SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom, who assailed conservative Republican leaders and their policies while celebrating California’s progressive values during his first four years in office, is launching his second term in similar fashion.
On Friday, Newsom will kick off his second inauguration with a march to the state Capitol, where he will be sworn in for another four years in California’s highest elected office.
The celebration falls on the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, giving California’s Democratic governor another opportunity to portray the Golden State’s case as a bulwark against far-right extremism.
“This observance of the California spirit of opportunity and inclusion — ‘the California Way’ — will stand in peaceful contrast to the violent insurrection and assault on our democracy which occurred two years ago,” Newsom’s inaugural committee wrote in a statement.
Few details about the event have been made public, but on Wednesday morning fencing was already being staged on the west side of the Capitol building.
The inauguration plans were first unveiled in an email to Newsom’s reelection campaign supporters on Dec. 20, announcing a vague intention of holding a march and swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 6. Those interested in attending were asked to RSVP online to reserve spots. The invitation stated event staff would be checking IDs for ticketed attendees.
The festivities are expected to begin late Friday morning with a march down the Capitol Mall, ending at the traffic circle west of the Capitol building. Newsom will then be sworn in and speak about his ambitions for the new term. A permit approved by California Highway Patrol’s capitol protection agency allows for up to 1,000 attendees.
Inaugural celebrations for California’s highest-ranking elected officials typically occur in the first week of January, so it’s not unusual that Newsom’s would fall on Jan. 6. What would be unusual for Newsom is passing up a fresh opportunity to castigate conservative leadership and far-right extremism.
After the 2021 attack on the Capitol, Newsom called it an “outright assault to our democracy and Democratic institutions.”
Newsom’s first inaugural remarks in 2019 were a forceful rejection of the Trump administration’s policies and the positioning of California’s progressive values as an honorable alternative.
Over the course of his first term, Newsom made national headlines for feuding with conservative governors in Republican-led states, denouncing former President Donald Trump of “corruption and incompetence” and chastising his own Democratic Party for failing to create a “compelling alternative narrative” to Republican rhetoric.
Newsom’s second inauguration will look noticeably different than the first.
He took office in 2019 amid nearly a decade of economic expansion that swelled the state budget to a remarkable surplus. His initial swearing-in ceremony was the most extravagant and star-studded for a California governor in two decades.
It lasted two days and culminated the governor taking an oath of office on the Capitol steps. The weekend of celebrations featured a charity concert headlined by Pitbull to raise money for wildfire victims, a luncheon at Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum and a children’s event at the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time that ticket packages were being sold for up to $200,000 for the inaugural festivities and up to $1 million for corporate sponsorships of the charity concert.
But this time around, as the state faces a projected $25 billion budget deficit, the celebration appears to be noticeably subdued. It falls just days before he’s set to unveil his plan to address the anticipated shortfall in the upcoming budget.
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