California Gov. Gavin Newsom is going after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on guns and abortion, as he signed legislation Friday that will allow citizens to enforce the state’s gun control laws, modeled after Texas’s Senate Bill 8.
In full-page ads Friday in the Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle and El Paso Times, the California Democrat attacked the actions of Abbott and Texas’ Republican-run Legislature on abortion and gun control.
“Texans will wake up this morning to this simple message: If Texas can ban abortion and endanger lives, California can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives,” Newsom tweeted Friday about the ads.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 22, 2022
The ad is a play on Abbott’s words when he signed Senate Bill 8, which was one of the country’s most restrictive abortion laws at the time.
Abbott’s office said Newsom should worry about his own state.
“Governor Newsom should focus on all the jobs and businesses that are leaving California and coming to Texas,” Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said.
Over 80 companies moved their headquarters from California to Texas from 2019 to 2021.
On Friday, Newsom signed a law that would allow citizens to sue anyone who distributes illegal assault weapons. The bill was modeled after Senate Bill 8 in Texas, which allowed citizens to sue anyone suspected of providing an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
The bill’s unique enforcement mechanism was allowed to stand in the Supreme Court, even before it overturned Roe v. Wade, the precedent that established the constitutional right to an abortion.
The gun control bill is the first of its kind in the nation. The legislation has drawn criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, who said Newsom is attempting to skirt judicial review by using citizen enforcement.
“Replicating the reprehensible Texas model only serves to legitimize and promote it, as evidenced by the copycat measures already enacted in some states, with many more pending around the country,” the ACLU said.
Newsom is running for a second term as California governor. He beat an effort to recall him from his seat last year.
Newsom’s criticisms come in the wake of the shooting in Uvalde that left 21 people dead. Abbott and other Texas Republicans have not proposed tightening gun restrictions in response to the massacre.
In addition to the law allowing private citizens to sue gun distributors, Newsom has signed other gun control measures in recent weeks, including allowing gun violence survivors to sue manufacturers for violations of state sale and marketing laws.
In Texas, a trigger law that will ban almost all abortions is set to take effect in the coming weeks. Newsom signed a bill following the overturn of Roe v. Wade that would shield abortion providers and patients in California from being subject to criminal or civil penalties from other states.
Political squabbles between California and Texas aren’t new, and Abbott isn’t the first out-of-state Republican to be the target of Newsom’s attack ads. The Californian ran TV spots in Florida earlier this month, attacking Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republicans in the state.
“Freedom, it’s under attack in your state,” Newsom said in the ad. “Your Republican leaders, they’re banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors.”
DeSantis is a contender for the GOPs presidential nomination in 2024. Though no one has officially announced their bid for the presidency, DeSantis regularly comes second behind former President Donald Trump in polls.
Abbott’s name has also been floated as a possible 2024 contender. He has garnered between 0 and 3% in polls asking voters who they would choose in the Republican presidential primary.
Newsom’s advertising has fueled speculation he’s considering a run for the White House.
Though Newsom is taking his message outside the Golden State, he insists he’s not running for president in 2024. He told NBC News he wants President Joe Biden to run for a second term.
Newsom’s Texas ad buy cost $30,000, NBC News reported, and the Florida TV spots cost $100,000. His campaign has $23 million in cash on hand.