A member of the Democratic Party , he served from to as the 49th lieutenant governor of California and from to as the 42nd mayor of San Francisco. Newsom graduated from Santa Clara University in with a Bachelor of Science in political science.
Afterward, he founded the boutique winery PlumpJack Group in Oakville, California , with billionaire heir and family friend Gordon Getty as an investor. The company grew to manage 23 businesses, including wineries, restaurants, and hotels. Newsom began his political career in , when San Francisco mayor Willie Brown appointed him to the city's Parking and Traffic Commission.
Newsom was elected mayor of San Francisco in and reelected in He was elected lieutenant governor of California in He also wrote the book Citizenville , which focused on using digital tools for democratic change.
He was reelected in and elected governor of California in During his governorship, Newsom faced criticism for his personal behavior and leadership style during the COVID pandemic , particularly due to strict lockdown measures that some felt were overly restrictive and economically damaging. One of Newsom's maternal great-grandfathers, Scotsman Thomas Addis , was a pioneer scientist in the field of nephrology and a professor of medicine at Stanford University.
Newsom is the second cousin, twice removed, of musician Joanna Newsom. Newsom's parents divorced in when he was three years old. Newsom has said he did not have an easy childhood, partly due to "pretty severe" dyslexia. It has challenged his abilities to write, spell, read, and work with numbers. To this day, he prefers to interpret documents and reports through audio.
