1. Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California.
143 Facts About Gavin Newsom
1. 2.
Gavin Newsom grew to manage 23 businesses, including wineries, restaurants, and hotels.
3.
Gavin Newsom began his political career in 1996, when San Francisco mayor Willie Brown appointed him to the city's Parking and Traffic Commission.
4.
Brown then appointed Gavin Newsom to fill a vacancy on the Board of Supervisors the next year and Gavin Newsom was first elected to the board in 1998.
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Gavin Newsom was elected mayor of San Francisco in 2003 and reelected in 2007.
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Gavin Newsom was elected lieutenant governor of California in 2010 and reelected in 2014.
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Gavin Newsom's maternal great-grandfather Thomas Addis was a pioneering nephrologist and professor of medicine at Stanford University noted for his groundbreaking research on kidney disease.
8.
Gavin Newsom's parents divorced in 1971 when he was three years old, leaving his mother, Tessa, to raise him and his younger sister, Hilary Gavin Newsom Callan, largely on her own.
9.
Gavin Newsom has called his childhood challenging, shaped in part by financial instability and his struggle with "pretty severe" dyslexia, a condition he still has.
10.
Gavin Newsom's education began at Ecole Notre Dame des Victoires, a French-American bilingual Catholic school in San Francisco that he attended for kindergarten and first grade.
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Gavin Newsom continued at Notre Dame des Victoires from third through fifth grades, where he was enrolled in remedial reading classes to cope with his learning difficulties.
12.
Gavin Newsom still prefers audio interpretations of documents and reports.
13.
Gavin Newsom played basketball as a shooting guard and baseball as an outfielder, earning recognition on the cover of the Marin Independent Journal for his skills.
14.
Tessa opened their home to foster children, a practice that Gavin Newsom has said instilled in him a lifelong commitment to public service.
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Gavin Newsom enrolled at Santa Clara University on a partial baseball scholarship, graduating in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science in political science.
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Gavin Newsom has credited the university's Jesuit education with fostering his independent thinking and skepticism of conventional wisdom.
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Gavin Newsom's investments included five restaurants and two retail clothing stores.
18.
Gavin Newsom sold his share of his San Francisco businesses when he became mayor in 2004.
19.
Gavin Newsom maintained his ownership in the PlumpJack companies outside San Francisco, including the PlumpJack Winery in Oakville, California, new PlumpJack-owned Cade Winery in Angwin, California, and the PlumpJack Squaw Valley Inn.
20.
Gavin Newsom is the president in absentia of Airelle Wines Inc.
21.
Gavin Newsom earned between $141,000 and $251,000 in 2007 from his business interests.
22.
Gavin Newsom was sworn in by his father and pledged to bring his business experience to the board.
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Gavin Newsom described himself as a "social liberal and a fiscal watchdog".
24.
Gavin Newsom was elected to a full four-year term to the board in 1998.
25.
Gavin Newsom was reelected in 2000 and 2002 to represent the second district, which includes Pacific Heights, the Marina, Cow Hollow, Sea Cliff and Laurel Heights, which had San Francisco's highest income level and highest Republican registration.
26.
Gavin Newsom paid $500 to the San Francisco Republican Party to appear on the party's endorsement slate in 2000 while running for Supervisor.
27.
Gavin Newsom was one of two supervisors endorsed by Rescue Muni, a transit riders group, in his 1998 reelection.
28.
Gavin Newsom sponsored Proposition B to require Muni and other city departments to develop detailed customer service plans.
29.
Gavin Newsom sponsored a ballot measure from Rescue Muni; a version of the measure was approved by voters in November 1999.
30.
Gavin Newsom supported allowing restaurants to serve alcohol at their outdoor tables, banning tobacco advertisements visible from the streets, stiffer penalties for landlords who run afoul of rent-control laws, and a resolution, which was defeated, to commend Colin Powell for raising money for youth programs.
31.
Gavin Newsom supported HOPE, a failed local ballot measure that would have allowed an increased condo-conversion rate if a certain percentage of tenants within a building were buying their units.
32.
Gavin Newsom's signature achievement as a supervisor was a voter initiative called Care Not Cash, which offered care, supportive housing, drug treatment, and help from behavioral health specialists for the homeless in lieu of direct cash aid from the state's general assistance program.
33.
Gavin Newsom placed first in the November 4,2003, general election in a nine-person field.
34.
The race was partisan, with attacks against Gonzalez for his support of Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential election, and attacks against Gavin Newsom for contributing $500 to a Republican slate mailer in 2000 that endorsed issues Gavin Newsom supported.
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Gavin Newsom ran as a business-friendly centrist Democrat and a moderate in San Francisco politics.
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Gavin Newsom claimed he was a centrist in the Dianne Feinstein mold.
