California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, on Tuesday announced a new public health initiative and tapped two former senior officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who clashed with the Trump administration to lead the effort.

Newsom named former CDC Director Susan Monarez and former CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry to run the Public Health Network Innovation Exchange, or PHNIX.

According to his office, the initiative aims to strengthen public health systems; bolster confidence in evidence-based policy; improve disease detection and investigation; and build a modern backbone linking data, technology, and funding across states.

"By bringing on expert scientific leaders to partner in this launch, we're strengthening collaboration and laying the groundwork for a modern public health infrastructure that will offer trust and stability in scientific data not just across California, but nationally and globally," Newsom said in a statement.

Monarez was fired by the White House in late August after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought to remove her from her position and she resisted. Houry resigned in part in protest over Monarez's firing.

Both later testified at a tense Senate hearing in September.

Monarez reportedly said she refused Kennedy's demands that she fire top scientists at the agency and approve new vaccine recommendations before reviewing evidence to support them.

Houry testified that Kennedy "censored CDC science, politicized its processes, and stripped leaders of independence."

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Newsmax that Monarez's testimony showed she was "not on the same team" as Kennedy.

Jason Miller, a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump, told Newsmax that Houry and other CDC officials who resigned following Monarez's firing were "Democrat activists."

Newsom has sought to elevate his national profile as a leading Democrat critic of Trump and to position himself for a possible 2028 presidential run.

The governor, who is barred by term limits from seeking a third term, has also worked to cast California as a focal point of resistance to the Trump administration.

Newsom's office said the new initiative would build on previously announced public health partnerships, including the West Coast Health Alliance — which includes state and local officials from California, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii — and the Governors Public Health Alliance, a 15-state coalition aimed at coordinating global situational awareness.

Although Newsom said the effort is "not a shadow CDC we're creating but a shield to what's going on," Democrat strategist Garry South told the Washington Examiner that "it has all the hallmarks of a government-in-exile."

Steve Hilton, who is seeking the Republican nomination for California governor next year, told the Examiner the move is "absolutely sickening from the guy who imposed on California the longest, most destructive, most cruel lockdowns that destroyed opportunity for an entire generation of kids in California, who are still suffering the consequences, because he refused to listen and to follow science and instead imposed his political ideology over the facts around COVID."

"And then to turn around and position himself as the champion of science and rationality when it comes to disease just turns your stomach," Hilton said.