California’s Democrat governor is preparing to unseat Biden. He just hasn’t said it yet

Gavin Newsom ticks all the boxes that the beleaguered president has overlooked or ignored, including securing the youth vote by tackling climate change, writes David Callaway. Is he gearing up to take the White House?

Gavin Newsom offers young voters everything they don’t see in Biden (AP)

While President Biden struggles with a growing Middle East emergency, and an electorate that increasingly sees a tottering old man instead of a clever statesman, California governor Gavin Newsom is focusing like a laser on the one group Biden hasn’t won over – the youth vote. And the one thing they care most about – climate change.

Behind the global headlines of inflation and war that have dogged Biden this past year and overshadowed his own successful infrastructure and job-creating record, Newsom has moved unencumbered to grab the climate spotlight.

He recently signed two first-in-the-nation climate disclosure and risk bills that vault California ahead of national standards at a time when the federal government still hasn’t defined its own rules. He was asked to speak to world leaders at the United Nations during Climate Week in New York last month by secretary general Antonio Guterres (Biden wasn’t).