The most unusual presidential candidate: Newsom is dyslexic, struggles with speeches, rejects 'liberal' label

Gavin Newsom, who delights in using Trump-like trolling tactics, is widely viewed as the Democratic Party’s presidential front-runner.

He is riding a wave of interviews and podcasts, boosted by a new memoir, and trying to make the case that as California governor he is not as liberal as his record might suggest. Unlike most of his party, for instance, he opposes trans women athletes competing against men.

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But there is a central fact about Newsom that, while it may be known to insiders and to some in his home state, is undoubtedly news to most Americans.

Gavin Newsom is dyslexic. Seriously dyslexic. And as a new profile in the New Yorker makes clear, that affects his life every single day. 

Newsom showed author Nathan Heller a "folder of his printed material, his reading from the previous evening. Almost every word of text was underlined. He flipped through a galley proof of his memoir, in which the underlining covered whole pages–the only way, he said, that he could read any book, even his own. He produced another folder filled with lined paper and covered with his handwriting; he copies all the text he underlines onto writing pads."

And then it goes on yellow index cards.

The bottom line is that the governor struggles to do what every working politician needs to routinely do, and that’s deliver speeches. He has to copy each word down and memorize it. On a TelePrompTer, "he sees the lines of text … as a single image, like a Chinese character, which he uses to recall the next line."

California congresswoman Lateefah Simon says a four-hour podcast is easier for Newsom than a 10-minute speech.

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This disability affected his self-image growing up, when Newsom would sometimes fake being sick to be picked up early from school. "He always called himself stupid," his sister said.

During the 90-minute commute to Sacramento with his wife, a documentary filmmaker, and their four children, he makes notations that are later transferred to cards and pads.

So if Newsom were to make it to the Oval Office, he would clearly rely heavily on verbal briefings rather than poring over reports and documents.

The governor describes himself as having a hardscrabble upbringing, getting by on giant bowls of mac and cheese. One former associate told the New Yorker this was Newsom’s "‘I was born a poor Black child’ story."

In reality, he vacationed with John Paul Getty’s family, thanks to his father’s connections. Newsom’s parents separated when he was three,

There’s more to the narrative. Newsom’s sister Hilary chided him for continuing to work while their mother was engaging in assisted suicide. 

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Other parts of the life story recounted here are better known. The failure of Newsom’s marriage to Kimberly Guilfoyle, then a left-leaning lawyer in the DA’s office (who later joined Fox News, had an ill-fated engagement to Donald Trump Jr. and is now ambassador to Greece). How he had an affair with the city’s appointments secretary, who was married to one of his top aides, and admitted: "Everything that you’ve heard and read is true." 

And most damaging, during the pandemic, when the governor was urging Californians to avoid large gatherings, he dined, maskless, with medical executives and a lobbyist at the super-chic French Laundry. That led to a recall effort, which Newsom trounced by 24 points.

The governor, who has repeatedly failed to resolve the state’s homelessness problem, is an unusual dude. He worked against a union petition to raise taxes on billionaires, saying it would drive them out of the state. He told President Donald Trump that keeping the border sealed was crucial, and he wanted to drop California’s sanctuary-state status.

On Election Day last year, Newsom met with aides after spending three hours reading about electric vehicle policy.

"It’s a hell of a way to start every single day," he said. "How many books I could have read! Literature! Philosophy!"

Is America ready for Gavin Newsom, who has a massive social media following, as a potential president? Are voters ready for him as a person, dyslexia and all, and as a politician, when California is so easily caricatured as a liberal La-La-Land? 

I don’t know, and I don’t think he does, either. But we may soon find out.