There are few politicians in America on a better recent run than Gavin Newsom. The term-limited California governor, polling at the top of the pack for the 2028 presidential election, has spent the second Trump term as the face of the liberal resistance. Countering Texas, he successfully orchestrated a statewide referendum overturning California’s independent redistricting, allowing Democrats there to gerrymander new House seats. Now his memoir arrives, with an enviable media geyser: a full Vogue spread photographed by Annie Leibovitz, along with lengthy features in The New Yorker and the New York Times. Come election season, he’s primed to be a fundraising juggernaut.

The nagging question for Newsom is whether he’s peaking too soon. When it comes to presidential primaries, there are at least two schools of thought — two potential realities — that could offer conflicting answers. If Newsom can continue to rise in the polls and build out a formidable lead, he could be well on his way to the 2028 Democratic nomination. Consider Hillary Clinton in 2016. She carried baggage into the primaries but was able to build up a lead she never relinquished. A surging Bernie Sanders could never break through the wall Clinton had built up in delegate-rich states like New York, California, and Pennsylvania.

Newsom could follow a........

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