In the race to become governor of the nation’s most populous state, a place that has become synonymous with liberal resistance to Donald Trump, the president has seemed ever-present. The Democratic front-runner in Tuesday’s primary, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, has campaigned with a promise of fierce combat against a president widely unpopular here. …
His expected victory Tuesday, if confirmed in November, would return Newsom to national prominence in a different form, aligned with a party whose activists have grown far more liberal in the intervening years. The winner also will ascend to one of the few roles in American politics with the prestige to act as a counterweight to the presidency, as Brown and his predecessor, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, proved, and instantly be a player in the 2020 presidential race. CONT.
Scott Wilson, Washington Post