Gavin Newsom

Gavin Newsom has been governor of California since 2019. He was elected the state’s 40th governor in November 2018, after serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and as mayor of San Francisco. As governor he has signed a series of laws regulating how those services treat minors, and since 2025 he has hosted a podcast and had his office’s social media accounts post directly on national political figures and debates.

San Francisco

Newsom was elected mayor of San Francisco in 2003. As mayor he directed the city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a decision his official biography credits with bringing same-sex marriage “to the forefront of the national conversation.”

Technology Regulation as Governor

Chatbots and age signals (2025). On 13 October 2025 Newsom signed SB 243, which set safety requirements for AI companion chatbots used by minors, effective 1 January 2026, and AB 1043, the Digital Age Assurance Act, which requires operating systems to collect a user’s age at setup and pass an age signal to apps from 1 January 2027.

Feeds and chatbots for minors (2026). On 10 September 2026 he signed a further package, including AB 1709, which bars social media platforms from offering features such as personalized algorithmic feeds and autoplay to users under 16; SB 1119, which expanded the companion chatbot requirements; and AB 1856, which amended the Digital Age Assurance Act. Announcing the bills, he said: “Parents can’t compete. Can’t compete with the engineering, can’t compete with the algorithms.”

Media and Political Communication

Podcast (2025–present). In March 2025 Newsom launched the podcast This Is Gavin Newsom. Its first guest was Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA.

Fox News lawsuit (2025). On 27 June 2025 he sued Fox News for $787 million for defamation, alleging that Jesse Watters’s program misleadingly edited a video of Donald Trump to support the claim that Newsom had lied about when the two last spoke during the federal deployment of the California National Guard to Los Angeles. Fox News called the suit “frivolous” and said it would defend the case.

Press office posts (2025). In August 2025 the governor’s press office account on X began posting in the style of Trump’s own posts — all capital letters, nicknames, a “GCN” sign-off and AI-generated images. The posts came during a dispute over mid-decade congressional redistricting. Asked about them, Newsom said: “I’m following his example. If you have issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns about what he’s putting out as president.”

Proposition 50 (2025). Newsom led the campaign for Proposition 50, which voters approved on 4 November 2025. It replaced the congressional map drawn by the state’s independent redistricting commission with one adopted by the Legislature and drawn to favor Democratic candidates, offsetting the five seats Texas’s 2025 map was designed to add for Republicans.