Newsom stop in key presidential primary state sparks more 2028 speculation

California Gov. Gavin Newsom's book tour will take him early next month to New Hampshire, the state that's traditionally held the nation's first presidential primary for a century.

The Portsmouth Music Hall announced on Thursday that California's two-term Democratic governor will present his new book, "Young Man in a Hurry," on Thursday, at their theater on March 5.

It's a sure bet that the stop along New Hampshire's Seacoast will generate more buzz about Newsom's national ambitions and the likelihood that he'll launch a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, in the race to succeed term-limited President Donald Trump.

Newsom's stature in his own party has soared over the past year, thanks to his very vocal and visual pushback against the president, including his viral social media trolling of Trump and his successful California push to counter the Republican congressional redistricting effort.

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"Newsom has shown an ability to stand up to Trump in a bold and highly effective manner without shying away from core democratic values," veteran Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo told Fox News Digital.

Newsom was treated like a VIP as he held meetings and mingled with party delegates during the opening day of the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) winter meeting, which was held in Los Angeles in December. And Newsom held meetings with the Democratic Party chairs from New Hampshire and Nevada, another crucial early voting state.

"We had a great discussion on a wide range of issues," longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told Fox News Digital.

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Newsom has acknowledged that he's mulling a presidential bid, telling CBS News last year he would "seriously consider" following the 2026 midterms and that he'd be "lying" if he said otherwise.

Newsom is one of more than a dozen Democrats viewed as potential 2028 White House contenders. And many of them have been paying visits to New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, which held the first sanctioned Democratic presidential primary in the 2024 election cycle. Newsom stopped in South Carolina last summer.

A New Hampshire-based Democratic strategist who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely shared that he and other activists in the state for months have been receiving fundraising emails on a regular basis from some of the White House hopefuls.

"Every week I receive a dozen," the strategist said.

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Kathy Sullivan, a former New Hampshire Democratic Party chair and former DNC committee member, told Fox News Digital that "successful candidates in New Hampshire start early here and get to know the activists. They find out what issues are important to people in New Hampshire."

Sullivan said the early trips to New Hampshire by the potential contenders "show that they’re putting the work in to take the whole process seriously and know they need to do the hard work to win the primary."

The California governor was last in New Hampshire in July 2024, to support then-President Joe Biden in the days after Biden's disastrous debate performance against Trump. Newsom was a top surrogate for Biden, and later for then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the party's standard-bearer after Biden dropped his re-election run amid questions about his physical and mental durability.

Harris, a fellow Californian who is also currently on a book tour, is also mulling a potential 2028 presidential run.

Among the other Democrats seen as possible presidential candidates are Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Wes Moore of Maryland and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan; Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut; progressive superstar Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, another leading progressive; and two moderate Democrats, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and former White House chief of staff and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.