California Governor Gavin Newsom making media roundsafter the CNN Presidential Debate.
Sacramento, California – One year after Donald Trump’s return to the White House rattled California Democrats and sent the party into a defensive crouch, anti-Trump sentiment has given Gov. Gavin Newsom and his allies a sweeping political resurgence. A new Public Policy Institute of California survey shows both the governor and the state’s Democratic-dominated Legislature climbing back above 50 percent approval — a sharp reversal from the gloom that defined early 2025.
Newsom’s favorability jumped from 46 percent in June to 56 percent in December, a ten-point surge that mirrors rising Democratic enthusiasm across the state. The Legislature likewise enjoyed an eight-point bump, reaching 53 percent approval. The shift coincides with Democrats’ aggressive embrace of Proposition 50, a gerrymandered House map engineered to kneecap Trump and reshape California’s role in next year’s midterms.
“Folks are in a post-Proposition 50 state of mind,” said PPIC polling director Mark Baldassare. “The public feels that the governor and Legislature’s interests are aligned more with theirs than the president and Congress — and the Supreme Court, for that matter.”
For the first time since 2021, a sustained majority of voters — 51 percent — said California is on the right track. That optimism is being driven by independents turning more upbeat and Democrats showing double-digit gains in confidence, even as Republicans remain deeply sour. The midterm maps, which intentionally bolster Democratic competitiveness while diminishing GOP footholds, are clearly shaping expectations.
The polling underscores a Democratic electorate that has shaken off the defeatism of Trump’s reelection and embraced a more confrontational posture. The landslide victory for Prop 50 last month capped a year in which California Democrats abandoned their early talk of moderation and pivoted toward open defiance of the Trump administration. Sweeping immigration raids, proposed spending cuts, and culture-war flashpoints galvanized the party’s base and shifted Newsom’s tone from diplomatic to combative.
Newsom now points to Prop 50, along with Democratic wins nationwide, as proof that the party is “in its ascendancy.”
Still, the governor faces stubborn vulnerabilities at home. Voters across the political spectrum overwhelmingly describe California as too expensive, with housing remaining the dominant source of dissatisfaction. But even that concern is overshadowed by a more existential anxiety: a plurality of voters — and a majority of Democrats — say the single most important issue facing the country is “political extremism or threats to democracy.” It’s a theme Newsom has hammered relentlessly, portraying Trump’s return as a warning flare for the nation’s democratic institutions.
If the PPIC poll is any indication, California voters are listening. And as 2026 approaches, Democrats in the Golden State appear newly energized, newly united — and newly convinced that fighting Trumpism is not only a moral imperative but a political advantage.
