Gov. Gavin Newsom Writing A Memoir – Building or Rebuilding His Image?

California Governor Gavin Newsom is currently working on a memoir, which is expected to come out sometime after the 2024 presidential election, according to his spokesman.

Speculation has been heavy in recent years that Newsom is contemplating a run for President. Prior to the 2024 election, Newsom had been such a likely candidate that he had to repeatedly deny he wanted to run in 2024. Even then, he continued actions that only presidential candidates usually do, like donating to out of state candidates and running multiple out of state ads attacking different polices. Analysts speculated that Newsom kept up the efforts to be the Democrats “reserve” candidate should anything happen to President Joe Biden rendering him no longer able to run for president.

With Biden the 2024 candidate, Newsom has since shifted, now eyeing 2028, a year where both the Republicans and Democrats would likely have open candidacies. In just the past year, Newsom has increased the number of actions that only Presidential candidates do. This has included giving multiple  interviews to major media outlets, a sudden uptick of international visits to Israel, China, and the Vatican to build up his foreign policy bona fides, buying up even more out of state ads, and even debating one of the top projected GOP candidates for 2028, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, in a special debate televised this past November. He has also done much to endear himself to Democrats as possible, attempting to be a main fixture on cable news channels defending different policies and coming out as a strong supporter of Biden’s.

However, on Thursday, Newsom gave his strongest evidence yet that he would be running for president. According to his spokesman Nathan Click, Newsom is writing a memoir, something that all major candidates in the past several decades have released before major runs for the office.

“The governor is writing a book, and he looks forward to sharing it whenever it is completed,” said Click on Thursday, not going into details as it is still currently being written.

Notable pre-election memoirs in the last few elections cycles includes John McCain’s memoir coming out a year before his 2000 presidential run, Barack Obama’s memoir coming out two years before his 2008 run for office, as well as memoirs of Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Ron DeSantis coming out before the most recent elections. Newsom’s memoir is expected to come out before the 2028 presidential election, placing his run roughly in the same time line as all other candidates who had memoirs come out before him.

Newsom’s third book

When it comes out, his memoir will be his third book. His first book, “Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government,” came out in 2013 and is based upon his experiences as Mayor of San Francisco. In it, Newsom explains how the average citizen can help reshape their government. His second book, “Ben and Emma’s Big Hit” is a children’s book that came out in 2021. The book is about dealing with dyslexia, and is based upon Newsom’s challenges with the disorder.

 But, as many analysts have said, a memoir  is a big change of gears, especially coming up before an election. They give the life story of a candidate to a wider audience and can show off all the high’s they have had in life and public office. And for Newsom, this would be a critical step before announcing his candidacy.

“Memoirs are what presidential candidates bank on today,” said Glenn Forbes, a literary consultant who has helped lawmakers write books in the past, to the Globe on Thursday. “Especially if they aren’t known, or are known but only within their state or so. Or they bust out older memoirs with some updated bits and go back into being rereleased. One of the two.”

“For publishing companies, they are guaranteed to make their money back on them, so they like to bring them out because it will be at least a small profit for them, even in today’s literary market. And for Newsom, it makes sense. The average American has, you know, heard his name at least, but they couldn’t tell you too much about him. He’s in the same corner as Obama was in 2006 or Harris in 2018. Name recognition, yes, but beyond that? Not too much.”

“Newsom will probably go deep into his childhood as his parents were divorced early on and he had a rich side of the family and a poor side. He also had dyslexia. From there it’s the winery business, then going into Government with the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco, becoming Mayor, moving up to Lt. Governor and then finally being Governor. I missed out on so much here, but that is his basic trajectory outline.”

“Memoirs often do bring up major negative incidents from their past, so he is going to nip any previous bad thing he did in the bud. If he’s running for president, he is going to want to set the record straight on every scandal he has had. That includes everything from his affairs to him going maskless at several events during the COVID pandemic. Every past scandal is a huge liability in a presidential run, and memoirs can defuse those scandals.

“Expect this to drop sometime in 2026, based on when previous recent memoirs came out, followed by a presidential run announcement soon afterwards. Potential candidates don’t just write memoirs in the midst of a growing election tide and don’t do anything with it.”