2026-09-07T09:00:29.339Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/07/politics/gavin-newsoms-2028-south-carolina
南卡罗来纳州艾肯——
发胶基本扛住了低地区黏腻的汗水。
在已正式成为民主党总统初选第一州的南卡罗来纳州开展行程期间，加文·纽瑟姆承认，上周的此次出访确实是在为竞选活动试水。
“很明显，这是初选日程里的早期州，但说实话，我来这里之前就已经打定主意了，”这位加利福尼亚州州长在与当地选民会面后，于一个文化中心的员工厨房接受CNN采访时表示。“如果我否认2028年总统竞选是此次到访的考量因素，那就是在撒谎，”他坦言，但同时坚称，这只是他四年内第四次访问该州的动机之一，并非首要原因。
南卡罗来纳州民主党处境艰难，他们最大的抱负不过是赢得足够多的州议会席位，打破共和党在州议会的绝对多数优势。但纽瑟姆表示，他确实真心致力于该州的发展。他解释说，自己选择重返这里——2020年他曾在此为乔·拜登和卡玛拉·哈里斯助选，还带着自己的新书进行过巡回宣传——是因为他与该州民主党领导层建立了交情。例如，州民主党主席克里斯塔尔·斯佩恩选择在周四庆祝自己50岁生日，她特意开着面包车提前赶到纽瑟姆的小型车队停靠点，在活动上介绍纽瑟姆，并称赞他为该党总部筹集的37万美元资金“ literally helped them keep the lights on”（字面意思是“实实在在帮他们维持了运营”）。（纽瑟姆在其中一场活动上为她带去了皇冠造型的生日头饰和绶带，另一场活动则送上了拳击手套。）
当工作人员加装额外座椅，场地因从未有过如此规模的出席人数而温度升高时，这个与美国其他地区风格迥异的州，显然对这位来自加州的州长充满兴趣。但即便在此次访问之前，纽瑟姆的团队就已经清楚，如果他正式宣布参选总统（或是用一些助手口中的“下一件大事”来形容），他需要努力拉近与黑人选民的距离——在南卡罗来纳州，黑人选民通常占民主党初选选民的一半以上。
他表示，这也是他此次南部之行第一站就参观阿拉巴马州种族正义历史博物馆的原因，该博物馆就位于杰斐逊·戴维斯宣誓就任美利坚联盟国总统的州议会大厦街对面。这种充满诗意的对照很能吸引58岁的纽瑟姆。
“如果你是民主党人，你必须重返南部，必须与这个国家正在发生的一切建立联结，”他说。
对于民主党内部始终纠结于“是过多谈论总统的所作所为，还是对他谈得不够”的神经官能症式内耗，纽瑟姆试图打破这种两极对立：他先是谈到自己如何通过加州的报复性重划选区 ballot proposition（ ballot proposition此处指加州的全民公投提案）对抗特朗普，随后又指出这表明民主党如今需要换一种方式斗争。
在哈德维尔、圣赫勒拿岛、萨默维尔和西哥伦比亚的活动中，他面对的是一百多名大多为退休人员的 crowds（人群），其中夹杂着加州移民，这些地点都是州民主党领导人精心挑选的，旨在突破传统民主党人口聚集区的局限。纽瑟姆发表了一场对抗式的行动号召，抨击特朗普是“入侵物种”。
他以类似比尔·克林顿或巴拉克·奥巴马风格的即兴竞选演说，穿插着充满抱负的论调，讲述了一个历经磨难却韧性十足的国家。他表示，民主党乃至绝大多数美国人都需要一个拥抱，还在一场活动中主动拥抱了一位举着亮黄色“HOLD ME”（“抱抱我”）标语牌、让他能看到标语的年轻女性。他将特朗普对多元化、公平性和包容性举措的打压描述为反黑人行为，还称“我们所熟知的资本主义已经失灵”，但他的演讲重点是详细剖析美国人如何为特朗普的加密货币利润、卡塔尔赠予的总统专机升级等事件付出代价，时常引得现场观众倒吸冷气。
但在艾肯非裔美国人历史、艺术与文化中心，到场观众的构成格外引人注目。这座建筑建于19世纪末，最初用于教育黑人儿童，但当天纽瑟姆的听众大多是年长的白人。
“我刚才还在跟我妻子说——我们这是在哪儿？我们难道不再属于民主党了吗？”布拉德利·泰勒说道，他刚从萨凡纳河核废料处理场退休，在纽瑟姆发表讲话前正环顾四周寻找其他黑人与会者。泰勒表示，他本人对纽瑟姆并不十分信服，但对前交通部长皮特·布蒂吉格更感兴趣，因为后者“更有人情味”。
他的妻子杰奎琳·泰勒是一名注册护士，对这位加州州长态度更开放：“看到他怼特朗普——那真的让我很兴奋。”
听完纽瑟姆20分钟的演讲后，泰勒告诉CNN，她听了他关于加州重划选区的举措，以及他将其与民主党需要更广泛地“划清界限”、对抗共和党所作所为的论述后，深受鼓舞。
“我非常感谢他。如果你想搞选区操纵和作弊……那就必须以火攻火，”泰勒说。
她说，纽瑟姆让她想到能为孙子孙女们做些什么：一名靠开卡车谋生、苦于柴油价格高企的孙辈，还有一名参军的孙辈。
听了妻子的话，布拉德利·泰勒修正了自己最初的看法——“他基本上说出了我早就知道的事情”——并表示妻子说服了他。
