As Gavin Newsom tells it in a new memoir he rose from humble beginnings, a kid who got a paper round to help his mother make ends meet, and then got knocked off his bike by bullies who called him ‘Newscum.’
His mother was already working three jobs but life was a struggle, so he was delighted when he gave it his all as a busboy and got a $20 tip. He went door-to-door with shoe inserts and ‘never had a delivery boy showed such speed.’
All the while, he was an awkward child with a bowl haircut who struggled at school due to undiagnosed dyslexia.
In Georgia last weekend, while promoting the book, Newsom continued in a similar vein.
On stage in conversation with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, in front of a mostly black audience, he said: ‘I’m not trying to impress you. I’m just trying to impress upon you, “I’m like you.” I’m no better than you. I’m a 960 SAT guy.’
His voice appearing to drawl a little more Southern, the California governor added: ‘I’m not trying to offend anyone, trying to act all there if you got 940. You’ve never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech. Maybe the wrong business to be in.’
The backlash was instantaneous. In the forefront was rapper Nicki Minaj, who accused him of trying to appeal to black voters by telling ‘them how stupid he is and that he can’t read.’
Republican Senator Tim Scott told Newsom that ‘black Americans aren’t your low bar,’ and accused him of ‘patronizing’ the black community. Others were less polite.
If it were an unusual controversy, then it might not register in any upcoming presidential campaign by Newsom in 2028.
However, for the Democratic governor, it is not the first time comments about his upbringing have been met with skepticism.
California Governor Gavin Newsom says his upbringing was ‘split’ between the wealthy world of his father, and that of his mother, who worked three jobs to make ends meet
In ‘Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery,’ released this week, Newsom seeks to dent a widely held public perception that he grew up with a silver spoon.
He describes overcoming his difficulties with a bully at Redwood High School in Marin County, California, by remodeling himself on Remington Steele, the TV detective character played by Pierce Brosnan in the 1980s.
Newsom used gel to slick back his hair and occasionally wore a suit to school. He writes that, instead of ‘Newscum,’ other students started calling him ‘El Presidente.’
He copied Sylvester Stallone in Rocky by drinking raw eggs and running, and at one point, the TV life coach Tony Robbins.
For most presidential candidates – the proudly wealthy Donald Trump being something of an exception – tales of difficult childhoods and overcoming initial hardship through their own perseverance become part of a campaign, retold in stump speeches across the nation.
It is a proven way to connect with ‘ordinary’ voters, who often remember such stories of the American dream more than policies.
Perhaps the most classic version of the story is an entirely true one – in the 1860 election, Abraham Lincoln told how he had risen from a one-room log cabin – but other politicians have been known to exaggerate, or omit, details.
At the heart of Newsom’s story of struggle is the divorce of his parents when he was a toddler.
They had married when his father, William Newsom III, was 32 and his mother, Tessa, was 19.
His father was a pillar of San Francisco society, an appellate judge, and an attorney and close confidant to the oil billionaire Getty family. Gordon Getty called the elder Newsom his ‘best, best friend.’
Newsom’s father was involved in delivering the ransom money to the kidnappers of J Paul Getty’s grandson and managed the family’s $4 billion trust.
Meanwhile, Newsom writes, his mother scraped by after the divorce.
Newsom’s mother, Tessa, divorced when he was two years old and worked several jobs at a time, but critics have been skeptical that the governor’s childhood was hard
Newsom (right) with his father, the late California judge William Newsom, at a black-tie charity dinner in San Francisco in 2004. His father was once a lawyer for the billionaire Getty oil family
He writes that she worked as a bookkeeper, an assistant retail buyer, a waitress at a Mexican restaurant and a real estate agent.
The family moved five times in a decade as they looked for a ‘better house in a better neighborhood.’
His mother rented out rooms and took in foster children to help pay the rent.
Referring to ‘the split personality of my life,’ Newsom describes seeing the world of wealth the Gettys lived in, while also experiencing the other side of the coin with his mother.
Which side of that life Democratic voters latch on to will do much to determine how successful he might be in 2028.
There is no doubt it is going to be an uphill task for Newsom to shed his current image of privilege, given the facts already known, many of which he does discuss in the book.
Whether he accepts it or not, it is reasonable to see him as a virtual scion of the Getty family.
Prior to running for public office, Newsom (center) became a millionaire with his first venture, PlumpJack winery, which he started at age 24. With Billy Getty (right) and Peter Getty in 1992
The Getty Villa in Malibu served as the backdrop for a 2004 eight-page spread in Harper’s Bazaar titled The New Kennedys, featuring Newsom and his then-wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle
For example, Gordon Getty once took the young Newsom to meet the King of Spain on the private family jet, known as ‘Jetty’. The young future governor wore a tailored Brioni suit.
