Gavin Newsom is not having a good week.
His party’s frontrunner for the California governorship just imploded in a sexual assault scandal. The race is now a dumpster fire. And the man who is supposed to hand over the keys to his own kingdom is reportedly freaking out behind the scenes.
He has good reason to panic. According to a fresh report, Newsom does not like a single Democrat left in the field to replace him — and the specific reasons he is giving people privately just leaked.
Here’s what is happening:
IN FOCUS: Democrats governed California into the ground. Now they can’t field a candidate.https://t.co/CDpIYCArEn
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 16, 2026
That is the Washington Examiner putting it bluntly. Democrats had the biggest state in the country, a lock on every lever of power, and a multi-million-dollar political machine. And they cannot find one person their own governor can stand behind.
The trigger for all of this was Eric Swalwell.
Swalwell was the Democrat frontrunner in the California governor’s race until multiple women came forward over the weekend with sexual misconduct and assault allegations. He denied everything, but he was gone in days — suspended his campaign, resigned from Congress, and walked off into the sunset.
Now Newsom is stuck holding the bag.
CNN reported on the mess Newsom is currently staring down:
The scrambled race for California governor left in the wake of Eric Swalwell’s sexual misconduct allegations isn’t officially Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mess. But it’s one that many top Democrats want him to consider trying to clean up.
Since CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle broke their stories about Swalwell on Friday night, Newsom has been in a marathon of calls and meetings about the governor’s race.
Four people familiar with Newsom’s thinking tell CNN he’s still trying to make sense of where the race actually stands now, eager for new polling data and trying to sort out whether the Swalwell collapse intensifies the chances of California Democrats’ red-alert scenario: Two Republicans advancing in the nonpartisan June 2 primary and locking Democrats out of the governorship entirely.
Read that last part twice. The Democrats in California — in California — are genuinely worried that two Republicans could advance out of the primary and lock Democrats out of the governor’s mansion entirely.
That should not be possible in a state they have run into the ground for twenty years. Except here we are.
And then came the leak that is making Newsom look even worse. California political analyst Rob Pyers published Newsom’s reported private opinions on every remaining Democrat in the field — and it is absolutely savage:
Gavin Newsom’s thoughts on the current field of Dem candidates for governor:
Steyer: incoherent, mismanagement worries
Porter: would trigger capital flight
Mahan: not a fan of his frequent criticism
Villaraigosa: still sore over 2018 race
Becerra: unsatisfactory job as AG https://t.co/5bD5O3ykVq pic.twitter.com/5vLGFm5TiV— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) April 15, 2026
Let’s recap. According to the reporting Newsom thinks:
Tom Steyer is incoherent. Katie Porter will drive business out of California. Matt Mahan cannot stop criticizing him. Antonio Villaraigosa is still bitter from their 2018 race. And Xavier Becerra did an unsatisfactory job as attorney general.
That is the entire Democrat bench. The sitting Democrat governor of California has something negative to say about every single one of them — and it is now in the press.
You cannot buy this kind of chaos. And it gets worse.
CNN also reported on how badly Newsom’s first-choice plan fell apart before Swalwell even dropped out:
Newsom worries that Tom Steyer, the billionaire investor, would be too all over the place on positions and management to effectively run the state. He worries that Katie Porter, the former congresswoman, would drive business out.
He has had a contentious personal relationship with San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. He ran against former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa eight years ago, and the strain between them is still there. He has reservations about how former Biden Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra handled that job.
Translation: Gavin Newsom does not want any of these people running the state he is about to leave.
And Republicans are smelling blood in the water. The Blaze put out this little reminder about what Republican voters just saw happen in the first poll after Swalwell stumbled out:
Republicans shine in first poll since Eric Swalwell stumbled out of California governor’s race https://t.co/mXxv8WMZU9 pic.twitter.com/UeHVUMrbHh
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) April 16, 2026
Republicans in California are polling better than anyone thought possible a month ago. Democrats are fighting each other. And the most powerful Democrat in the state hates his own options.
If the GOP can find one unified candidate and capitalize on this, we could be watching the beginning of something nobody in Sacramento thought was possible — a Republican governor of California. In 2026.
Newsom is panicking for a reason.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.