EXCLUSIVE: Following a week of violent riots in Los Angeles, conservative activist group Catholic Vote has released a report titled the "Gavin Newsom files," a report highlighting what the group calls the California governor's "extreme" and "viciously anti-Christian agenda."
Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, is among the top names being rumored for a 2028 presidential run.
Over the last week, he has been locked in a protracted war of words, which has also manifested itself in a court battle, over President Donald Trump's response to the riots in Los Angeles. Newsom has called Trump's use of the National Guard and Marines to respond to the rioting both "immoral" and "illegal."
A longtime progressive, Newsom has recently moved to present himself as more of a centrist, starting a podcast titled "This is Gavin Newsom" that hosted the likes of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
According to Catholic Vote's report, however, Newsom is "one of America's most radical, destructive politicians" who "remains the same ideologue who has trampled parental rights, championed the transgender mutilation of children, and taken pro-abortion advocacy to a sickening extreme."
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"California's governor claims to be a Catholic 'man of faith,'" says the report. "But he has a viciously anti-Christian agenda for America."
Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for Newsom, responded to the report by telling Fox News Digital that "we're not taking seriously any organization co-founded by a political hack who has sworn allegiance to President Trump, called Pope Francis' papacy a ruse, and justified cutting off U.S. foreign aid for the poor and hungry because he'd read some conspiracy theory about transgender mice experiments."
Catholic Vote endorsed Trump for president in 2024 and Catholic Vote founder Brian Burch was selected to be the administration's U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.
Richards said, "we encourage Catholic Vote, which does not represent the Catholic Church, to read Leviticus: 'You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.'"
The report highlights how, despite his recent rebranding, Newsom has long been at the forefront of pushing for ever more liberal policies, championing causes such as abortion and transgender treatments for children.
"Gavin Newsom may be adjusting his style and image. But he remains the same ideologue who has trampled parental rights, championed the transgender mutilation of children, and taken pro-abortion advocacy to a sickening extreme," says the report.
As a politician with rumored presidential aspirations, Catholic Vote highlights how Newsom has advanced his liberal agenda not just in California, but across the entire country.
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The group quoted Newsom from a 2008 interview during a court battle over same-sex marriage, saying: "As California goes, so goes the rest of the nation. It's inevitable."
Catholic Vote takes particular issue with Newsom's abortion advocacy, pointing to how he has aggressively expanded abortion in California, signing 12 pro-abortion bills in a single month in September 2022 and nine more again in 2023. The report says that despite professing to be a Catholic, Newsom has not only advocated for a right to abortion, but even used biblical scripture to advertise and promote abortion.
The report points to how, as governor, Newsom commissioned billboards in Oklahoma that advertised "Need an abortion? California is here to help," with a quote from the Bible saying, "Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these."
"This was deemed 'unconscionable' by the California Catholic Conference, and a 'reprehensible act of gross blasphemy' by a leading Protestant pastor. A statement from the Catholic League summed it up best, calling the billboard campaign 'demonic,'" says the report.
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Catholic Vote stated that "Few figures demonstrate the drift of America's political Left - away from the Clinton-era language of 'safe, legal, and rare,' and toward today's '#ShoutYourAbortion' attitude - better than Gavin Newsom."
The report also points to how Newsom has led the nation to "warp" the concept of parental choice to use it as a tool to advance transgender treatments for children. It points to how Newsom signed a bill in 2022 making California the nation's first "sanctuary state" for parents from other jurisdictions seeking to give their children hormone treatment, puberty-blocking drugs and more. It says that in 2023, Newsom again "doubled down on this strategy of imposing radical ideology and calling it 'freedom.' When he instituted new penalties on public school districts that fail to promote homosexuality and transgenderism to children, he framed this as a matter of 'families' having 'the freedom to decide what's right for them.'"
According to the report, Newsom's office released a statement in 2023 after he signed a slate of "Supporting LGBTQ+ Californians" policies that declared "hate-filled attacks" of "far-right extremists" would "not be tolerated."
Catholic Vote said that "if California is indeed 'America's Coming Attraction,' as Newsom claims, believers in Biblical truth - and biological reality - should be gravely concerned."
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"Inevitably, the advance of LGBTQ ideology threatens religious liberty and authentic freedom of conscience in society. These ideologues demand forms of approval and practical compliance that faithful Christians, and other critics of gender nonsense, cannot give them," says the report.
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"Americans have been shocked by the rioting and chaos in Los Angeles, but sadly, this reckless governance is all too common in Gavin Newsom's California," Catholic Vote Vice President Josh Mercer told Fox News Digital.
"As our new report, Newsom Files points out, the California governor refused to deal with vexing problems like drug dealers, shoplifters and the rampant homeless camps. Instead, Gavin Newsom was busy dreaming of the White House and spending taxpayer funds to put up billboards in Oklahoma that quote the Bible and urge people to fly to California to get an abortion," he said. "With his wacky priorities, it's no wonder people are fleeing California in droves."