The Gettys also took him on a safari in Africa, where he flew over the Serengeti in a hot air balloon. In Canada’s Hudson Bay, he flew in a helicopter to watch polar bears. They also took him fishing in Oregon.
Once, sailing on a yacht in Europe, he wore a tuxedo and pretended to be James Bond. After arriving by gondola for a party at a palazzo in Venice, Italy, Jack Nicholson thought he was one of the ‘Getty boys.’
Later, his wedding reception for his marriage to Kimberly Guilfoyle was held at the Getty mansion, and the couple also posed there for Vogue on an Oriental rug.
Voters are unlikely to conclude from such formative episodes in his life that Newsom is, as he put it, ‘just like you.’
With Gordon Getty (center), the son of oil tycoon J Paul Getty, and former Governor Jerry Brown (right), at the PlumpJack Winery in Oakville, California, in 2004
Newsom has maintained a lifelong, close relationship with the billionaire Getty family
With Gordon Getty (left), whom he founded PlumpJack winery alongside
Adding to Newsom’s challenge to convince the electorate is the fact that, growing up, his cousins were the nieces and nephews of Nancy Pelosi.
The Newsom family, which his father described as a ‘clan of 46 attorneys,’ was also closely intertwined with the Brown family, which produced California governors Pat Brown and his son, Jerry Brown.
Newsom’s wealth by association is there in black and white in a San Francisco magazine article headlined ‘Children of the Rich’ in which, aged 24, he was photographed alongside Andrew Getty and Billy Getty.
After viewing the photograph, Tim Young, of the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, summed up the thoughts of many, saying: ‘Life is hard when you’re super wealthy.’
Not long before the Children of the Rich article was published, Newsom had set up a wine store business called ‘PlumpJack,’ which was also the name of an opera composed by Gordon Getty in the 1980s.
The Getty family invested in the business, which grew to encompass wineries, restaurants and hotels.
Newsom, right, before he was sworn in as California Governor in 2011. He was given the oath of office by his father, William, a former Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeals, and was accompanied by his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom
Newsom claims he overcame difficulties at school by modeling himself on Pierce Brosnan in the 1980s TV series Remington Steele
In part, Newsom’s book, and a series of recent interviews, is an attempt to counter the narrative that he is a product of elitism.
It is to show that he earned the position he is in today, rather than being given it by the rich friends he admits to having.
He tells how his mother once warned him that ‘entry into the Getty world would rob me of my own hard-earned story.’
When he and his younger sister, Hillary, came back from trips with the Gettys, his mother would not be happy.
‘Our mother didn’t know what to do with the memories we carted home from our Getty trips,’ Newsom writes.
‘It was almost as if we were strangers to her. For a day or two, she’d give us the silent treatment and then we’d fall back into the form of a life trying to make ends meet.’
Newsom would tell his mother he didn’t like the expensive clothes given as Christmas gifts by his father’s circle, so she could return them and use credits at stores to choose her own presents.
He did have a genuine obstacle in his childhood – his dyslexia – and he has been angered by what he says is the media portraying his route to success as easy.
Newsom writes that the media’s ‘one-dimensional portrait of me p***ed me off because I knew the way I grew up, the struggles my mother had to endure, the hard times that made my life a duality that never seemed to get its due, a duality I would spend years trying to comprehend.’
He spoke about it in his 2023 inaugural address, saying: ‘I couldn’t read, and I was looking for any way to ditch classes. I’d fake stomach aches and dizziness. I’d bite down on the thermometer in the nurse’s office, trying to make the temperature rise past 100.’
Gavin Newsom’s Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery is out now
After struggling academically at school, Newsom won a partial baseball scholarship to Santa Clara University.
He does not include in his book that he also had a letter of recommendation from a family friend, California Governor Jerry Brown, to the university.
Newsom’s office did not respond to an interview request from the Daily Mail.
In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, he defended his portrayal of his childhood.
‘I’m not trying to be something I’m not,’ he said. ‘I’m not trying to talk about, you know, “I was born in a town called Hope with no running water.”
‘That’s not what this book is about, but it’s a very different portrayal than the one I think nine out of ten people believe.’
Unfortunately for Newsom and his 2028 ambitions, many reactions so far have been highly skeptical.
‘It’s so gross,’ said Steve Hilton, California Republican gubernatorial candidate.
‘It’s an elite bubble he’s been in and it’s a pathetic attempt to pander to people. I think it’s going to turn people off massively.’
