WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • Gavin Newsom told an undercover journalist that the DSA will become a mainstream and dominant force within the Democrat Party.
  • The California governor said voters are demanding bold change rather than incremental adjustments or management of the status quo.
  • Newsom argued that the system is broken, completely unbalanced, and must be completely reimagined.
  • The comments highlight a growing party struggle ahead of the 2028 presidential election.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom offered a blunt assessment of where the Democrat Party is headed during a recent exchange with an undercover journalist. Newsom said the Democratic Socialists of America, commonly identified as the DSA, will become a mainstream and dominant force within the party.

The comments were captured on hidden camera and obtained exclusively by Townhall. They provide an unvarnished look at how Newsom views the growing demand for sweeping change among Democrat voters and activists.

Other Democrat leaders have spent months dismissing concerns about the DSA’s radicalism. Their preferred response has been that Democrats represent a “big tent” party with space for candidates associated with the socialist organization.

Newsom’s comments were considerably more direct. Rather than treating the DSA as a small faction sitting somewhere along the party’s political edges, the California governor described its energy and agenda as central to the party’s future.

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The conversation began when the undercover journalist presented herself as a younger voter looking for a different direction. “I am a younger voter, and a lot of us, we want to see the Democrat Party move forward,” she told Newsom.

The journalist then made clear that she was not interested in another Kamala Harris candidacy. “You know, we don’t want Kamala Harris,” she continued, referring to the failed 2024 presidential candidate and a potential 2028 rival to Newsom.

She followed that statement by raising democratic socialist policies and asking Newsom to explain where he believed the party was going. “We want, you know, more, I guess, democratic socialist policies. Where do you see the Democratic Party going?”

Newsom did not defend the existing direction or argue for limited adjustments. “No one is arguing to manage the status quo and fail more efficiently,” he responded.

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The governor then delivered his clearest prediction about the DSA and its influence. He said the movement’s calls for bold change, rather than incremental change, would become dominant and mainstream within the Democrat Party.

“So the DSA, the energy and the desire and demand for bold change, not incremental change, is very much going to be dominant. I mean, that’s going to be a mainstream democratic movement. Absolutely. No question about that,” Newsom said in the video.

That answer went well beyond the familiar “big tent” talking point used by other Democrat leaders. Newsom was not merely saying there would be room for socialist candidates, but that the movement would occupy a commanding position in the party.

Newsom continued by arguing that political leaders could no longer operate around the edges of the existing system. “You can’t play in the margins anymore. The whole– the system’s broken. It’s completely unbalanced, and we can’t manage the decline. We have to completely reimagine.”

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The exchange comes as the Democrat Party faces a growing fissure ahead of the 2028 presidential election. Newsom’s remarks place the DSA’s demand for major structural change directly inside that developing party struggle.

The more radical policies are associated with the people Newsom expects to become the party’s dominant wing. It raises the prospect of activists who want to abolish the Senate and the presidency, open jails, and defund the police gaining control of the Democrat Party’s direction.

Newsom’s own language leaves little ambiguity about his prediction. He called the DSA’s rise mainstream, said its political energy would be dominant, and declared that there was “No question about that.”

For Democrat leaders still trying to portray the DSA as simply one voice inside a broad coalition, Newsom’s hidden camera assessment presents a far less comforting picture. According to the California governor, the socialist faction is not merely being accommodated by the party but is positioned to shape what the party becomes.

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