“他说的话确实触动了我们，”85岁的州众议员比尔·克莱伯恩说道，他是该州权势显赫的国会议员吉姆·克莱伯恩的表亲，2020年正是吉姆·克莱伯恩助力拜登拿下了南卡罗来纳州的黑人选票。如果纽瑟姆参选总统，克莱伯恩补充道，“他的表现应该会符合预期。”
当被问及事实上人们对纽瑟姆在该州的表现有何期待时，克莱伯恩只是轻笑了一声，没有多做解释。
周五下午一小时车程外的西哥伦比亚，25岁的国会候选人齐恩·哈利法聆听了纽瑟姆的演讲，他喜欢这位年轻政治家充满活力地与选民互动的氛围，以及他明确谈及黑人成为 targeted（被针对）对象的方式。
“你听不到他试图刻意调整说话方式来迎合不同群体，”哈利法说。“他不会试图粉饰太平，不会用一种所有听众都能接受的方式表达，而是直截了当地说出正在发生的事情。”
和泰勒夫妇以及克莱伯恩一样，哈利法也和纽瑟姆合影留念。当被问及是否会将这张照片用于自己对抗共和党众议员乔·威尔逊的竞选活动时，他皱起脸承认，“可能不会。”
民主党州长候选人杰梅因·约翰逊则做出了不同的选择，他让纽瑟姆在周四晚上为自己的筹款活动打头阵，随后又于周五下午在哥伦比亚的历史黑人院校艾伦大学与他一同进行炉边谈话。到周五纽瑟姆在兰开斯特的最后一场活动时，现场黑人听众的比例明显更高。
“我不需要庞大的人群，不需要发表长篇大论。我喜欢这种联结，喜欢人与人之间的互动，喜欢这种细致入微的交流。我喜欢揣摩言外之意，喜欢和我们见面的这些小群体交流，”纽瑟姆在接受CNN采访时表示。“我从中学到了很多。”
顾问们表示，纽瑟姆对黑人选民的吸引力强弱，已经引发了一些内部讨论，他们正在审视潜在初选对手的黑人选民支持率，这些对手包括哈里斯，以及佐治亚州参议员乔恩·奥索夫——奥索夫的连任广告经常在该州边境的电视台播出。
纽瑟姆表示，他并不担心此次访问的观众构成，他解释说，有人告诉他，活动安排在工作日，这是导致观众结构的原因。
“你要是周末来，情况就完全不一样了，”他说。“顺便说一句，我们上次来这里时，观众几乎全是非裔美国人。”
周四下午的一场交通事故导致纽瑟姆在一间乡村大厅接待室的演讲推迟了一小时，州民主党主席斯佩恩为了拖延时间，邀请现场观众喊出他们希望哪位政客能到访该州。呼声最高的是奥索夫和布蒂吉格（布蒂吉格上个月刚到访过南卡罗来纳州），其次是亚利桑那州参议员马克·凯利——他曾到访该州，并将在劳动节周末的部分时间在新罕布什尔州开展竞选活动。当有人提议宾夕法尼亚州州长乔希·夏皮罗时，斯佩恩表示，她听说夏皮罗要到明年1月才会前来。还有人提到肯塔基州州长安迪·贝希尔，他将于10月初到访该州进行新书巡回宣传。
但观众们还是等待纽瑟姆出场，活动结束后还排队与他合影，一些人戴着盗版商贩售卖的5美元“纽瑟姆2028”徽章和30美元“加文2028”帽子，这些商贩全程跟着他跑遍了每一场活动。
“当然我会考虑所有选项，但我认为他是有竞争力的，”凯丽·惠特克说道，她刚退休，当时正戴着一顶印有纽瑟姆名字和加州熊标志的亮蓝色帽子与他合影。
绝大多数潜在的2028年总统候选人在竞选筹备期间都有本职工作。但纽瑟姆和布蒂吉格一样是个例外：明年1月，他将结束从旧金山监事、市长、副州长到州长的30年公职生涯，首次回归平民身份。正如他对CNN所说的，这意味着他必须开始为家人规划医疗保险，但同时也让他能够用像这样的活动填满自己的日程——在那些仅通过电视或社交媒体团队无休止地嘲讽特朗普而认识他的核心民主党人之外，建立更多人脉。
州参议员玛吉·布莱特·马修斯表示，亲眼见到纽瑟姆后，她的看法已经改变。
“我之前以为他不过是个光鲜亮丽的摆设，”她在杰斯帕县一间教堂会议室对观众说。“但我意识到他不只是个好看的面孔。他有魄力。”
扩大与特朗普的斗争
在移民管控、联邦化国民警卫队和选区重划问题上与特朗普对抗，让众多前来聆听演讲的民主党人记住了纽瑟姆。身处南卡罗来纳州，他提前透露了自己州长任期结束后将如何继续这场斗争。
当他回溯2025年6月深夜与总统的通话时，这一努力可见一斑——当时移民执法人员与洛杉矶的抗议者发生对峙。
纽瑟姆曾称总统是骗子，指责对方声称在通话中斥责了他。他在南卡罗来纳州多次讲述了自己版本的通话经过，在艾肯的演讲中阐述得最为详细。
纽瑟姆说，通话一开始，特朗普就提起了2024年与哈里斯的大选对决，声称自己赢了辩论，并辩称辩论“是一场四对一的围攻”，主持人、摄像师和哈里斯都在针对他。
白宫通讯主任史蒂文·张在被问及这一说法时，并未直接否认，而是通过电子邮件告诉CNN：“这里唯一的骗子是加文，他一直在搞砸自己的州，还在欺骗公众，而非帮助那些在他激进政策下受苦的加州民众。总统打电话给加文，是让他振作起来，但加文却可耻地站在了暴力抗议者一边，而非保护加州民众。他是彻头彻尾的失败者，每天都在自取其辱。”
