(Headline USA) California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to run for president in 2024 if President Joe Biden decides not to seek reelection, according to sources close to the far-leftist Democrat.
“After this midterm election is over, he absolutely is going to announce that he is running for the presidency once Biden announces that he is not running,” a top California fundraiser close to the Newsom family told the Wrap. “No ifs, ands or buts. He will run if Biden does not.”
Newsom’s decision explains his recent efforts to grab national attention. For example, he paid millions of dollars for television advertisements in Florida this summer, and recently challenged Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, another potential 2024 contender, to a debate.
Newsom’s political ambitions also call into question Vice President Kamala Harris’s role. If Biden chooses not to run again, she would be the obvious next choice for Democrats. But a Los Angeles philanthropist who backed Harris’s presidential bid in 2020 said not everyone is on board with a Harris campaign.
Biden has thus far insisted that he will run again, but started to hedge that statement a bit in a recent interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes.
“Look, my intention, as I said to begin with, is that I would run again,” Biden said. “But it’s just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen.”
Newsom has also tried to deny that he plans to seek the presidency.
“I’ve tried to say, no, no way, in every way I possibly can!” he said in an interview in July. “I may need advice and counsel of what’s the language to express ‘absolutely no!’”
While at the White House, I asked @GavinNewsom about speculation he wants to one day move into the White House?
“I’ve tried to say, no way, in every way I possibly can!”
“I may need advice on what’s the language to express ‘absolutely no!’”
More: https://t.co/NwmZS8hmpE pic.twitter.com/Z0jysy4YvJ
— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) July 14, 2022
