Gavin Newsom now wants you to know that the Democratic Party has a woke problem.
The California governor, in a CNN interview that aired Monday, told Dana Bash that Democrats need to be "more culturally normal" and stop burning political capital on identity politics while voters drown in housing costs, electricity bills, and childcare expenses.
The man who built his political brand on progressive cultural crusades is suddenly interested in "tabletop issues." That pivot alone tells you how badly November went.
Newsom didn't mince words, at least by his standards:
"From the prism of purely politics, there's no doubt that the Democratic party needs to be, dare I say, more culturally normal."
He went further, calling on his party to spend less time on "pronouns, identity politics" and more time addressing the "stacking of stress" ordinary Americans face, the Daily Caller reported. He even conceded that Democrats need to find "nuance" on transgender athletes in competitive sports or risk hemorrhaging support.
"If we can't find that nuance, I think we're gonna lose a lot of people."
This wasn't a one-off. Newsom made a similar argument back in December 2025 at The New York Times Dealbook Summit in New York. The governor has clearly been workshopping this message for months, which means the internal Democrat numbers are even worse than the public ones.
Here's what makes this particular confession so rich: Gavin Newsom is not an innocent bystander to the very phenomenon he now diagnoses. He's one of its architects.
In 2004, as mayor of San Francisco, Newsom issued over 4,000 same-sex marriage licenses in open defiance of state and federal law. The move was so far out ahead of his own party that even then-Senator Barack Obama distanced himself from it. Newsom was the vanguard of the culture-first strategy that now, by his own admission, has cost Democrats dearly.
He seems at least partially aware of this tension:
"Here I was, way out front on marriage equality, so I understand this from the receiving end of this and on the front end of this leading the pack, so I think there has to be some consideration of that."
Translation: he wants credit for being early on a cultural issue that eventually became mainstream, while simultaneously warning his party to stop doing exactly what he did. The logic only works if you believe Newsom possesses a unique gift for knowing which cultural battles will age well. His record as governor of California suggests otherwise.
Whatever goodwill the CNN interview might have earned evaporated almost immediately. Newsom came under fire for separate comments made on stage at an event promoting his book, where he was speaking with Democrat Atlanta Mayor Andrew Dickens. The remarks drew accusations of racism from a wide range of critics, including Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Fox News host Sean Hannity, and rapper Nicki Minaj.
Newsom's response, posted to X on Monday, was not the measured tone of a man counseling his party toward cultural normalcy. It was a profanity-laced tirade directed at Hannity:
"You didn't give a shit about the President of the United States of America posting an ape video of President Obama or calling African nations shitholes. But you're going to call me racist for talking about my lifelong struggle with dyslexia? Spare me your fake fucking outrage, Sean."
Hannity fired back with equal force, pointing to Joe Biden's history with former Klansman Robert Byrd and their efforts, as Hannity described them, to prevent the integration of public schools. Then he twisted the knife:
"And How about you get homeowners building permits in the Pacific Palisades instead of making an ass out of yourself daily? Just a thought….."
The Pacific Palisades reference is the kind of line that stings because it connects directly to Newsom's actual job performance, the thing he just told CNN he wants Democrats to focus on.
Newsom's Monday was a near-perfect encapsulation of the Democratic Party's predicament. In the morning, the carefully staged CNN interview: measured, reflective, calibrated to signal a return to normalcy. By evening, a vulgar social media brawl that confirmed every stereotype about progressive politicians who talk moderation but practice rage.
The substance of his CNN argument isn't wrong. Democrats did lose voters by prioritizing cultural signaling over economic relief. Pronouns did matter more to party elites than grocery prices. The obsession with identity categories did alienate working-class Americans across racial lines.
But Newsom diagnosing wokeness as the problem is like an arsonist offering fire safety tips. He didn't just participate in the identity-politics era. He lit the match in San Francisco two decades ago and spent every year since fanning the flames. California, under his leadership, became the national laboratory for every progressive cultural experiment that voters in swing states rejected.
The question isn't whether Newsom is right that Democrats went too far. Even Democrats know that now. The question is whether the party can actually change, or whether figures like Newsom will simply learn to talk differently while governing the same way.
One profanity-filled X post suggests the makeover is already falling apart.