纽瑟姆预料到了这样的回应，他表示，自己已经将通话的 contemporaneous notes（ contemporaneous notes此处指“ contemporaneous notes”即当时的通话记录）提交给了众议院监督委员会主席、肯塔基州众议员吉姆·科默，这些记录也是他针对福克斯新闻的诽谤诉讼的一部分，该诉讼目前已进入证据开示阶段，诉讼起因是福克斯新闻对此次通话的报道。福克斯新闻否认存在不当行为，并誓言将反驳这些指控。
“我会坚持到底，”纽瑟姆说。“他们想怎么说就怎么说。这些事实在法庭和国会中都有充分依据，没有人站出来反驳这些主张和事实。我可是在伪证处罚的前提下提供的这些证词。”
这位州长的一名助手拒绝向CNN提供通话记录的副本。科默也未回应置评请求。
但他将注意力重新放回南卡罗来纳州，尽管有少数抗议者在部分活动现场懒散地举着标语牌，比如“找错了树”（“Barking up the Wrong Palmetto Tree”，南卡罗来纳州州树为美洲蒲葵）和“祝你好运，加文”（“Bless Your Heart, Gavin”），还有共和党州长候选人艾伦·威尔逊在纽瑟姆到访前发布帖文“别让加州毁了我的南卡罗来纳”（“Don’t California My South Carolina”）。
当被CNN追问回应时，纽瑟姆试图将自己的州长政绩与攻击特朗普的言论结合起来，这可能也是他如果再次到访南卡罗来纳州推进竞选活动时，更具体、更具前瞻性的竞选主张的一部分。
“最低工资、全民医保、补贴 childcare（儿童保育）、降低处方药成本、确保家庭得到支持或获得医疗补助——据（威尔逊）所说，这些政策都不得人心，这可真是有点意思，”他讽刺地说道。
CNN记者安妮·格雷尔对本文亦有贡献。
Gavin Newsom stumps for South Carolina Democrats — and a possible 2028 bid
2026-09-07T09:00:29.339Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/07/politics/gavin-newsoms-2028-south-carolina
Aiken, South Carolina—
The hair gel mostly withstood the Low Country’s sticky sweat.
Between events in South Carolina, now fully enshrined as Democrats’ first presidential primary state, Gavin Newsom acknowledged last week’s trip was indeed part of feeling out a campaign.
“Obviously, it’s an early calendar state, but, you know, my state of mind was here before,” the California governor told CNN during an interview in the staff kitchen of a cultural center after his session with voters here. “I’d be lying,” he admitted, if he denied 2028 was a factor in the visit but insisted it was further down the list of motivations for his fourth trip to the state in as many years.
South Carolina Democrats are in such rough shape that their big aspiration is just winning enough statehouse seats to break the GOP supermajority. But Newsom said he’s truly committed to the state, explaining that he chose to come back to where he campaigned for both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and traveled on his book tour, because of the relationships he’s cultivated with state party leadership. Chair Christale Spain, for example, chose to celebrate her 50th birthday