California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) railed against the "poisonous populism of the right" on Tuesday, describing the Golden State as "the antidote" to fearmongering policies prevalent across red states.
"The California way of life we recognize is under attack," Newsom said in his pre-recorded State of the State address. "For conservatives and delusional California-bashers, their success depends on our failure."
Accusing Republicans of steering the country "towards a darker future," Newsom warned that these politicians are intent upon rolling back social, economic and racial justice, as well as clean water and air policies and "basic fundamental fairness."
The governor's address occurred days after Newsom and state legislatures reached an agreement on a $298 billion budget that aims to close California's looming $47 billion deficit.
Referring to that agreement, Newsom maintained that California remains "on strong fiscal footing,"
The governor's address had originally been scheduled for March but was delayed due to uncertainties surrounding his flagship Proposition 1 — a ballot measure focused on supporting homeless and mentally ill individuals — that passed narrowly in the primaries.
Newsom touted this small but significant victory in his speech Tuesday, describing such support services as "the biggest effort in our lifetime to combat substance abuse and mental health."
Proposition 1, the governor explained, allows the state to build more than 11,000 additional beds and housing "for those with the most challenging mental illness."
He accused Republicans, on the other hand, of having "turned their backs" and opted for inertia on the homeless issue.
Newsom also slammed conservatives for "cutting health care benefits and telling a woman she's not in charge of her own body" under a "distorted prism of political pandering."
"Their draconian policies are driving women to flee across state lines as fugitives from laws written by men more than 100 years ago," the governor said.
Speaking to the issue of border security, Newsom lashed out at Republicans in Congress for choosing "the dangerous path of chaos instead of doing their job to help us secure the border." Specifically, he blasted their repeated refusal to add thousands of new agents and approve millions of dollars of funding for border-adjacent communities.
The governor similarly attacked right-wing policies on crime, criticizing the "red state approach" to this subject as "divorced from reality" and favoring "diversion and distraction."
"People are gunned down at higher rates in Republican states than in Democratic states," Newsom said, stressing that eight of the country's 10 most violent murder states are red.
"Cities like Jacksonville and in Memphis have significantly higher homicide rates than cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles," he added.
The governor attributed these differences to California's progressive gun safety laws, while slamming conservative states for failing to follow the Golden State's lead.
"If every state in America and California's gun death rate over the past decade, 140,000 Americans would be alive today," he said.
Newsom also spoke to his state's leadership in the fight against climate change and in the electric vehicle (EV) sector, stressing that "the global EV market simply not exist but for California's clean air leadership."
"California has figured out a way to make it work time and time again — decade after decade," he added.
