Newsom is running, there will be no primary (just like with Hillary when they merked Bernie, just like when Kamala took over for Biden without a single vote), and the machine will work overtime to downplay Newsom's terrible political record.Newsom's positioning himself for a 2028 run at the White House. He's doing whatever he can to stay "relevant", to throw topics at the wall and see what sticks, what doesn't, who responds, how, etc. The Democrats are leaderless and their only guiding ideologies are those rejected last November, but they have nothing else to run on or to believe in so they will grasp at straws and let a Royal Rumble decide who makes a run at the title.
I have seen this movie before, and it sucks.