on Thursday by driving in a van ahead of Newsom’s small motorcade to introduce him at events and touted the $370,000 he’s raised as having literally helped them keep the lights on at party headquarters. (Newsom arrived with a present of a tiara and a birthday sash for her at one stop, and boxing gloves at another.)
As staffers set up extra chairs and the temperature rose in rooms not used to that kind of turnout, there was clearly interest in a very California governor in this very different part of the country. But even before this trip, Newsom’s team already knew that he would have work to do connecting with Black voters — who tend to make up over half of the Democratic primary electorate in South Carolina — if he goes forward with a presidential run (or, what some aides have taken to calling “the next thing”).
He says that’s part of why he started his Southern swing touring the racial injustice Legacy Museum in Alabama, just down the street from the state capitol where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederacy. It’s the kind of poetic juxtaposition that tends to grab the 58-year-old.
“If you’re a Democrat, you’ve got to come back to the South, you’ve got to connect with what’s going on in this country,” he said.
For a party in a never-ending neurotic twist over whether they’re talking too much about what the president is doing or not talking about him enough, Newsom is trying to straddle the continental divide: by segueing from recounting how he fought back against Trump through California’s retaliatory redistricting ballot proposition into how that showed him Democrats need to fight differently now.
In front of crowds of over a hundred mostly retirees, peppered with California transplants, each in Hardeeville and St. Helena Island, in Summerville and West Columbia — all spots picked by state Democratic Party leaders because they’re trying to scratch out wins far from the traditional Democratic population centers — Newsom delivered a confrontation call to action against the “invasive species” of Trump.
