Young Man in a HurryYoung Man in a Hurry

"Young Man in a Hurry" traces Newsom's personal background, family history, and rise in California public life. The book describes his upbringing in San Francisco, shaped by his parents' contrasting worlds and his experience with undiagnosed dyslexia. Newsom recounts how these influences informed his views on opportunity, public service, and the "California Dream." He outlines key moments in his career, including his tenure as mayor of San Francisco--where he authorized same-sex marriage licenses in defiance of state law--and his initiatives on climate policy, mental health, and gun safety. The narrative follows his transition to governor during a period marked by major wildfires and national political tension. Throughout, Newsom reflects on the personal and historical forces that shaped his political identity and approach to leadership.
"Go slow," his political elders advised him, but Gavin Newsom has never known such a speed. For Newsom, the California Dream is what lured his father's family from County Cork, Ireland, six generations ago. His great-great-grandfather, a cop, walked a beat in San Francisco, where almost 150 years later, Newsom would be elected as mayor, running on the values instilled in him by his family history: that California's open arms must continue to extend to each new generation. Newsom has never lived anywhere but California. Born in San Francisco, his parents divorced at a young age, and his childhood was spent being tugged between two worlds: his mother worked three jobs in order to care for her children while his father, a close friend of the Getty family, brought Newsom into San Francisco society, a world of wealth and connections. The dissonance was frustrating, and made all the more difficult because of undiagnosed dyslexia, but the vantage point was valuable: he inherited his mother's perseverance and his father's reverence of California, not only its wildness, but its opportunity. In Young Man in a Hurry, Newsom traces the forces that have defined his ambitions as a politician and have pushed him to outpace the nation on myriad cutting-edge social issues that have since entered the mainstream. As mayor of San Francisco, he made waves when he violated state law in order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, more than ten years before the Supreme Court made such unions legal. He launched bold efforts to counter climate change, improve mental health care, and enhance gun safety, and worked to preserve the California Dream for his constituents. Elected as governor on the eve of unprecedented wildfires and entering office into immediate hyper-partisan headwinds from Washington, DC, Newsom has constantly and consistently stuck his neck out. Here for the first time, he reflects on the long personal journey that ultimately shaped him into one of the most recognizable and accomplished elected officials in America. Filled with intimate family history and written with candor and remarkable personal insight, here is a deeply resilient California story of identity, belonging, and the defining moments that inspired a life in politics.