California’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom appears to be positioning himself to challenge President Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s candidate for 2024.
Newsom has dropped the biggest hint of his intentions so far by running reelection ads in Florida, not California.
His ads attack Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, likely because many think the Florida governor will be the GOP nominee.
According to CNN, “Newsom’s new ad, first provided to CNN and set to air on July 4, is a mashup of a classic campaign spot, business investment pitch, and one of those California tourism commercials full of celebrities saying how much better it is there, wrapped in the existential terror that’s wracking progressives these days.
“It’s Independence Day — so let’s talk about what’s going on in America,” Newsom says in the ad, standing in the California sun, tieless, as “America the Beautiful” fingerpicks in the background.
“Freedom is under attack in your state.”
“Those last words flash across the screen in red, followed by a photo of DeSantis shaking hands with former President Donald Trump, and then another of the Florida governor as Newsom ticks through Florida laws to ban books and restrict voting, speech, and access to abortion.
“I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight — or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom: Freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate, and the freedom to love,” Newsom says as the images proceed from an aerial shot of the Santa Monica Pier to a rainbow flag waving in the hands of two women with arms around each other.
“Don’t let them take your freedom.”
However, Newsom then made a pledge that will only reaffirm support from DeSantis.
Newsom declared that he will now give “free” taxpayer-funded health care to illegal immigrants in California.
From The AP:
California on Thursday became the first state to guarantee free health care for all low-income immigrants living in the country illegally, a move that will provide coverage for an additional 764,000 people at an eventual cost of about $2.7 billion a year.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $307.9 billion operating budget that pledges to make all low-income adults eligible for the state’s Medicaid program by 2024 regardless of their immigration status.
It’s a long-sought victory for health care and immigration activists, who have been asking for the change for more than a decade.
Nationwide, federal and state governments join together to give free health care to low-income adults and children through Medicaid.
But the federal government won’t pay for people who are living in the country illegally. Some states, including California, have used their own tax dollars to cover a portion of health care expenses for some low-income immigrants.
Now, California wants to be the first to do that for everyone.
About 92% of of Californians currently have some form of health insurance, putting the state in the middle of the pack nationally.
But that will change once this budget is fully implemented, as adults living in the country illegally make up one of the largest groups of people without insurance in the state.
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