Newsom Begins Red County Blitz In Fresno Unveiling New Job Creation Efforts

Governor Gavin Newsom began his first of a series of visits to areas of the state where a majority voted for President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday, hoping to win back voters in the area who have been disappointed with recent Democratic leadership over job creation and the economy.

While many Democratic lawmakers in California expected a swing against Trump and Republicans in the election earlier this month, the opposite happened. Trump, U.S. Senate candidate Steve Garvey and other Republicans had the highest GOP vote percentages for their respective positions in decades in the state, while also managing to not only keep some of the contested House seats in the state but also managing to flip Assembly seats for the first time in a Presidential election year since 1992. For Trump, he also managed to get majority totals back in numerous counties that went for Biden in 2020, including many Central California counties and Orange County.

Numerous factors pushed this Republican shift, including a concerted GOP registration effort and a swing in Latino voters, but for many, the economy and job creation worries spurred many Californians to vote Republican. Newsom, one of the largest critics of Trump, vowed after the election to “Trump-proof” California and has vowed to fight him and his administration while in office. However, with concerns lingering after the election over the role of Democratic leadership over the economy, Newsom opted to make his first visits to the red areas of the state after the election this week, beginning on Thursday in Fresno.

“A lot of people feel like they’re losing their identity or losing their future,” said the Governor on Wednesday. Message received. “My defense of President Biden’s economic record wasn’t landing. People are being left behind, their regions are being left behind. We as a party will be history if we don’t heed the call to address the economy.”

Wanting to counter the growing number of claims that Democratic leadership has been responsible for the worsening economy, as well as help jumpstart job growth in California, Newsom unveiled a California Jobs First Economic Blueprint on Thursday.

According to the Governor’s office, “The California Jobs First Economic Blueprint will guide the state’s investments in key sectors to drive sustainable economic growth, innovation, and access to good-paying jobs over the next decade. The complete Economic Blueprint will be released early next year, along with $120 million to support “ready-to-go” job-creating projects statewide within the next three years.”

Newsom in Fresno

The blueprint itself is to highlight workforce development and focus on four key areas:

• Strengthen: Tradable sectors where California has an established competitive position and/or significant employment, but where there is leveling growth or wages
• Accelerate: Tradable sectors with moderate to high projected growth that are ready for expansion, where additional investments (e.g., capital, infrastructure) could “bend the curve” to generate growth
• Bet: Emerging tradable sectors with significant investment or high strategic importance to the innovation ecosystem
• Anchor: Foundational local sectors that are critical for attracting and supporting industry and community activities

“Each region of California has its own strengths — we’re helping build out each local economy with a bottom-up approach that’ll connect more good-paying jobs with California families,” said Newsom. “From agriculture to clean energy to manufacturing and everything in between, these blueprints will foster growth and expansion throughout every community of California.

“It’s not about voters, I care about people. And there may be a lot of Trump supporters here, but that doesn’t matter, I’m going to still have their backs. They need us to have their backs, not turn our backs on them. California may be the largest economy in the U.S. but that’s cold comfort for certain regions in this state that don’t feel like they’re fully engaged in the prosperity that is the state. The economy is not one economy; it’s a network of regions.”

While the Blueprint will be released in full next year, along with $120 million to go towards job creating projects, his plan drew criticism on Thursday for not focusing on region strengths instead.

“A big problem with Newsom’s plan is that he doesn’t want to delve into industries that aren’t part of his overall plan,” explained manufacturing advisor Kay Fox to the Globe on Thursday. “California is big on transportation, but a lot of it is still focused on gas and diesel power, so those sectors are certain they won’t see job creation funds to help them grow. Same with companies that honestly do want to build or lease factories in California. But they don’t want to have unionized workers, so they feel ignored.

“He’s right in that California is a network of regions, and it is actually smart of him to promise jobs in areas like Fresno where it gets rural very fast outside the city. But they need to step back, see where the growth is coming from, then invest there. Oh, and the elephant in the room Democrats don’t like addressing – high taxes and a lot of business regulations. He is not saying anything about lowering taxes for businesses, he’s not addressing any concerns about all the regulations for businesses in California, and he isn’t listening to a lot of Californian business owners on what they need from the state. Not want from the state. Need. Businesses can’t afford more expensive electric powered vehicles. They are having trouble meeting regulations. And back to vehicles, they want to keep buying gas powered vehicles. They feel like the state not only doesn’t care about them, but that they are actively trying to hurt them.

“That’s what Newsom needs to address on this trip, but instead he is using the age-old tactic of saying ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ instead.”