California governor Gavin Newson is currently visiting China to talk about climate change, economic development, tourism, and combating xenophobia. Before his China trip Newson went to Israel in response to the Hamas attack.
I was wondering if it is common for governors to visit foreign countries or can this be used as an indication that Newson will be running for president.
Edit: Newsom just met Xi, he’s probably running imo.
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https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/a-state-by-state-look-at-governors-trade-trips-abroad-their-costs-and-results
It is relatively common especially if the governor is planning on planning a future presidential bid which Newsom may be up to.
DeSantis (Florida’s governor) has taken trips abroad in the lead up to his presidential bid.
Otherwise it is usually done to support state business interests, specifically to support major state businesses and/or tourism. [Here’s a list of such trips governors have taken from various states.](https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/a-state-by-state-look-at-governors-trade-trips-abroad-their-costs-and-results.amp). It’s a bit of a dated link (2016) but it captures the general picture.
Foreign leaders will also do the same and [visit with state governors to shore up economic ties.](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/foreign-leaders-seek-fresh-ties-with-u-s-governors-mayors)
You have to remember we have states with GDP higher than some countries and have strong political powers because of our federal system so it shouldn’t be all that surprising for our state governments to seek out contacts with foreign leadership and vice versa.
Yes, California has the same size economy as Germany and the same size population as France.
States with a lot of foreign trade will send their governor abroad.
Yes, Governor Holcomb has gone to Taiwan, Korea, Japan, the UK, Sweden, and Monaco. I’m sure there are others as well.
Yes, governors will often travel to countries with economies connected to their state or to promote their state as a potential location for foreign companies to invest and build their North American production facilities.
Very normal. States have enormous economies and development is part of their job.
Governors and sometimes mayors of big cities, too. r/nova had a big drama recently about county-level officials going to Ghana and maybe a few other counties, too.
Visiting is normal, and not an indication of running for president. One of our recent governors visited China two or three times; I believe he was trying to get Chinese companies to invest and create jobs in Michigan.
Making speeches about all the aforementioned issues may indicate higher ambitions, but I don’t know.
Yea, our governor (Desantis) went to Japan, South Korea, Israel, and UK few months ago to talk with their leaders about how they can help us to make the Florida economy bigger IIRC.
Fairly uncommon at least for North Carolina (9th largest state by population) but it does usually happen maybe once per term. Just recently the governor went to a conference in Japan about bringing more manufacturing to the state.
It depends on the state. If the governor of Kentucky was visiting China, I’d wonder why, because Kentucky, as far as I know, has little to do with China, and such a visit would be a strain on their budget for no reason. The governor of California visiting them doesn’t surprise me at all, because California is a very rich state, and they have business dealings all over the world. Quite a lot of China’s goods enter the US market through California.
Also, I’d be shocked if Newson doesn’t run for President, but that has nothing to do with his China visit. It’s more about the way he’s been setting up his run for the last several years.
The stature of someone like Newsom (who is likely to run for President in the future and is the executive of what would be the world’s 5th largest economy were it a country plus being a leader in this nation in the area of climate change) traveling abroad is normal.
Someone like Kristi Noem taking foreign trips for the purpose of publicly discussing *anything* would surprise me
Fairly common, yes. Same with mayors of major cities. If there is a lot of foreign trade or a lot of immigration from that country in their state/city, they’ll try to coordinate improved trade or sometimes cultural exchanges to improve relations.
Newsom is seen as a likely Presidential candidate (in 2028, not 2024) and this undoubtedly helps his position. But it’s also a normal thing for him to do.
New York gov just went to Israel last week
We already know Newsom wants to run. The question remains whether the D party’s smoky rooms will allow him.
Yes, fairly common. Midwestern state governors go to foreign countries to help arrange trade deals for grain, for example.
Another example of diplomacy:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sanford_extramarital_affair
I feel like there’s an ulterior motive with Newson here. I mean hes meeting with one of the largest co2 producing countries about climate change and he’s meeting with the country who’s been mass imprisoning and torturing Uyghur Muslims about xenophobia. A governor isn’t going to change the way a foreign country feels about anything . Other governors have met with our allies about trade and economic stuff but this feels like posturing and overstepping the federal government with foreign policy
Yeah. NH’s Meldrim Tompson used to go to South Africa, back when. Not a super proud moment.
Yeah, it’s fairly common… especially for governors of states that do have strong international ties. And CA certainly fits that bill, between its tech and entertainment industries, ports/shipping, large international/immigrant population, etc.
You’re more likely to see a governor of a state like CA, NY, IL, FL visiting foreign countries than someplace like North Dakota.
People who dream of seeking another office often do.
Minnesota’s governor has traveled to both Japan and Norway that I can think of.
Yes.
Newsom wants to be president, so he is definitely engaging in international politics. That and he just passed a bunch of barbaric anti-poor people laws to get the conservative independents to vote for him. He is a real snake.
It is when the governor in question is clearly planning a run for the Oval Office.
Nothing unusual.
It’s not uncommon. U.S. governors have a great deal of power, particularly over their state’s economies, it makes sense for them to directly negotiate with trading partners.
Back in 2009, South Carolina’s governor Mark Sanford visited Argentina. To hike the Appalachian trail, he said.
Hochul just got back from Israel.
Hell the mayor of NY did a trip to Mexico about a month ago.
Ted Cruz goes to Mexico all the time. Mainly when a state of emergency is signaled in Texas.
It’s not unheard of. I think most states if not all have entire offices setup to deal with international business
Not unusual for them to visit foreign countries, but going to conflict zones, to my knowledge, is not so common. Especially while things are hot. I thought it was weird that Newsom and Hochul went. Hochul does have a pretty large Jewish population in NY though.
States have their own interests abroad and they pursue them within the restraints of the Constitution. Some states even have fairly close relations with foreign states due to these sorts of missions and due to other ties. For example, Michigan has a good relationship with Latvia which originated in the State Partnership program following the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. The program assigned a state’s National Guard to a willing post-Soviet state and Michigan was assigned Latvia.
The military ties are particularly close, for a few years at the height of GWOT joint Michigan/Latvian OMLT teams were sent to Afghanistan every year with leadership rotating between the two governments. The Michigan Guard is the only American military organization invited to some Baltic military exercise and the Latvians always come to Michigan for Operation Northern Strike as well as throughout the year.
Economic ties are also becoming closer and leaders from both governments have visited the other numerous times. Here are a couple of articles that show developments in recent years.
[https://www.baltic-course.com/eng/legislation/?doc=140738](https://www.baltic-course.com/eng/legislation/?doc=140738)
[https://apnews.com/article/michigan-governor-whitmer-europe-554945f5ac668408bc3e7756a7da2c11](https://apnews.com/article/michigan-governor-whitmer-europe-554945f5ac668408bc3e7756a7da2c11)
[https://www.michigan.gov/formergovernors/recent/snyder/press-releases/2018/06/12/michigan-governor-attends-street-naming-in-latvia-celebrates-state-partnership](https://www.michigan.gov/formergovernors/recent/snyder/press-releases/2018/06/12/michigan-governor-attends-street-naming-in-latvia-celebrates-state-partnership)
God, I hope not, we already have enough national embarrassments, I don’t want to add an *international* embarrassment to that list.
Yep, if I’m not mistaken, Kathy Houchel is in Israel right now, or at least was recently.