California Governor Gavin Newsom visited Nashville, Tennessee, Feb. 21 for the first stop of his “Young Man in a Hurry” book tour. Newsom sat down to have a conversation with Justin Kanew from The Tennessee Holler, a progressive local news site. It’s no coincidence that Nashville was Newsom’s first stop of the tour, as large numbers of Californians have been moving to Nashville for various reasons in recent years.  

Vanderbilt’s student body has many Californians, and the school recently announced a new undergraduate campus in San Francisco, making Newsom’s visit an important one for students.  

A long line of people waited outside the OZ Arts Nashville performing arts theater to enter the event. Inside the venue, hundreds of chairs filled a large room facing a stage. After a while, the lights dimmed, and spokespeople from OZ Arts introduced the speakers.

Kanew started out the night thanking the governor for sitting down to talk with him and complimenting him for causing commotion with his visit to Tennessee. 

“[Newsom] must be doing something right because Marsha Blackburn seems very triggered by the fact that he’s here today,” Kanew said.  

This comment came in response to Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn posting a video to social media about the Newsom’s visit to Nashville, telling viewers that Tennessee will never become a blue state.  

Kanew continued by praising the people of Tennessee for using their power during a time of turmoil in state politics, commending people in Wilson County for standing up to ICE by protesting at an ICE detention center and children walking out of schools. He also gave a shout-out to the residents of Franklin and Johnson City for showing up for their communities in various ways.  

“Showing up is what matters because standing up to fascism and authoritarianism is job number one right now,” Kanew said.  

Kanew and Newsom began discussing Newsom’s new book “Young Man in a Hurry,” and Kanew joked about pretending not to know why Newsom was writing a book, a hint at the rumors of Newsom’s run for president in 2028. Newsom explained that after he was elected to his position, Penguin Press reached out to him and asked him to write a book. He explained that he decided to write the book during the COVID-19 pandemic but soon realized it was not the journey he was expecting. Newsom said that as he wrote the book, he had to research and learn about his parents and grandparents in ways that he had not before.  

“It is the opposite of a political memoir,” Newsom said. “This is messy. It’s life, it’s humbling.” 

Newsom admitted he had spent his life under a mask of who he thought he was supposed to be, striving for what he thought success was. Overtime he realized that he didn’t like who he was becoming as a person, a brother or a son.  

Newsom began to describe his childhood with a single mother and a father who left early on. His father, William Newsom, a judge, left his mother after he was born. He told the audience about how his mother had discouraged him from going into politics because of her experience watching his father crumble from the stress of it

Newsom stressed the strength of his mother as a single mother, working multiple jobs while still raising her children with grit and resilience. His mother, Tessa Menzies, died 20 years ago from physician-assisted suicide while fighting breast cancer. Newsom admitted that he had been an insufficient son to his mother, losing connection with her prior to her death.

“I was so focused on being something that I was never the kind of son she deserved,” Newsom said.  

Newsom explained his reliance on needing his mother while never realizing that she needed him as well.  

Kanew then pivoted the conversation to ask Newsom about homelessness in the country. Newsom explained that homelessness was one of the reasons he wanted to become mayor, striving to make an actual change. He admitted struggles with housing, touching on a supply and demand imbalance in the state, claiming there are simply not enough housing units, making existing units unaffordable. Newsom claimed that there was a 9% decline in homelessness this year.  

Kanew responded to these comments by arguing that President Donald Trump’s administration is using its budget on unrelated issues, sparking a new conversation. Newsom then began disavowing President Trump’s current spending habits. 

“The Trump story is a corruption story,” Newsom said. “It’s about his personal portfolio. It’s profit-making not policy-making.”  

Newsom began discussing various negotiations Trump has made, claiming he has let countries off the hook in situations where the president has personally gained from the deal. Kanew directed the conversation to times where the governor has stood up to Trump, specifically regarding redistricting and same-sex marriage.  

“It’s America in reverse right now. These guys want to bring us back to a pre-1960s world. LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, voting rights, civil rights, they’re rewriting history, censoring historical facts,” Newsom said. “We’ve never seen anything like this in our modern lifetime.”  

Kanew then asked Governor Newsom about ICE and pushed back when Newsom didn’t directly give his opinion on the matter.  

“It’s a police state that [President Trump] is promoting,” Newsom said.  

Newsom said he was pleased with the Democratic Party for finally standing up and blocking funding to ICE and called for reform of ICE, praising the organizations’ original purpose of public safety. Newsom commended the people of Minneapolis for protesting and showing up for their state.  

“The presidency is not a prize, Donald Trump. It’s a responsibility. The most important office is the office of citizens,” Newsom said.  

The governor stressed the importance of the American people showing up in great numbers and taking a stand in their country. He highlighted how crucial it is not to let state representatives off the hook. He asked the American people to be vigilant in calling out injustice with clarity and conviction. 

“Trump throws out these things to see how far he can go. That’s why it’s so important you don’t just roll your eyes and say, ‘that’s just Trump being Trump.’ You will lose this country if we continue with that. You have got to call it out.”