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By Marni Rose McFall
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Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, viewed as a likely 2028 presidential candidate, has been spearheading the counterattack on Trump-driven redistricting efforts in Republican states—while courting a significant amount of attention and engagement.
Part of this awareness emanates from an unlikely area, as some on the far-right, including Nick Fuentes and the so-called Groypers, have begun embracing the California Democrat.
Newsweek has reached out to Newsom via email for comment.
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Why It Matters
The Groypers are a group of alt-right and white nationalists, led by Fuentes, an American far-right political pundit known for the promotion of white supremacist, misogynistic and antisemitic views.
Fuentes was previously aligned with President Donald Trump, having dined with him and Kanye West in 2022 at Mar-a-Lago. Fuentes did not endorse Trump in 2024, has criticized the MAGA movement as a "cult," and recently broke with the president during the fallout over the administration's handling of the investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
What To Know
In a video shared to X on August 20, Fuentes spoke at length about Newsom, his family and the race of his family. In the video, he also speaks about the race of the family of Vice President JD Vance.
Vance is married to Usha Vance, with whom he shares three children. She's the daughter of Indian immigrants and was raised in San Diego.
Following news of Vance's nomination as the vice presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election, rhetoric ensued online about his wife and children's ethnicity and they became targets of backlash over their Indian ancestry.
Fuentes was one voice among the rhetoric. In July 2024, he shared a video criticizing Vance, and questioning his support of "white identity."
In Fuentes' recent video about Newsom, which as of press time had been viewed over 800,000 times, he spoke about the California governor's family, describing them as "beautiful," and made reference to what he described as their "beautiful blood" and "beautiful genetics."
The response to the video has mainly come from members of Fuentes' support base, many of whom were critical of his support for Newsom—but several others shared similar opinions, with social media users responding "True," and "I agree," in the replies section on X.
The usage of "genes" in a context such as this has previously been described by experts as echoing a eugenicist ideology, which promoted white genetic superiority and enabled the forced sterilization of marginalized groups.
Newsweek spoke with Mia Bloom, professor of communications at Georgia State University. "Extremist movements cherry-pick what they like about a candidate. Their embrace of Newsom would be refuted by Governor Newsom," she told Newsweek via email.
"And unlike Trump, who refused to condemn his more extreme supporters, Newsom totally will! I would not assign too much real-world significance," Bloom added.
Newsweek also spoke with Thomas J. Main, a professor at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. He said that Fuentes' remarks in the X video "explicitly assert that Newsom's family is better than Vance's family because Newsom's family is white and Vance's family isn't. He praises the 'beautiful genetics' of the Newsom clan and criticizes Vance's wife and children for looking 'genetically' Indian. This is overt racialism: the illiberal ideology that whites are biologically superior to non-whites."
"In right-wing circles race baiting has been common for a long time. But with Fuentes the right has hit a new low. In the past, the respectable right accepted the idea that all people were politically equal and rejected the notion that race and physical appearance denoted moral worth. Of course, right-wingers often failed to live up to these principles and some, after taking measures to preserve plausible deniability, would race bait when that was politically useful," Main added.
Following Trump's return to office, there have been fractures among his supporters over issues including military strikes against Iran and the aforementioned handling of the Epstein files.
Some far-right figures' embrace of Newsom comes as he ascends to political prominence as one of the country's most high-profile Democrats. Newsom has, of late, crafted a persona as a Trump-style troll, posting in all capital letters on social media—a style reminiscent of the president's. He is increasingly being viewed as a potential Democratic nominee in the 2028 presidential election.
What People Are Saying
Mia Bloom, also an international security fellow at the New America Foundation, additionally told Newsweek: "Both Vance and Newsom have a support base beyond extremists. As long as they disavow their support, Groypers or other fringe right groups remain irrelevant."
Thomas J. Main, a professor at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs told Newsweek over email: "For Fuentes the problem is biological: Some people are simply worse as people because of their genetically-based racial features. Fuentes is promoting a radical form of illiberalism that rejects the idea that all people are created equal. That such an anti-democratic ideology is getting some traction on social media is symptomatic of the challenge now facing American liberal democracy."
What Happens Next
Newsom and Vance may well be rivals come 2028. But how the far-right's views on Newsom will evolve remains to be seen.
Update 9.1.25, 12:18 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Thomas J. Main.
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