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Gavin Newsom ran on the slogan "great cities, great ideas", and presented over 21 policy papers.
38.
Gavin Newsom pledged to continue working on San Francisco's homelessness issue.
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Gavin Newsom called for unity among the city's political factions, and promised to address the issues of public schools, potholes and affordable housing.
40.
Gavin Newsom said he was "a different kind of leader" who "isn't afraid to solve even the toughest problems".
41.
The San Francisco Chronicle declared in August 2007 that Gavin Newsom faced no "serious threat to his re-election bid", having raised $1.6 million for his reelection campaign by early August.
42.
Gavin Newsom vowed that the city would boycott the hotels by not sponsoring city events at them until they agreed to a contract with workers.
43.
In 2005, Gavin Newsom pushed for a state law to allow California communities to create policy restricting certain breeds of dogs.
44.
Gavin Newsom came under attack from the San Francisco Democratic Party in 2009 for his failure to implement the City of San Francisco's sanctuary city rule, under which the city was to not assist US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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Gavin Newsom hosted the Urban-Rural Roundtable in 2008 to explore ways to promote regional food development and increased access to healthy, affordable food.
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Gavin Newsom secured $8 million in federal and local funds for the Better Streets program, which ensures that public health perspectives are fully integrated into urban planning processes.
47.
Gavin Newsom signed a menu-labeling bill into law, requiring that chain restaurants print nutrition information on their menus.
48.
Gavin Newsom was named "America's Most Social Mayor" in 2010 by Same Point, based on analysis of the social media profiles of mayors of the 100 largest US cities.
49.
Still, Gavin Newsom's unexpected move brought national attention to the issue of same-sex marriage, solidifying political support for him in San Francisco and in the LGBTQ+ community.
50.
Gavin Newsom filed initial paperwork to run for lieutenant governor in February 2010, and officially announced his candidacy in March.
51.
Gavin Newsom was sworn in as lieutenant governor on January 10,2011, and served under Governor Jerry Brown.
52.
Gavin Newsom supported a failed measure in 2012 that sought to end capital punishment in California.
53.
Gavin Newsom claimed the initiative would save California millions of dollars, citing statistics that California had spent $5 billion since 1978 to execute just 13 people.
54.
In 2016, Gavin Newsom supported Proposition 62, which would have repealed the death penalty in California.
55.
In 2014, Gavin Newsom was the only statewide politician to endorse California Proposition 47, legislation that recategorized certain nonviolent offenses like drug and property crimes as misdemeanors as opposed to felonies.
56.
In July 2015, Gavin Newsom released the Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy's final report, which he had convened with the American Civil Liberties Union of California in 2013.
57.
Gavin Newsom supported the resulting measure, Proposition 64, which legalized cannabis use and cultivation for California state residents who are 21 or older.
58.
On February 24,2017, in response to pro-enforcement statements by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Gavin Newsom sent Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Donald Trump a letter urging them not to increase federal enforcement against recreational cannabis firms opening in California.
59.
Gavin Newsom joined Long Beach City College Superintendent Eloy Oakley in a November 2015 op-ed calling for the creation of the California College Promise, which would create partnerships between public schools, public universities, and employers and offer a free community college education.
60.
In June 2016, Gavin Newsom helped secure $15 million in the state budget to support the creation of promise programs throughout the state.
61.
In December 2015, Gavin Newsom called on the University of California to reclassify computer science courses as a core academic class to incentivize more high schools to offer computer science curricula.
62.
Gavin Newsom sponsored successful legislation signed by Governor Brown in September 2016, that began the planning process for expanding computer science education to all state students, beginning as early as kindergarten.
63.
In 2016, Gavin Newsom passed a series of reforms at the University of California to give student-athletes additional academic and injury-related support, and to ensure that contracts for athletic directors and coaches emphasized academic progress.
64.
Gavin Newsom released his first book, Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government, on February 7,2013.
65.
In 2015, Gavin Newsom partnered with the Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy at California Polytechnic State University to launch Digital Democracy, an online tool that uses facial and voice recognition to enable users to navigate California legislative proceedings.
66.
Gavin Newsom named state senator Alex Padilla to chair his campaign.
67.
On February 11,2015, Gavin Newsom announced that he was opening a campaign account for governor in the 2018 elections, allowing him to raise funds for a campaign to succeed Brown as governor of California.
68.
Feinstein died in September 2023, and Gavin Newsom faced pressure to quickly appoint a successor.
69.
Gavin Newsom fulfilled his promise and appointed Laphonza Butler to the seat.
70.
On March 13,2019, three years after voters narrowly rejected its repeal, Gavin Newsom declared a moratorium on the state's death penalty, preventing any execution in the state as long as he remained governor.
71.
In January 2022, Gavin Newsom directed the state to begin dismantling its death row in San Quentin, to be transformed into a "space for rehabilitation programs", as all the condemned inmates are moving to other prisons that have maximum security facilities.
