Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom encouraged activists to follow the example of social leaders such as late civil rights activist Cesar Chavez during an event on Wednesday.
The democrat governor spoke at an event hosted by East Nashtivists, in Tennessee, discussing the importance of activism. Newsom’s speech at this event comes after his visit to South Carolina, an important state for the 2028 Democratic Presidential primaries, according to PBS News.
“You think about some of the most transformative leaders in our life,” Newsom told attendees. “You think about some of the most iconic leaders, like Dr. King or Havel or Mandela, or people like, well, like Chavez himself, and at the peak of their influence, they had one thing in common, and that was jail time.”
East Nashtivists is “progressive grassroots organization” aligning itself to causes and organizations such as Planned Parenthood and registering voters, according to its website. Newsom praised Chavez during his speech, pointing to the need for Democrats to break the law to obtain their intended outcome.
“I don’t think Gandhi spent a day of his life as prime minister, but all of them had something much more powerful than formal authority,” Newsom said. “They had something you have in abundance, and that’s called moral authority, and we can use a little of that in this country today.”
Chavez was incarcerated in 1970 for refusing an anti-boycott court order, spending 21 days in jail. He led the years-long United Farm Worker’s strike and was held in contempt of court for not stopping the boycott under court orders.
Newsom’s comments come as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launch raids across the country, most notably in Los Angeles. Anti-ICE riots that rocked the city last month left an estimated $20 million in damages. Democratic California Sen. Alex Padilla introduced a bill in Congress on Tuesday that would make it illegal for ICE agents to wear face covering.
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