In a free-associating stump riff that carried aspirational notes in the style of Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, he told a story of a country battered but resilient. Democrats, and really most Americans, he said, need a hug, giving one to a younger woman in one audience who held a bright yellow “HOLD ME” sign for Newsom to see. He described Trump’s crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as anti-Black and how “capitalism as we know it isn’t working,” but mostly focused on ticking through detailed breakdowns of how he said Americans are paying the price for Trump’s crypto-coin profits and upgrades to the Qatari-gifted jet and more, often eliciting gasps from audiences.
But who was and wasn’t in those crowds was hard to miss at Aiken’s Center for African American History, Art and Culture, in a building constructed in the late 1800s to educate Black children, but where the audience for Newsom was predominantly older and White.
“I was saying to my wife—where are we? Are we not part of the Democratic Party anymore?” said Bradley Taylor, recently retired from the Savannah River nuclear waste site, looking around for other Black attendees ahead of Newsom’s remarks. Taylor said he wasn’t convinced about Newsom but has his eyes on former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for his “human connection.”
His wife Jacqueline Taylor, a registered nurse, was more open to the California governor: “Watching him troll Trump — that kind of turns me on.”
After listening to Newsom’s 20-minute routine, Taylor told CNN she felt inspired hearing about California’s redistricting effort, and the way he tied it to Democrats more broadly needing to “draw the line” in what they’ll allow Republicans to do.
“I am so thankful for him. If you want to gerrymander and cheat… you’ve got to fight fire with fire,” Taylor said.
She said Newsom made her think of what could be done to help her grandchildren: a truck driver trying to make a living with diesel costs high, another in the Army.
Listening, her husband amended his initial reaction — “He pretty much said everything I already knew”— to say his wife convinced him.
“He’s just saying things that touch us,” said Bill Clyburn, the 85-year-old longtime state representative and a cousin of the state’s power broker congressman, Jim, who helped deliver the Black vote in South Carolina for Biden in 2020. If Newsom runs for president, Clyburn added, “He can do about as well as expected.”
Asked what, in fact, would be expected of Newsom’s performance in the state, Clyburn left his comment at a small chuckle.
An hour away on Friday afternoon, 25-year-old congressional candidate Zyon Khalifa listened to Newsom’s rundown in West Columbia, liking the feel of a younger politician energetically working a room, and the way he talked explicitly about Black people being targeted.
“You don’t hear him trying to code-switch,” Khalifa said. “Instead of trying to sugarcoat it, say it in some way that all audiences would be OK with, he’s just saying what’s happening.”
Khalifa, like the Taylors and Clyburn, took a photo with Newsom. Asked if he would use that in his campaign against Republican Rep. Joe Wilson, he scrunched up his face and admitted, “probably not.”
Jermaine Johnson, the Democratic nominee for governor, made the opposite calculation, having Newsom headline a fundraiser for him on Thursday evening and then join him for a fireside chat at the historically Black Allen University in Columbia on Friday afternoon. By Newsom’s last event on Friday in Lancaster, a higher proportion of Black faces were in the seats.
“I don’t need big crowds, I don’t need to give a speech. I love this connection, I love the human connection, I love the granularity. I like reading between the lines, I like these small groups of people that we’re meeting,” Newsom told CNN. “I learn a lot.”
The strength of Newsom’s appeal to Black voters is already driving some internal deliberations, advisers say, as they look at Black support among potential primary opponents ranging from Harris to Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, whose reelection ads often get played on airwaves over the state border.
Newsom said he wasn’t worried about the crowd makeup this visit, explaining that he’d been told that was the downside of scheduling events while many people are working.
“You come on the weekends, completely different,” he said. “By the way, last time we were here was almost exclusively African-American audience.”