72.
Gavin Newsom pardoned three men who were attempting to avoid being deported to Cambodia or Vietnam in November 2019.
73.
In December 2019, Gavin Newsom granted parole to a Cambodian refugee who had been held in a California prison due to a murder case.
74.
On January 13,2022, Newsom denied parole to Sirhan Sirhan, Robert F Kennedy's assassin, who had been recommended for parole by a parole board after serving 53 years in prison.
75.
Gavin Newsom has spoken in favor of Assembly Bill 1196, which would ban carotid artery restraints and choke holds in California.
76.
In September 2021, Gavin Newsom signed legislation raising the minimum age to become a police officer from 18 to 21.
77.
In September 2020, Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill allowing California transgender inmates to be placed in prisons that correspond with their gender identity.
78.
Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on March 4,2020, after the first death in California attributable to the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease.
79.
Gavin Newsom's stated intention was to help California prepare for and contain COVID-19's spread.
80.
Gavin Newsom announced that mitigation policies for the state's estimated 108,000 unsheltered homeless people would be prioritized, with a significant push to move them indoors.
81.
Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that allowed the state to commandeer hotels and medical facilities to treat COVID-19 patients and permitted government officials to hold teleconferences in private without violating open meeting laws.
82.
Gavin Newsom directed local school districts to make their own decisions on school closures, but used an executive order to ensure students' needs would be met whether or not their school was physically open.
83.
Gavin Newsom called on bars and brewery and winery tasting rooms to close their doors to patrons.
84.
Gavin Newsom asked restaurants to stop serving meals inside their establishments and offer take-out meals only.
85.
Gavin Newsom provided state funds to pay for protective measures such as hotel room lodging for hospital and other essential workers fearing returning home and infecting family members.
86.
Under pressure, Gavin Newsom delegated more decision-making on reopening to the local level.
87.
In January 2021, the Los Angeles Times reported that Gavin Newsom's administration had mismanaged $11.4 billion by disbursing unemployment benefits to ineligible claimants, especially those paid through the federally funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
88.
In September 2019, Gavin Newsom vetoed SB 1, which would have preserved environmental protections at the state level that were set to roll back nationally under the Trump administration's environmental policy.
89.
Gavin Newsom attended the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, where he spoke of California as a climate leader due to the actions of governors before him.
90.
Gavin Newsom's speech mentioned climate change and the wildfires prevalent in California at the time.
91.
On September 23,2020, Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to phase out sales of gasoline-powered vehicles and require all new passenger vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emission by 2035.
92.
Gavin Newsom attributed this to corporate greed and price gouging by oil companies.
93.
Gavin Newsom proposed a windfall profits tax and penalty for oil companies in September 2022.
94.
On March 28,2023, Gavin Newsom signed a law that authorizes the California Energy Commission to set "a profit threshold above which companies would be assessed a financial penalty", requires petroleum companies to report additional profit data to state regulators, and creates a new oversight division of the California Energy Commission to investigate price gouging in the gasoline industry.
95.
Siebel Gavin Newsom received $2.3 million in salary from the nonprofit since launching it in 2011.
96.
In 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom said that he saw no conflict in his wife's nonprofit accepting donations from companies that lobby his administration.
97.
In February 2024, Bloomberg News reported that Gavin Newsom pushed for an exemption for businesses that bake and sell bread in AB 1228, a bill that raises the state's minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour.
98.
In September 2024, the Los Angeles Times reported that Gavin Newsom had signed AB 3206 into law, carving out an exception to the state's last call alcohol law for one specific venue, Intuit Dome, owned by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
99.
Gavin Newsom's vetoes have included bills to allow ranked-choice voting, require an ethnic studies class as a high school graduation requirement, and reduce penalties for jaywalking.
100.
Gavin Newsom used a larger than normal number of executive orders during the 2020 legislative session.
101.
On June 10,2021, Gavin Newsom called federal Judge Roger Benitez "a stone cold ideologue" and "a wholly owned subsidiary of the gun lobby of the National Rifle Association" after Benitez struck down California's statewide ban on assault weapons.
102.
In 2022, Gavin Newsom signed gun control bills passed by the California Legislature.
103.
On June 8,2023, Gavin Newsom proposed a 28th amendment to the US Constitution to raise the age to buy firearms to 21, institute universal background checks for gun purchases, mandate waiting periods and ban assault weapons for civilians.
104.
In December 2021, Gavin Newsom announced his intention to make California a "sanctuary" for abortion, which included possibly paying for procedures, travel, and lodging for out-of-state abortion seekers, if the procedure is banned in Republican-led states.
105.
In February 2023, Gavin Newsom organized the Reproductive Freedom Alliance of state governors supportive of abortion and reproductive rights.
106.
