California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) launched a tour of counties that flipped from blue to red Thursday, saying he’s listening to the economic concerns that drove residents there to vote for President-elect Donald Trump.
There are “certain regions in this state that don’t feel that they’re fully participating in that economic output. They don’t feel like they’re fully engaged in the prosperity that is the state of California,” Newsom said in Fresno County, one of the country’s leading agricultural regions with nearly 2 million acres of farmland.
Despite Fresno County going for the Democratic presidential nominee every year since Barack Obama’s first victory in 2008, President-elect Donald Trump managed to flip the county this year, along with other Central Valley communities that had previously voted for President Joe Biden.
“Some people talk about ― this economy is booming, inflation is cooling, lowest unemployment in our lifetimes, lowest Black unemployment, Hispanic unemployment, lowest unemployment for women, lowest unemployment for people with disabilities,” Newsom continued. “All that may be true, but people don’t feel that way.”
There’s a “lived reality of people feeling on edge, unmoored, uneasy,” said Newsom, who has some not-so-secret presidential aspirations and has emerged as a potential Democratic nominee in 2028.
Experts have surmised that the Central Valley’s flip to Trump ― something seen across the region this election ― is tied to the same concerns about inflation that helped Trump win the presidential election earlier this month.
Although economists and corporate executives say his plan to impose tariffs on foreign imports will only further hike the prices of goods, his focus on the economy appeared to resonate with voters who felt that Vice President Kamala Harris’ priorities lay elsewhere.
At his press conference Thursday, Newsom shared some details about his administration’s $287 million investment in economic development initiatives, saying a more comprehensive workforce strategy will be released in January.
Democracy In The Balance
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Newsom shared his plans to visit California’s red counties with The New York Times ahead of his Fresno visit.
“A lot of people feel like they’re losing their identity or losing their future,” he said. “Message received.”
He’ll be “highlighting another part of the valley” on Monday, he told reporters at his Thursday event.
There are serious questions about what effect Trump’s mass deportation plan will have on the farming industry in areas like Fresno. According to La Cooperativa, a Sacramento-based farmworker assistance group, 75% of California’s farmworkers are undocumented. California produces about one-third of the nation’s vegetables and nearly two-thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts.
Even without Trump’s deportation endeavor in effect yet, farmers have struggled in recent years to find people willing to do the grueling, back-breaking labor in their fields. Those shortages don’t have farms turning to American-born workers, but rather to automation and AI-powered technology.