Through pointed tweets, news conferences and posts on Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, Newsom has taken to expressing the frustration of Democrats enraged by the rollback of progressive priorities. He’s trolled the conservative governors of Florida and Texas with ads in their states touting how California is a haven for reproductive rights and gun limits. In the past week alone, he’s blasted Indiana’s new abortion restrictions and released a video he called “Hypocrite or Fraud” about conservative leaders’ stance toward Covid-19 vaccine mandates.

Such attention-grabbing tactics have launched the leader of the most-populous state into the conversation about potential Democratic presidential nominees should Joe Biden not run again, even as Newsom says he has “sub-zero interest” in entering the 2024 race. They’ve also made him a target for Republican officials and a foil to GOP governors such as Texas’s Greg Abbott and Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who himself is building an outsized national presence…

It’s too speculative now to determine if Newsom, who emerged from the recall even stronger, would find his background a disadvantage if he vies for president, she said. “What Democrats have to do is not sort of alienate rural voters and blue collar workers, and a governor of California — that might be a little hard,” she said.

For now Newsom has little to lose. His ratings in California — about 52% approval among likely voters — are “fairly stable,” said Dean Bonner, associate survey director for the Public Policy Institute of California. Meanwhile, independents, which comprise almost the same share of voters as Republicans, tend to lean toward Democrats, he said.