Gavin Newsom indicated that he wanted to cancel Walgreens' $54 million contract with the California state prison system.
107.
Gavin Newsom campaigned on reducing the cost of health care and increasing access.
108.
Gavin Newsom indicated his support for creating a universal state health-care system.
109.
In 2021, Gavin Newsom signed legislation expanding Medi-Cal eligibility to undocumented residents over age 50.
110.
Gavin Newsom was criticized in early 2022 for walking back from his support for universal health care and not supporting Assembly Bill 1400, which would have instituted single-payer health care in California; critics suggested that opposition from business interests, which had donated large sums to Gavin Newsom and his party, had swayed his opinion.
111.
In October 2023, Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill to cap co-pays for diabetic insulin at $35.
112.
Gavin Newsom opposes NIMBY sentiment, declaring in 2022 that "NIMBYism is destroying the state".
113.
Gavin Newsom signed a bill which expedites the environmental review process for new multifamily developments worth at least $15,000,000.
114.
In 2022, Gavin Newsom signed 39 bills into law intended to address California's housing crisis, three of which entailed major land use reform.
115.
In October 2023, Gavin Newsom vetoed several bills aimed at expanding access to housing assistance.
116.
One was a bill to repurpose unused state-owned land for affordable housing, which Gavin Newsom said infringed on state sovereignty.
117.
Gavin Newsom issued this warning after personally visiting and clearing out a Los Angeles homeless encampment without notifying the city beforehand.
118.
In September 2022, Gavin Newsom made California the first sanctuary state for transgender youth, proclaimed June 2023 LGBTQ+ Pride Month in California, and issued a fine of $1.5 million to a school district whose board rejected a curriculum including a biography of Harvey Milk, a Californian gay rights leader.
119.
In 2024, Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that prohibits schools from notifying parents about a minor student's gender identity without the student's consent.
120.
In October 2023, Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill to ban discrimination based on caste, calling it "unnecessary".
121.
In October 2023, Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill to provide unemployment insurance to striking workers, citing excess burden on the state's unemployment system.
122.
Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill to expand the mandatory warning given to soon to be laid off employees from 60 days to 75, extend the same protections to long-term contract workers, and prohibit employers from making laid-off employees sign nondisclosure agreements in order to receive severance.
123.
Gavin Newsom was concerned about the tens of thousands of Salvadorans who were fleeing the smallest country in Central America for the US each year.
124.
Gavin Newsom said he wanted to "ignite a more enlightened engagement and dialogue".
125.
On October 20,2023, Gavin Newsom visited Israel to express solidarity with the country during the Gaza war.
126.
Gavin Newsom met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli president Isaac Herzog, other top Israeli officials, and survivors of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
127.
In October 2023, Gavin Newsom embarked on a week-long visit to China.
128.
Gavin Newsom then traveled to Beijing, where he met with Chinese president Xi Jinping, discussing issues including climate change, trade relations, and the response to fentanyl production.
129.
Gavin Newsom called for better relations between the US and China during the trip, saying that "divorce is not an option" for the two countries.
130.
In September 2022, Gavin Newsom said that he would not run for president in 2024, citing his "vulnerable" 2021 recall.
131.
Gavin Newsom has become an outspoken critic of the policies of Florida governor Ron DeSantis, denouncing DeSantis's orchestration of the Martha's Vineyard migrant airlift.
132.
DeSantis responded by saying California has "huge problems" and dared Gavin Newsom to run against Biden.
133.
In December 2024, Gavin Newsom criticized Biden for pardoning his son Hunter Biden.
134.
Gavin Newsom was baptized and raised in his father's Catholic faith.
135.
Gavin Newsom said he stays with the Church because of his "strong connection to a greater purpose, and to sort of a higher being".
136.
Gavin Newsom identifies as a practicing Catholic, saying in 2008 that he has a "strong sense of faith that is perennial, day in and day out".
137.
In December 2001, Gavin Newsom married legal commentator Kimberly Guilfoyle at Saint Ignatius Catholic Church.
138.
Gavin Newsom was later named senior advisor to Republican president Donald Trump, whom Newsom has extensively criticized, and was later engaged to Donald Trump Jr.
139.
Gavin Newsom admitted to the affair the next day and apologized to the public, saying he was "deeply sorry" for his "personal lapse of judgment".
140.
Gavin Newsom began dating film director Jennifer Siebel in October 2006.
141.
Gavin Newsom announced he would seek treatment for alcohol use disorder in February 2007.
142.
Gavin Newsom had originally put the property up for sale in early 2019 for $5.895 million, but removed the property from the market after a price reduction to $5.695 million.
143.
In 2023, Gavin Newsom launched Campaign for Democracy, a PAC to take on "authoritarian leaders" in the US It is thought to be a starting point for a possible 2028 presidential bid.