California Governor Gavin Newsom took a tactic straight out of Texas's playbook. “SCOTUS is letting private citizens in Texas sue to stop abortion?!” Newsom tweeted in December. “If that's the precedent then we'll let Californians sue those who put ghost guns and assault weapons on our streets.” Well, he did just that last week when he signed SB 1327.

• SB 1327 awards Californians $10,000 plus legal fees “to plaintiffs who successfully sue anyone who imports, distributes, manufactures or sells assault-style weapons, .50-caliber rifles, guns without serial numbers or parts that can be used to build firearms that are banned in California,” notes The New York Times. 

• The bill is almost identical to Texas Senate Bill 8, which passed in 2021 and creates a bounty for citizens to enforce abortion restrictions in the state.

The Left's Aggressor

In an unusual move for a governor, Newsom has run TV ads in Florida and Texas attacking each state's governor for their right-wing policies. “I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight, or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom — freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate, and the freedom to love,” Newsom says in his $105,000 spot which ran on Fox News in Florida, explains the Los Angeles Times. “I think he realizes that Democrats are hungry for a hero,” Cal State Sacramento political science professor Kim Nalder told The New York Times. “He’s building a profile as an alternative on the left to this aggressive policymaking we’ve seen by Republicans in recent years.”

The Verdict

It's not clear if Newsom is eyeing a run for president (he's done so in the past, but with California AG and Senator Kamala Harris in the VP spot, a 2024 bid is questionable), however, he's definitely taking on the role as the angry Democrat channeling the frustration many in his party have with federal leadership.