SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There was little daylight between Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden during his visit to Northern California this week.
Newsom was by the president’s side from the moment he stepped off Air Force One on Monday. He joined Biden for a climate announcement Monday in Palo Alto, took part in the president’s artificial intelligence roundtable Tuesday in San Francisco and then co-hosted a fundraiser for the president in Marin County.
“There is no better partner in the fight against climate change than President Biden,” Newsom said Monday at the climate event.
Over the past year, as California’s Democratic governor has aggressively sparred with high-profile Republicans, he has repeatedly denied interest in a 2024 White House bid. His past couple of days hosting Biden serves to further douse speculation that he will be anything more than an outspoken advocate for the president’s reelection.
Biden on Tuesday held a roundtable conversation with Newsom and tech sector leaders on the risks and possibilities with AI.
“As I’ve said before, we’re going to see more technological change in the next 10 years than we’ve seen in the last 50 years,” Biden said in brief comments at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. “And AI is already driving that change in every part of our lives.”
The artificial intelligence event followed a holiday weekend that saw the pace of 2024 presidential politics quicken in the Golden State. Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis both landed in Northern California to bulk up on campaign cash before the July 15 deadline for quarterly fundraising reports.
After the AI event, Biden was heading to Marin County for one of four fundraising events arranged during his California trip. Newsom’s campaign adviser Nathan Click confirmed the governor was co-hosting the event but declined to provide any further details.
On Monday night, venture capitalist and former state controller Steve Westly and his wife, Anita Yu held one in the wealthy Silicon Valley town of Atherton.
Meanwhile, DeSantis, who is expected to give Donald Trump the most competition for the Republican nominee, was just miles away at his own fundraising event in Woodside. That event followed an expensive private breakfast in Sacramento.
Biden kicked off his Bay Area visit Monday at a nature preserve in Palo Alto where he touted his administration’s investments in climate and energy. He also unveiled a new $600 million program to help coastal communities fight climate change.
The president’s visit comes as Newsom is wrapping up negotiations with Democratic lawmakers over the state budget, which includes a proposal he announced last month to fast-track the construction of large infrastructure projects to address climate change and transportation needs. Newsom aides have said the governor’s proposal would eliminate some bureaucratic red tape and could reduce certain project timelines by more than three years.
Lawmakers have been hesitant to embrace the plan. They are irked by its introduction so late in the budget cycle and fear that it will be used to push through certain controversial projects like the proposed water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
DeSantis, on the other hand, pulled off a much more discreet visit. Rather than hold any public events, the GOP presidential contender marked his arrival in California by releasing a new campaign ad arguing that California’s liberal governance is failing its residents.
The ad claims that Californians are fleeing for states like Florida because of the rising crime, “needles and feces” in the streets and the escalating homeless crisis — a narrative Newsom adamantly refuted in a Fox interview last week.
“This is a result of better governance in states like Florida. It is a result of poor governance in these left-wing states,” DeSantis says in the ad.
The Florida governor started his day Monday with a private breakfast round table at Sacramento’s Del Paso Country Club.
The Sacramento fundraiser was hosted by real estate developer Steve Eggert and his wife, Pam, according to an invitation. Guests were asked to purchase a ticket to attend for $3,300 — the federal maximum for an individual campaign donation. It came just two weeks after DeSantis escalated tensions with Newsom, by sending two planes of Latin American asylum-seekers to the California capitol in an effort to highlight what he sees as Democrat’s failed immigration policies.
DeSantis reportedly dodged reporters outside the front gate of the country club site of the breakfast. His motorcade of black SUVs with tinted windows slipped out the club’s service entrance, according to KCRA. DeSantis then traveled to a second fundraising event in Woodside, though he stayed under the radar there as well.
The DeSantis campaign did not return requests for an interview.
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