Gavin Newsom titled his new memoir Young Man in a Hurry, and it looks like you could say he was also a ‘2028 presidential hopeful in a hurry’ with the embarrassing tactic he used to get his book on the bestseller list.
In early March, the California governor’s team touted in a press release that due to “more than 91,000 copies sold through organic, in-person and online, non-bulk purchases in the United States, the memoir surged on bestseller lists within hours.”
In the release, Newsom – who is believed to have his sights set on the White House – claimed he was grateful for the positive response. “I’m humbled and grateful to everyone who picked up the book and engaged with this deeply personal story of discovery, grief, growth and pain,” he said. “This book reflects on the people and moments that shaped my life — from family and failure to public service — and the lesson that our journeys are rarely linear.”
Well, now we learning what all that “organic” support actually entailed.
The PAC Promotion
The New York Times reported Thursday that some two-thirds of Newsom’s book sales actually came from a giveaway promotion hawked by his super PAC, Campaign for Democracy Committee. A November email sent to supporters offered a copy of the memoir in exchange for “a contribution of ANY AMOUNT.” A similar offer went out in January and, according to The Times, “was included in the fine print of several other email solicitations, as well.”
Federal disclosures now reveal that some 67,000 donors took advantage of the deal, leading Newsom’s PAC to pay $1,561,875 to buy and distribute copies of his book through the program. The Times reported the PAC made two payments totaling more than $1.5 million to the Porchlight Book Company, listing the purpose as “books at cost.” That was apparently the group’s biggest expenditure “by far” in the first quarter of 2026.
It also helps to explain why Newsom’s book had the dreaded dagger icon when it appeared on The New York Times bestseller list last month. “When The Times has reason to believe that sales of a book include a mix of organic and bulk sales, the book’s best-seller ranking is accompanied by a dagger. That’s what we did with the Newsom book,” a Times spokeswoman said.
A spokesperson for Campaign for Democracy Committee, however, tried to spin the news, claiming the PAC made money off the promo and clarifying that Newsom does not receive royalties for books sold through the program.
“We were thrilled with the response,” the spokesperson told The Times. “Our goal was to deepen the relationship between him and the millions of folks who have already expressed support for Governor Newsom’s work. And as it turns out, the tactic more than paid for itself.”
Sagging Sales
While it may have been a net-positive for the PAC, the scheme reveals that Newsom’s sales figures are actually anemic. The Times reported that 97,400 print copies of Newsom’s memoir have been sold since publication on February 24, citing book industry sales tracker Circana BookScan, and we now know that 67,000 of them went to donors.
To make matters worse, Newsom’s team claimed 91,000 copies sold week one, which means only 6,400 have sold in the six weeks since. That’s despite the fact that the term-limited governor has been crisscrossing the country on an ill-fated book tour to hawk the tome.
Couple the slow sales with the fact that Newsom hasn’t led a 2028 Democrat primary poll since February, and things aren’t so golden for the Golden State pol. “They bought his way onto the list. They tried to give him a feather in his cap that he could brag about… He’s a ‘New York Times bestseller now,’ and it was all a scam,” Megyn said on Friday’s show.
“[They tried] to make him look good and to force his book on people,” she continued. “[They] wanted [you] to read his sob story about how he was allegedly born a poor… child who was raised basically by the Gettys and had millions of dollars foisted on him by that very rich family which effectively adopted him. So, he is a dishonest person. This we knew.”
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,298 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.