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If Democrats are seriously considering Gavin Newsom as their next presidential nominee, voters should ask one very simple question, why would we hand the rest of America the same leadership California has already experienced?Forget the speeches, the hair, the television appearances and the carefully polished national image. Look at the results.California has enormous natural advantages. It has world class agriculture, technology, entertainment, ports, energy resources, spectacular geography and one of the largest economies on Earth. Yet ordinary families still face some of the highest costs and tax burdens in America.The U.S. Energy Information Administration says California had the highest state taxes and fees on gasoline in the country at the beginning of 2026, 70.9 cents per gallon. California's own Franchise Tax Board says the maximum personal income tax rate reaches 13.3 percent. Census data also put California among the states with the highest Supplemental Poverty Measure rates, at 17.7 percent for the 2022 through 2024 period.That is the record voters should examine, not the campaign packaging.Newsom can blame Republicans, Washington, oil companies, corporations or whoever happens to be politically convenient on a given day, but at some point leadership has to own outcomes. Newsom has had the opportunity to demonstrate what his governing philosophy produces when given enormous power and enormous resources.Now imagine exporting that philosophy nationwide.More taxes. More regulation. More government intervention. More excuses when the promised results fail to materialize.I know my answer.Voters would be fools to look at California, see the affordability problems, the tax burden and the economic pressure on working families, then decide the solution is to give the man running that system control over the entire federal government.California is not merely Gavin Newsom's résumé.It is his warning label.Would you trust Gavin Newsom to do for America what he has done for California?