The election of California’s governor is one of the most important races this year. Incumbent Gavin Newsom and his challenger, Brian Dahle, have different perspectives on key issues that may affect the state for decades to come. 

Governor Newsom, a Democrat, has been serving as the governor since 2019. Before that, he was the mayor of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011 and the lieutenant governor of California from 2011 to 2019. Before he entered politics, Newson was a restaurateur and investor. His Republican opponent, Brian Dahle, is a California State Senator for District 1 who was elected to office in 2019 via a special election to fill the seat of a retiring state senator. Prior to 2019, Dahle served as a State Assemblyman for District 1 in northeastern California for seven years. He was on the Lassen County Board of Supervisors for 16 years and is also a seed farmer.

As a member of the Democratic Party, Newsom has advocated for protecting the rights of marginalized groups, including women and the LGBTQ+ community. As mayor of San Francisco, he issued licenses for same-sex couples to marry, despite it being illegal statewide at the time. He backs Proposition 1, an amendment to the California Constitution which would safeguard access to abortion and the right to contraceptives. He has also put legislation (AB 1356 and AB 1184) into effect that protects access to reproductive care in the state. Though Dahle does not support Proposition 1, he abandoned his party’s traditional position and voted for a 2021 bill that would have reduced the cost of contraceptives, including the Plan B pill.

Newsom leans more progressively, demonstrated through several of his policies implemented in office. In 2020, he signed into effect the Zero-Emission Vehicle policy, an executive order meant to prohibit the sale of gas-powered vehicles in California by 2035 and reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Though Dahle does not agree with the Zero-Emission Vehicle policy, he is an advocate of building more electric vehicle charging stations across the state to support the burgeoning industry. Another key difference between Newson and Dahle, is their stances on the death penalty: Newson imposed a moratorium on the California death penalty in 2019, halting executions indefinitely, while Dahle supports the death penalty and would remove the moratorium.

 Dahle’s political record demonstrates he is generally aligned with traditional Republican policies, including increasing funding for law enforcement, enacting stricter laws for felonies and misdemeanors, and deregulating environmental protections that may negatively impact housing developers. 

Dahle represents himself as a candidate focused on achieving bipartisan legislation and cites his work with Democrats to create a 2016 state bill (AB 72) that prohibits surprise medical bills for patients who are unknowingly treated by out-of-network specialists. Dahle said he does not believe there is genuine effort to work across the aisle and has been quoted saying Newsom is a “dictator” who rules by executive order instead of working in a bipartisan manner with the state legislator.

When he was lieutenant governor in 2016 Newsom advocated for Proposition 63, a California ballot measure that required background checks and other gun ownership restrictions. Later, in 2019, he supported the idea of similar background checks across the nation and cooperation in controlling the abuse of these weapons as a response to several mass shootings that year. In contrast, Dahle has indicated he is a strong gun rights advocate and did not support SB 1327, which allows the public to sue people who sell illegal firearms or market guns to children. 

Dahle has critiqued Newsom’s handling of the high gas prices throughout California. His solution would be to suspend the gas tax in the state. However, Dahle has shown he has no way of ensuring that the cancellation of the gas tax would lead to direct savings for Californians at the pump. Dahle has also indicated that if elected governor he would immediately approve hundreds of new permits for oil and gas drilling in the state, which he believes would ultimately reduce the cost of energy in California if all of the new resources were refined and retained within the state.

Homelessness is one of the major issues California faces, and both candidates have shared their respective strategies to combat this problem. Newsom has cited a program he launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, Project Homekey, in which unoccupied hotels and motels were used as housing for homeless people in Fresno. He has also begun to increase pressure on local governments to implement individual plans based on the needs of each area. Dahle has criticized his policies, arguing correctly that homelessness is at an all-time high in California. Despite this, Dahle’s plan does not seem to be more effective than Newsom’s, as one of his solutions is to ban homeless encampments from areas near schools.

In 2021, a special recall petition gathered enough signatures to require a recall election for Governor Newsom. The petitioners’ grievances included the state’s high taxes, high homelessness rates, and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. If the majority of the electorate was dissatisfied with Newsom’s performance as governor, then they would have voted him out of office during this election. However, almost twice as many people voted “no” on the recall than “yes,” and the results were close to the original votes he received when he was initially elected governor, revealing people’s satisfaction over his performance so far.

Though there are valid criticisms of Newsom, his main opponent does not provide viable solutions to many of the problems that California currently faces. Governor Newsom also reflects more progressive views, which will help advance California even further. Therefore, I endorse Gavin Newsom for re-election.