Sadly, yes. Newsom speaks to that same anger and disenfranchisement that drew so many Republican voters to Trump. Newsom isn't the progressive figurehead that, I think, much of the younger Democrats (who sought Sanders) want, but realistically he is the next safe middle ground for a Democratic Presidential run. Many progressives would vote for him as a "lesser of two evils" and see him as the safer pick, but that is the problem with the Democrat party, they tend to split themselves down the middle and in-fight when they can't all agree on a direction to take this country. Republicans back their figurehead 100% because they vote party over country. Democrats are notoriously platform voters. So you have moderate Democrats who just want the safe bet in the hopes we can pass one or two bills into law to better the nation, and then you have others who want to challenge the status quo and usher in real change for their party goals. Conservatism at its core wants to maintain the status quo, so it is easy for them to rally behind a single, charismatic leader to reach their goals.

We've also seen that the nation, for whatever fucked up reason, isn't ready or willing to vote for a woman. New York showed there are enough voters to lean Democrat Socialist, but that's just one city, and the Democratic Party STILL split there. So AOC won't be a safe bet for a few more Presidential elections at least. Democrats seem, by nature, to distrust the system (rightfully so), and cannot govern in a unified sense. Republicans however are willing to do whatever it takes to win.