Clyburn praises Newsom as he hits the trail in South Carolina: 'I feel good about his chances'

Source: Politico

07/08/2025 11:38 PM EDT


CAMDEN, South Carolina — Gavin Newsom sweated through his shirt, quoted from Corinthians and railed against Donald Trump as he blitzed across this early primary state. And then, in this small city just northeast of Columbia, Newsom grinned sheepishly as the Democratic kingmaker of South Carolina introduced him late Tuesday as one of “these candidates that are running for president.”

“It’s no secret,” Rep. Jim Clyburn told reporters after praising Newsom to roughly 200 people piled into a community center here. Then, Clyburn made a prediction sure to echo across political corridors from Philadelphia to Springfield, and from Frankfort to Denver, where eyes are already transfixed on even the most incremental 2028 developments. “I feel good about his chances.”

Appearing with Democratic Party leaders and packing rooms as he opened a two-day swing through the state, Newsom offered a preview of the presidential campaign he is likely to run in 2028. Far removed politically from 2024, when the California governor visited the state to stump for Joe Biden, Newsom this week was laying groundwork of his own, casting himself as a pugnacious opponent of the Trump administration and bragging that California is the “most un-Trump state in America.”

“American citizens feel like they’re being hunted, racially profiled,” Newsom told the crowd at a coffee shop in Marion County, referencing recent immigration raids in Los Angeles. “That’s why I’m here — we cannot afford to allow this to happen.”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/08/clyburn-newsom-campaign-south-carolina-00443428