Back in March, I was a guest on The Officer Tatum Show on Salem News Channel, appearing with guest host Carl Jackson. Before we went on the air, Carl and I were chatting and he started the conversation by laughing and saying that he wanted to ask me about my governor, Gavin Newsom, because he hears I’m a big fan. (That last bit was obviously sarcastic.)

Carl, who lives in Florida, shared with me that he once thought Newsom really had a shot at the presidency because people were so ignorant about what he really is, but thought that couldn’t be the case anymore because there have been so many stories about his failures and, well, people see the condition the state is in.

Au contraire.

Progressives, Newsom's base, only pay attention to the mainstream media, and for the most part, the mainstream media won't amplify anything negative about Newsom, so progressives won't even see criticism of Newsom. Conservatives shrug their shoulders and say "Meh, it's California; they voted for it; they didn't recall him" when stories come out about Newsom's abuses of power and the terrible fallout of his insane policies, or about his corruption and hypocrisy. Some even claim that Ron DeSantis' COVID policies were just as draconian and horrible as Gavin Newsom's, a claim that's simply insulting and, I'm sorry, moronic.

If conservatives don’t start paying attention to what’s actually going on in California and especially to Newsom and the way he maneuvers, we’ll end up with Gavin Newsom in the White House, either in 2024 or 2028. While Kamala Harris, the last Californian to fail upward, hasn't been able to take her reign of terror national, Newsom is no Kamala Harris. He's more of a Barack Obama, with a San Francisco machine that might even be more violent and corrupt than Obama's Chicago machine.

(Read about two of Newsom's allies, convicted murderer and Chinese gangster Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow and former gun control legislator Leland Yee, who went to federal prison for, seriously, arms trafficking.)

We cannot allow Gavin Newsom to continue to fail upward.

Conservatives have an opportunity to (hopefully) see Newsom under a bit of pressure this week when the much-anticipated debate between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom takes place. I say “much-anticipated,” but judging by comments on social media over the weekend far too many conservatives think it’s a nothingburger or aren't looking at this event under the proper framing.

For example, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) pooh-poohed the debate on Twitter Sunday, mistakenly believing it's directly related to the 2024 presidential primaries.

This debate is being held in Alpharetta, GA where I lived for over 20 years.

I can tell you right now GA is supporting Trump.

No one cares about this debate except the Rep establishment, who is completely disconnected with Rep voters.

Already a fail.https://t.co/rByiqugKsR

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) November 26, 2023

Many other Trump surrogates have given similar takes, and they're all missing the big picture. Dismissing this debate as irrelevant because it's a battle between two ambitious men who, more likely than not, will not be at the top of their respective tickets in 2024, or because Trump isn't on the stage, is a mistake. Similarly, the Trump supporters who believe this debate is simply an opportunity for a Democrat to make their chief primary opponent look bad are exceedingly short-sighted.

So, why is this debate not just relevant, but of vital importance? Why should all Republicans, regardless of who they support in the GOP presidential primary, be doing everything they can to support DeSantis in the debate?

The short answer is that if Gavin Newsom gets his clock cleaned in this debate, or is damaged in any significant way, the Democrat party will feel the sting for years to come.

The longer answer is that a DeSantis win in the debate is a win for individual liberty over authoritarianism, a win for local control over central planning, and a win for conservative, small-government principles. A DeSantis win isn't just about DeSantis; it's a rebuke of everything dictators like Joe Biden, Kathy Hochul, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, and their fellow travelers stand for.

Importantly, this debate is an opportunity for Republicans to (figuratively) punch the up-and-coming star of the Democrat party in the throat and expose him for the hypocritical dictator that he is, effectively dashing his plans to continue failing upward. Kneecapping (again, figuratively) Newsom will help both Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis - and many other Republicans running in 2024 and beyond. Republicans have the opportunity to exploit Dem golden boy Newsom's biggest weakness - narcissism - and set their opponents back many years or even a decade nationally, much the way Democrats in California's 27th District have been set back after Katie Hill's resignation in 2019 when RedState exposed her sexual harassment of a staffer.

If you recall, Hill beat incumbent Steve Knight* in 2018 by eight points in what had been a reliably red district. She resigned at the end of October 2019, and Democrats didn't have a solid bench in place because they counted on the 32-year-old Hill being in D.C. for a very long time. As a result, Republican Mike Garcia won a special election to fill the seat in 2020 and has been re-elected twice. Garcia's largest margin of victory came in 2022, even though redistricting made it a D+4 district.

A DeSantis win in this debate is vital, but he faces an uphill climb. Having Sean Hannity as the moderator is worrisome; Hannity is either unable or unwilling to go hard on Newsom, as demonstrated by his weak interviews on his regular show and after the Reagan Library debate. After watching the two interact in person in the spin room after the debate, it's clear that Newsom has won Hannity over on a personal level. As I remarked to a colleague that night, "I bet they're gonna go get some animal style fries at In-N-Out after this." And Hannity tends to bloviate a bit, so DeSantis will have to fight to get two words in, will have to ignore Newsom's gaslighting, and will have to bring receipts. Let's hope he's up to the task.

BONUS: Read my ever-expanding Twitter thread of Gavin Newsom's abuse of Californians during his first term as California governor on Threadreader.

(*DISCLAIMER: The author worked on former Rep. Steve Knight's first campaign for Congress in 2014.)