Gavin Newsom’s aspirations for the presidency in 2028 are facing unexpected criticism from a group of Los Angeles progressives.
Streets For All, an organization advocating for traffic reform in Los Angeles, has launched targeted newspaper ads that sharply criticize the governor. These ads appear in Columbia, South Carolina, and Reno, Nevada.
These cities are located in early-primary states that play a crucial role in determining the Democratic presidential nominee for 2028—a contest Newsom is anticipated to enter.
The group’s primary grievance is tied to funding reductions affecting the California Air Resources Board (CARB), an agency appointed by Newsom.
Streets For All, along with other progressive allies, is frustrated by recent alterations to the state’s cap-and-invest program. This initiative imposes a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and mandates that major polluters purchase allowances for their emissions.
“Governor Gavin Newsom increasingly wants to be judged by voters across the country—and those voters deserve to know what he is actually doing in California,” the Streets For All declared in a blog post.
Environmental groups were frustrated with a proposal that would give free allowances to companies that invest in cutting carbon emissions. Such an incentive would encourage more pollution instead, they argued, and reduce money for climate and energy programs funded by cap-and-trade, such as the state’s high-speed rail project.
One analysis concluded the incentive could lead to $2 billion less for the cap-and-trade fund, which Streets For All characterized as a “giveaway” to Big Oil and polluters.
“California Governor Gavin Newsom just supported moving billions away from clean drinking water, public transit, and affordable housing into subsidies for refineries and industrial polluters,” read the ad, which was framed as a letter to Nevadans and South Carolinians from “struggling Californians.”
The agency, the California Air Resources Board, had defended the proposal as a “challenging balancing act” between climate goals and keeping critical industries from leaving the state.
Still, pro-climate groups have seized on a May statement from Newsom’s office where he praised the updates to the cap-and-invest program as a counter to the pro-oil Trump administration. Streets For All blasted his “climate hypocrisy.”
The governor’s tension with certain far-left elements of his Democratic Party — on this issue and others, such as the proposed state billionaire tax — could pose a complicated juggling task for him should he choose to run for president.
The California Post reached out to Newsom’s office for comment on the ad.