Gavin Newsom’s memoir landed on two bestseller lists. His own PAC paid for most of the copies.
New federal filings show Newsom’s political action committee, the Campaign for Democracy, cut a check for $1,561,875 to a book distributor to buy roughly 67,000 copies of his memoir “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery.” Those books were then handed out to donors who gave any amount at all.
Total print sales for the memoir sit at just over 97,000 copies. That means PAC-funded bulk purchases account for about 69 percent of everything the book has ever sold.
The filings dropped Wednesday and they directly contradict how Newsom’s team described the book’s success. Back in March, his office issued a press release boasting that “more than 91,000 copies sold through organic, in-person and online, non-bulk purchases” had pushed the memoir onto USA Today and New York Times lists. The math on that claim doesn’t work once you see the PAC disclosures.
Spokesman Nathan Click told the New York Times the whole thing was worth it financially. “We were thrilled with the response,” he said. “Our goal was to deepen the relationship between him and the millions of folks who have already expressed support.” Click said the fundraising haul from the promotion exceeded what the PAC spent on the books.
In his own emails to supporters, Newsom was blunt about the motive. He acknowledged that passing Proposition 50, a redistricting measure his office backed, had burned through his political cash. “We just spent a bunch of money on passing Prop 50,” he wrote, “so now I need to refill the coffers for the fights ahead.” The book was the vehicle.
The book purchase was the PAC’s single biggest expense in the first quarter of 2026.