When a traffic accident Thursday afternoon delayed Newsom’s remarks in a country hall reception room by an hour, Spain, the state party chair, vamping for time, asked people to shout out which other politicians they’d like to see come through. Ossoff and Buttigieg, who was in South Carolina last month, followed by Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who’s been through and is spending part of Labor Day weekend campaigning in New Hampshire. When another suggested Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, she said she’d been told he wouldn’t come until January. Another mentioned Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who’ll be in the state in early October for his book tour.
But they waited for Newsom, and lined up for photos after, some in the $5 “Newsom 2028” buttons and $30 “Gavin 2028” hats sold by bootleg vendors who followed him around to every stop.
“Of course I’d look at all the options, but I think he’s viable,” said Keri Whitaker, a recent retiree, after posing for a photo with Newsom in one of the bright blue caps bearing his name and the California bear.
Most potential 2028 candidates will have a day job during the run-up to the election. But Newsom — like Buttigieg — is an exception: Come January, he’ll be out of office for the first time in a 30-year run from San Francisco supervisor to mayor to lieutenant governor to governor. While that means, as he noted to CNN, that he’s had to start figuring out health insurance for his family, it also could allow him to fill his weeks with events like these —building connections beyond core Democrats who already know him from TV or his social media team’s endless mockery of Trump.
State Sen. Margie Bright Matthews said seeing him in person has already surprised her.
“I thought he was just a tall glass of sweet tea,” she told the crowd in a church meeting room in Jasper County. “I realized he’s more than just a good-looking face. He’s got moxie.”
Expanding his battle with Trump
Taking on Trump over the immigration crackdown, federalizing the National Guard and redistricting is what put Newsom on the minds of so many of the Democrats who turned out to see him. Sitting in South Carolina, he previewed how he’s going to keep that going once his time as governor is up.
That effort was on display as he delved back into his late-night June 2025 phone call with the president as immigration enforcement officers faced off with protesters in Los Angeles.
Newsom has called the president a liar for claiming to have berated him in the conversation, and he retold his version of the story several times in South Carolina, most extensively in Aiken.
The call began with Trump bringing up the 2024 race against Harris, Newsom said, claiming to have won their debate and arguing that “it was a four against one” set-up with the hosts, cameramen and Harris set against Trump.
Presented with this account, White House communications director Steven Cheung did not directly dispute it, but told CNN via email: “The only liar here is Gavin who continues to fail his state and gaslight the public instead of helping his state that is suffering under his radical policies. The president called Gavin Newsom to tell him to get his ass in gear, but Gavin decided to disgustingly side with the violent rioters instead of protecting Californians. He is a loser of the highest order and continues to beclown himself on a daily basis.”
Newsom, anticipating such a response, said that he has already submitted his contemporaneous notes of the call to House Oversight Committee chair Rep. Jim Comer of Kentucky, and they’re also part of his defamation lawsuit against Fox News, now entering the discovery phase, regarding the outlet’s coverage of the phone call. Fox has denied wrongdoing and vowed to fight the allegations.
“I’m in this for the long haul,” Newsom said. “They can say whatever they want. These facts are well established in the court of law and in Congress, and not a word has been said to refute those assertions and facts. And I’ve done them on the penalty of perjury.”
An aide to the governor declined to provide a copy of the notes to CNN. Comer did not respond to a request for comment.
But he kept his focus on South Carolina, even as a few protesters showed up at some of the stops to lackadaisically hold up signs like “Barking up the Wrong Palmetto Tree” and “Bless Your Heart, Gavin,” or GOP gubernatorial nominee Alan Wilson posting “Don’t California My South Carolina” ahead of his arrival.
Pressed by CNN to respond, Newsom tried to weave his record as governor and attacking Trump together with some of what will likely be his more specific, forward-looking pitch if he’s back in South Carolina for the next phase of a campaign.
“Minimum wage, universal health care, subsidized childcare, lowering cost of prescription drugs, making sure families are supported or getting Medicaid — I imagine those are not popular, according to (Wilson), which is kind of remarkable,” he said sarcastically.
CNN’s Annie Grayer contributed to this report.