BY THE TIME GAVIN NEWSOM stepped onto the Penn Center’s campus on Thursday afternoon, there was hardly any standing room left.
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NEWSOM → step → afternoon
Not even the lack of air conditioning in the sweltering heat of South Carolina’s Lowcountry was enough to deter hundreds of Democratic voters from gathering.
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lack → deter → voters
They had come to hear from the flashy Democratic governor with Pacific Coast sensibilities who was venturing out east to, ostensibly, help the party make inroads in states like theirs—but who understood, as they did, the new responsibility the Palmetto State had as the first in the calendar to select a 2028 presidential nominee.
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State → come → nominee
To get there requires a pilgrimage through history.
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get → get → history
Situated along a street shaded by oak trees and Spanish moss, the original Penn School was built during Reconstruction to educate freedmen and women.
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School → situate → freedmen
Renamed the Penn Center in 1950, it served as a meeting site for Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
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it → rename → Jr.
To reach it, you drive past both weathered plantation-style houses and Gullah Geechee restaurants—a contrast that nods to the region’s complicated past.
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that → reach → past
And you have to understand that past if you want to reach the voters here.
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you → have → voters
Because this coming cycle, black voters in the South will have an outsized impact.
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voters → have → impact
David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, recently laid out the case in an op-ed, pointing to South Carolina’s prominence and Virginia’s new slot early in the calendar.
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Plouffe → lay → calendar
“A candidate who wins the Black vote in South Carolina, navigates the rest of the early states respectably and wins the demographic again in Virginia will be close to inevitable,” he wrote.
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he → win → Virginia
And it was an early attempt to communicate that he understands the complexities of the South.
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he → communicate → South
But it also showed how difficult it will be to bridge those significant cultural gaps.
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it → show → gaps
Those who came to see Newsom were largely retirees—many of whom told me they were transplants from New York or New Jersey.
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they → come → York
They wore sundresses and golf polos emblazoned with logos from nearby resort communities.
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They → wear → communities
They knowingly nodded their heads when Newsom joked about how he’d self-medicated in the early days of the second Trump administration by binge-watching Rachel Maddow.
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he → nod → Maddow
They smiled in agreement when he mentioned his love of Ken Burns.
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he → smile → Burns
And they gushed over former CNN anchor turned independent media star Don Lemon when he and his entourage strutted through the door.1
These voters matter, of course.
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voters → gush → course
They’re another bedrock of the Democratic coalition.
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They → ’re → coalition
That Newsom could draw so many of them out on an oppressive summer day in the South underscores his early frontrunner status.
uncertain
draw → draw → status
He’s charismatic, able to get attention, and can raise money.
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He → ’ → money
He’s positioned himself as a political brawler in an era where Democratic voters are desperate for one.
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voters → position → one
And his successful redistricting effort—which very well could be what delivers Democrats the House in November—has earned him an enormous amount of goodwill within the party.
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what → deliver → party
But in conversations with South Carolina Democratic officials and operatives, the tone around Newsom was
Ideally, this would be the part where you simply kept reading.
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you → keep → Newsom
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us → ask → Bulwark+
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Join → join → post
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subscription → get → Podcast
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who → help → membership
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