By admin 
Gov. Gavin Newsom will visit two Deep South states and North Carolina to meet with Black Democrats as the party looks to capitalize on public disapproval towards Republicans and the outgoing California governor is anticipated to run for president in 2028.
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Newsom will travel to Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina next week, where he is scheduled to visit a Civil Rights Era museum, meet with students at two historically Black colleges, and hold town halls and meetings with local and state leaders.
“Our rights, our freedoms, and our power are on the line,” Newsom said in a statement announcing the “Take It Back Tour,” where his campaign said he will connect recent court decisions weakening federal voting rights with the 1960s Civil Rights movement.
“We are watching generations of American progress be erased in real time,” he said, referencing an April Supreme Court decision that scaled back parts of the Voting Rights Act and one this week that allows a White House executive order curtailing mail-in voting to move forward while under court challenges.
“It’s the latest front in Trump’s broader assault: rig the maps, restrict the vote, dismantle civil rights, and drag America back toward a pre-1960s world,” Newsom said in the tour statement.
This is the second time this summer that Newsom, who is termed out of office, has traveled to other states. Last month, he went to Michigan and Nevada to campaign for Democrats there.
He has spent nearly 20% of his second term in other states, on par with other potential 2028 contenders like Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.
Newsom jokingly told reporters at a news conference Wednesday, “Wes is my friend until he’s not. …You never know with politicians. They get tough sometimes behind the scenes.”
He later demurred when asked if he would be willing to call a special legislative session if lawmakers don’t pass a comprehensive wildfire reform package before the current session ends next Monday.
“There’s a lot of time between now and four months at the end of the year,” he said, referring to when his term ends.
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Newsom, one of his party’s most prolific fundraisers, previously traveled to South Carolina in 2024 and 2025, which the Democratic National Convention rewarded as the first state in the 2028 primary calendar for its role helping rejuvenate President Joe Biden’s election prospects in 2020.
The Palmetto State, known as the “gateway to the South,” is considered vital for any Democrat to win support among Black voters, who are considered the party’s most reliable voting bloc, University of Baltimore College of Public Affairs dean Roger Hartley told The Sacramento Bee last year.
Black voters still prefer former Vice President Kamala Harris, another potential 2028 contender, over Newsom, according to an Emerson College poll from May.
The same poll put Newsom ahead of other potential Democratic rivals like New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, and former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Newsom is set to arrive on Sept. 2 in Montgomery, where he will first meet with Alabama Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton. Newsom will then meet with Montgomery Mayor Steve Reed, hold a town hall with students at Alabama State University, and tour the Legacy Museum with civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson.
He then will go to South Carolina on Sept. 3 and 4, where his campaign said he will focus on campaigning for down ballot candidates and meet at Allen University with state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, who is challenging Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson for governor.
The trip will end on Sept. 5 in North Carolina, where Newsom’s team said he will hold a rally and canvass with Democrats in Mecklenburg County.
The day before announcing his southern trip, Newsom sent his supporters a donation request on behalf of New Hampshire gubernatorial candidate Stefany Shaheen, a daughter of U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
“As you know, we have a chance to effectively end the Trump presidency in November — if the American people are given a fair chance to elect enough Democrats to take back Congress,” Newsom wrote. “And one of those races is Stefany’s. Hers is a district Trump only lost by 1 percent and New Hampshire is a state, recent polling has shown, Republicans making large gains.”
Read more Gavin Newsom to travel to Deep South on campaign, voting rights tour