Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, one of the most high-profile politicians in the Democratic Party, is headed to New Hampshire next week.

The two-term Golden State governor who three years ago crushed a recall attempt by California Republicans will headline a campaign event and fundraiser on Monday, July 8 in Manchester for New Hampshire state House and Senate Democrats.

Newsom’s appearance in New Hampshire comes as Granite State Democrats work to win back majorities in both chambers of the state legislatures in November’s elections.

New Hampshire is a key swing state in the general election and Newsom, who is a top surrogate for President Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign, will also be campaigning for the president and other Democrats up and down the ticket during his stop in the Granite State, according to sources familiar with his plans.

“We look forward to welcoming Governor Newsom to New Hampshire to campaign on behalf of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as we work to once again defeat Donald Trump,” longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley said in a statement to the Monitor.

Arguing that “Trump has grown increasingly unhinged in his campaign for power,” Buckley emphasized that “it’s never been more important to mobilize Democrats across the state to defeat him and re-elect our President, Joe Biden, who has consistently fought for and delivered for New Hampshire.”

Newsom becomes the latest well-known politician to parachute into New Hampshire to campaign on behalf of Biden and down-ballot Democrats. And Newsom’s appearance in the state that for a century has held the first presidential primary in the race for the White House (and this cycle still held the first primary in the Democratic nominating calendar, even though it was unsanctioned after the Democratic National Committee put South Carolina first on its schedule) will definitely spark more buzz about a Newsom 2028 presidential bid.

Others in that category who have stopped in New Hampshire over the past year include fellow Democratic Govs. Tim Walz of Minnesota and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota – who ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination – and Rep. Ro Khanna of California. The politicians have helped the Biden campaign in New Hampshire, the Democratic National Committee and the state party open their coordinated campaign offices across the state, which now number 14, which far outweighs the footprint in New Hampshire by the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and the state GOP.

But Newsom’s trip is also coming in the wake of last week’s rough debate performance by President Joe Biden in his first face-to-face showdown with former President Donald Trump in their 2024 election rematch.

The 81-year-old president’s halting delivery and stumbling answers at the debate sparked widespread panic in the Democratic Party and spurred calls from political pundits, editorial writers, and some party politicians and donors, for Biden to step aside as the party’s standard-bearer.

Newsom, a top Biden campaign surrogate, told reporters in the spin room following the debate in Atlanta, Georgia that “I will never turn my back on President Biden and I don’t know a Democrat in my party that would do so. And especially after tonight. We have his back.”

And Newsom said “none” when asked if he had any concerns about Biden’s fitness for office. “I have no trepidation.”

Despite his very public backing of Biden, the trip to New Hampshire – which was scheduled well before last Thursday’s debate – is sure to spark further speculation that on the extreme longshot that Biden decides to end his White House bid – Newsom could be a possible replacement for the national ticket.

“While it may have been planned prior to last week’s debate, Gov. Newsom’s visit to the Granite State will surely fuel speculation about replacing President Biden on the presidential ballot. And while he may be here to stump for the President and down-ballot democrats, he is sure to get just as many questions about his own presidential ambitions,” longtime New Hampshire political scientist Wayne Lesperance, the president of the Henniker-based New England College, told the Monitor.

Poll position

A new poll conducted by Saint Anselm College’s Survey Center conducted on Friday and Saturday – entirely after last week’s debate – indicates Trump with a slight edge in the race for New Hampshire’s four electoral votes.

Trump stands at 44% support and Biden at 42% in the survey. The poll comes a couple of weeks after a survey from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center indicated a margin of error race between the two major party standard-bearers. The president won New Hampshire by seven points in the 2020 election, but four years early Trump narrowly lost the state by a razor-thin margin to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

“After a remarkable six months that saw him swiftly dispatch his primary rivals and become the first former President to be convicted of a felony, Donald Trump has erased a 10-point polling deficit and now leads President Joe Biden by a narrow two-point margin,” New Hampshire Institute of Politics Executive Director Neil Levesque said. “However, with 17 percent of voters having an unfavorable opinion of both candidates, this race is likely to remain volatile all the way to the finish.”