California Gov. Gavin Newsom told an undercover journalist that the Democratic Socialists of America and its push for sweeping change will become a dominant force inside the Democratic Party, according to video obtained by Townhall and published Monday.
The exchange took place in mid-October while Newsom was in New Hampshire campaigning for Democratic congressional candidate Stefany Shaheen, Townhall reported. The woman recording the conversation presented herself as a younger voter, telling Newsom, “we don’t want Kamala Harris,” and adding that she and her peers wanted “more, I guess, democratic socialist policies,” according to the video Townhall released.
🚨NEWSOM REVEALS SOCIALISM IS THE FUTURE OF THE DEMOCRATS: Newsom was BUSTED asserting that the Democratic Socialists will become the mainstream faction of the Democrats
NEWSOM: "[The DSA is] going to be the dominant and mainstream in the Democratic party." pic.twitter.com/jvmipRgTQV
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) October 26, 2026
Newsom did not push back on the premise. “No one is arguing to manage the status quo and fail more efficiently,” he said, according to Townhall’s transcript of the video.
“So the DSA, the energy and the desire and demand for bold change, not incremental change, is very much going to be dominant. I mean, that’s going to be a mainstream democratic movement. Absolutely. No question about that,” Newsom said in the video, as reported by Townhall.
He went further, according to the same video. “You can’t play in the margins anymore. The whole– the system’s broken. It’s completely unbalanced, and we can’t manage the decline. We have to completely reimagine,” Newsom said.
Not the first time
The hidden-camera remarks line up with what Newsom has said in public. In July, Newsom told progressive commentator Jack Cocchiarella on a YouTube livestream that he rejected the idea that socialist candidates were a threat to the party, saying, “I’m for addition, not subtraction,” Fox News reported at the time.
In a September interview with PBS, Newsom said DSA ideas were already being worked into the broader Democratic platform and named Medicare for All among them, according to Legal Insurrection, which quoted the PBS exchange. “I believe in universal health care, and I believe in Medicare for all,” Newsom said in that interview, as quoted by Legal Insurrection.
Legal Insurrection wrote that the undercover video shows Newsom “once again” signaling that the DSA has a strong future in his party.
The 2028 backdrop
The comments come as Newsom is widely viewed as a likely 2028 presidential contender. Townhall cited a New York Times/Siena poll released Saturday that showed former Vice President Kamala Harris at 12 percent among potential Democratic contenders, Newsom at 9 percent, Pete Buttigieg at 7 percent and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at 6 percent, with 45 percent undecided.
Townhall also reported that activists at a recent socialism conference handed out fliers reading “DSA for AOC for President of the United States,” pointing supporters to a petition that lists goals including Medicare for All and a Green New Deal.
For Republicans, the video arrives a week before the Nov. 3 midterms and hands them the argument they have been making all year: that the party’s most ambitious leaders now see democratic socialism as the mainstream rather than the fringe. Newsom’s office had not publicly responded to the Townhall video as of Tuesday morning, based on the coverage reviewed by Daily Beltway.
Sources
Sources cited
- https://townhall.com/news/kyleolson/2026/10/26/gavin-newsom-calls-dsa-mainstream-democratic-movement-heading-into-2028-presidential-election-n2685292
- https://legalinsurrection.com/2026/10/newsom-dsa-is-going-to-be-dominant-and-a-mainstream-democratic-movement/
- https://www.foxnews.com/media/newsom-tells-democrats-addition-not-subtraction-business-socialists
- https://connecticutcentinal.com/politics/2026/10/26/gavin-newsom-dsa-will-be-dominant-a-mainstream-democratic-movement/
Sources
- Original post: Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) on X, Oct 26, 2026
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