LOS ANGELES — If politicians write memoirs to generate online buzz and headlines, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is certainly getting plenty of both—favorable and not.
Just a few days into a national book tour, the two-term Democrat who is widely expected to seek the presidency in 2028 is facing criticism from conservatives who say some of his recent remarks were racist. Meanwhile, LGBTQ+ advocates are bristling at his calls for the Democratic Party to be more “culturally normal.”
Newsom’s kickoff swing for *Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery* comes as he seeks to position himself as the leading Democratic adversary to President Donald Trump and a capable player on the international stage. Released Tuesday, the book focuses heavily on a carefully crafted biography over policy and is designed to introduce Newsom to a national audience who may be unfamiliar with the former San Francisco mayor and lieutenant governor.
While it’s often argued that all publicity is good publicity, the six-city tour is also testing those limits as Newsom strives to shake off the image—fair or not—of a liberal elitist out of touch with Main Street.
A key piece of his narrative is his middling academic record and lifelong struggles with dyslexia, which Newsom highlights to create relatability with audiences. However, conservatives have seized on comments he made about those struggles during a Sunday conversation with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who is Black.
“I’m just trying to impress upon you: I’m like you, I’m no better than you, I’m a 960 SAT guy,” Newsom said, referring to a lower-than-average score on the commonly used college entrance exam.
Republicans accused Newsom of disparaging Black people by suggesting they weren’t smart, an assertion Newsom and his office forcefully denied.
“Black Americans aren’t your low bar,” South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, who is Black, wrote on social media. “We’ve built empires, created movements, outworked, outhustled and outsmarted people like you. Stop using your mediocre academics as a way to patronize communities. It’s ridiculous!”
Newsom’s office pushed back hard against another critic, Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, accusing him of being indifferent to racist remarks made by Trump and dismissing his comments as fake outrage.
“You’re going to call me racist for talking about my lifelong struggle with dyslexia?” Newsom wrote on X (formerly Twitter). His office also noted that the crowd, which can be heard laughing in the background, was racially diverse.
Mayor Dickens himself said critics were taking the comments out of context.
“That wasn’t an attack on anyone. It was a moment of vulnerability about his own journey,” the mayor wrote on Instagram. “We’ve gotten so used to loud, chest-pounding politics that when someone speaks about shortcomings, people try to twist it into something else.”
Other prominent Black Democrats also chimed in to defend Newsom.
The back-and-forth has put Newsom’s book tour in the national headlines for several days, a premium place to be in today’s fragmented political news landscape.
“At this early stage of the pre-presidential race, just about any publicity is good publicity,” said Republican strategist Mike Murphy. “To have the spotlight is invaluable. Newsom has a real knack for attracting all the right enemies if you are running for the Democratic presidential nomination.”
Newsom’s press office later taunted in a social media post that he was dominating news coverage on the same day as Trump’s State of the Union speech.
https://abcnews.com/Entertainment/wireStory/gov-gavin-newsom-takes-heat-republicans-lgbtq-lawmakers-130468057
