Newsom Plays Fortnite, Talks Kamala Harris, Snoop Dogg And How Dems ‘lost’ Young Men

SACRAMENTO, California — Gavin Newsom, playing Fortnite and talking politics for an hour with one of his kids’ favorite Twitch streamers Friday, cursed his in-game deaths while waxing on about subjects ranging from Kamala Harris to immigration and tech and wishing aloud that he could play as Snoop Dogg, his constituent whose counsel he has sought in the past.

Then, while praising the success and influence of podcasts, the California governor and likely 2028 presidential candidate rattled off a wishlist of video game streams he wants to go on, said he’s working on appearing on the YouTube channel Nelk and suggested that he might go to the streaming convention TwitchCon later this year.

“Democrats haven't been talking to young men, and we've lost them,” Newsom told the YouTube creator who goes by “ConnorEatsPants,” bemoaning the way “the other side’s weaponized that.”

It was Newsom’s latest in a string of attempts to break through a fractured media environment and reach young men, who drifted from the Democratic Party last fall. ConnorEatsPants has more than 700,000 followers on Twitch, the streaming platform. It’s the kind of audience rising Democrats are desperate to connect with — and that Newsom is cultivating with his online mockery of President Donald Trump.

Referring to his irreverent memeing, the governor said of his party: Democrats are “not the most — I don't know — entertaining or humorous folks.”

Newsom didn’t spend the whole hour flagellating the Democratic Party. But he did say he asked Harris why she didn't mention in her new book that he endorsed her within hours of Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race. Harris wrote that Newsom was purportedly hiking at the time, promised to call back, and never did.

“She says: ‘On book tour. Get back to you later,’” Newsom, a longtime friend and rival of the former vice president, continued with a chuckle. “Anyway, that's the relationship.”

The governor treaded lightly on the subject of New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, saying, “I don’t know enough about him, except what I read and see.” (Harris tepidly endorsed Mamdani, unlike some other party leaders.)

The interview saw somewhat awkward moments while Newsom and the host discussed difficult topics including transgender athletes and Israel. But they were brief, and Newsom got exposure to an audience of gamers in a largely friendly setting. Then he jumped off the call, saying he had to run to a meeting with the San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board as it weighs Newsom’s ballot measure to gerrymander California’s House maps in response to a similar effort in Texas.

“'I’m going new school with you,” he told ConnorEatsPants, before going “old school.”