Gavin Newsom
Role at the time: Governor of California, posting on his official X account and through his office's official press release
Statement summary
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order accelerating implementation of the state's independent AI oversight laws (SB 813 and AB 1405), directing state agencies to convene experts on further measures including a frontier-model "kill switch," citing the Hugging Face attack as a motivating incident. He called on Speaker Mike Johnson to return from recess and pass national legislation modeled on California's framework, saying California will continue to act if Congress does not.
“Today I'm signing an executive order to speed up a first in America AI safety policy that we have here in California. [...] It dramatically speeds up our new law, creating a framework for truly independent safety checks, independent verification organizations, as well as moving the timeline up for oversight of AI auditors up by a full year. [...] California will do what it can, but this nation needs to get in the game. Washington DC needs to do its job. Remarkably, they left for a summer break. Mike Johnson should return from vacation and follow California's lead by passing national legislation. Get it done. That's what leadership requires, setting a comprehensive safety framework as a floor. [...] And if Congress, again, won't act, California will.”
Official California governor's office release, September 18, 2026, announcing an executive order that accelerates implementation timelines for SB 813 (independent verification organizations) and AB 1405 (AI auditor registry), and directs state agencies to convene experts on further measures including a frontier-model "kill switch." It cites the Hugging Face attack as a motivating incident and explicitly calls on Congress and Trump to adopt California's framework as a national floor. This is the fuller official record of the same announcement Newsom posted to X the same day.
Why we used this label
Newsom endorses it directly, both through his own state action and by explicitly calling on Congress, naming Speaker Johnson, to pass comparable federal legislation. That places him with the same week's cluster of Democratic officials making this argument: Jeffries (985), Ansari (988), Crow (995), Shapiro (1011) and Pritzker (1013). The closest competing label is condemns, since the statement criticizes Trump and Congress as "asleep at the wheel"; that loses because the criticism is that they have failed to enact safeguards Newsom supports, which endorses the proposition. Unlike Shapiro and Pritzker, Newsom's statement is backed by an actual executive order and existing state law (SB 53, SB 813, AB 1405) rather than a stated aspiration alone.