful and nervous,” is how he described his feelings. “I’m hopeful that I think the people are going to do the right thing. I’m nervous because that inflection point, man. We’re on a seesaw, and it could go either way, I think.”
When asked why he would fly across the country to campaign for Biden, Newsom had a simple response: “Because they asked.”
He said, “The answer is yes. Any time Biden calls me for anything.”
When asked if he was hoping to make political connections in South Carolina ahead of a potential 2028 run for the White House, he said his motivation was only to support Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I’m serious. I’m here with an explicit purpose, and that’s to support two people I have known for years.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2024 at 4:10 PM.
