According to campaign finance filings, California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political action committee spent more than $1.5 million to buy thousands of copies of his new book, “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery.” The purchases made up roughly two-thirds of all copies sold in the U.S. and catapulted the book onto The New York Times bestseller list.
In an email to supporters, Newsom wrote, “Make a contribution of ANY AMOUNT today and I will send you a copy” of my new book. “It’s a good book. Very personal. Not your normal political book at all.”
The New York Times reported that 67,000 email recipients accepted the offer and Newsom’s PAC, the Campaign for Democracy Committee, spent “$1,561,875 to buy and distribute copies of his book through the donation program.”
A spokesman for Newsom, Nathan Click, said the new donations generated by the offer exceeded the cost of purchasing and mailing the 67,000 books. Click noted that Newsom does not receive royalties for books sold through the program.”
“We were thrilled with the response,” Click said. “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.”
It was also fundamentally misleading. It effectively tripled the book’s sales and helped secure a spot on The New York Times bestseller list.
As of Wednesday, book industry sales tracker Circana BookScan reported, “97,400 print copies of Mr. Newsom’s memoir have been sold since publication.” Stripping out the 67,000 copies distributed to donors, the book has sold an anemic 30,400 copies.
According to the Times:
Mr. Newsom’s team had hailed his book sales back in March, including a map in a news release showing all the sales by location across the country. “With 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,” the release said.The book also appeared on the New York Times best-seller list. Danielle Rhoades Ha, a Times spokeswoman, said: “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.”
Newsom is not the first politician to juice book sales in this way. What makes Newsom’s maneuver remarkable is its scale.
This strategy was most recently employed in January. A PAC tied to former Vice President Kamala Harris spent $97,000 to offer her memoir as a gift to donors.
The tactic has also been used by Republican politicians. The Republican National Committee spent about $100,000 in 2019 to purchase Donald Trump Jr.’s book, “Triggered.”
The Christian Science Monitor reported that, ahead of the 2016 presidential primaries, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign spent approximately $122,000 on his book, “A Time for Truth.” The New York Times had “previously refused to place his book on its bestsellers list in 2015, citing an ‘overwhelming preponderance of evidence’ of bulk purchases.”
CSM further noted that a PAC associated with former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin spent more than $63,000 on copies of her book, “Going Rogue,” for donor fulfillment.
In 2016, Donald Trump’s campaign used more than $55,000 in campaign funds to buy copies of his book, “Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again.”
Additionally:
[W]hile on book tour in 2010, former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mr. Romney, a millionaire, asked organizations to purchase the equivalent number of copies of his book in lieu of traditional speaking fees.
More recently, CSM credited “bulk purchases by GOP-affiliated groups” for propelling Sen. Josh Hawley’s 2021 book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech,” to the bestsellers list.
The outlet also claimed that in 2020, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D), Tom Cotton (R), Joni Ernst (R), Tim Scott (R), Tammy Duckworth (D), and Sherrod Brown (D) used campaign funds to buy their own books.
Forbes reported that as long as the candidate “does not receive personal royalties from the bulk purchases made by their campaigns or PACs,” this practice is legal.
As mentioned above, while politicians on both sides of the aisle are guilty of using this tactic, most purchases have remained at or below $100,000. Newsom’s total expenditure of $1.5 million, an amount that literally tripled sales of his book, is unprecedented.
This episode may offer us a glimpse of just how far this megalomaniac is willing to go in his pursuit of the presidency in 2028.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY