Eye-opening Gavin Newsom poll reveals ticking time bomb in his presidential prospects

California Gov.Gavin Newsom has tepid approval ratings in his home state as he prepares to leave office and launch a possible presidential bid — and a new poll could signal pitfalls ahead for the California Democrat’s national ambitions.

The Democratic governor netted 45% approval of his job performance and 46% disapproval from 625 registered California voters in a poll released by NBCUniversal Local and Telemundo Station Group.The poll, conducted Sept.21 to 24, shows a stark partisan split: About 93% of Republicans said he’s been doing a bad job, and a majority of Independents, at 56%, agreed Newsom is underperforming.

Political consultant Matt Rexroad told The Post that the biggest hurdle for Newsom may lie in the fact that voters outside of the state’s largest metro areas — the Los Angeles metro and the Bay Area — are particularly negative on the ex-San Francisco mayor.In the largely rural Northern California region, which doesn’t include Sacramento or the Bay Area, only 28% of voters approved of Newsom’s performance in the poll, while 60% disapproved.

“This does not impact his Presidential campaign directly, but it does indicate that he does not know how to communicate with rural voters,” Rexroad said.“The people of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina will not be impressed with a politician from California who wants to talk about being from 1) California 2) San Francisco and 3) now lives in Marin County,” he added.Rexroad, as an example, flagged a new ad by the Republican Governors Association tying a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Kansas to California as an example of the Golden State’s polarizing national rep. The poll also showed stark contrasts in gender, as the majority of men disapproved of Newsom’s job but the majority of women approved.Breaking it down by race, the majority of white Californians disapproved but the majority of Hispanics and Asians had a positive view.About 74% of Democrats approved of Newsom’...