California recall: Gavin Newsom sharpens message as Larry Elder poses threat in
“Though we defeated Trump, we didn’t defeat Trumpism. Trumpism is still alive and well, even here in the state of California,” Newsom said, standing before tables full of phone-banking volunteers at Hecho en Mexico restaurant. “If you don’t believe me, just consider … the likely person to enter an oath of office, to enter in the governor’s office in just a matter of weeks if we don’t reject this recall.”
He then asked them to imagine the fate of their most urgent policy priorities if he is replaced by Larry Elder, the conservative talk radio host who quickly became his most formidable GOP opponent after a late entry to the race. Newsom ticked through an array of Elder’s positions that stand in direct contradiction to the views of a majority of Californians: the Republican’s opposition to a minimum wage and the assault weapons ban; his past skepticism about the climate crisis and his support for off-shore drilling; and Elder’s eye-popping observation on gender in a 2000 column in Capitalism Magazine, in which he wrote that “women know less than men about political issues, economics and current events.”
“Don’t think for a second that this recall is not about all of you,” Newsom warned the supporters assembled beneath rows of rustling red, green and white flags on the patio. “It’s about each and every one of us and the values we hold dear.”
The first vote-by-mail ballots, which will be delivered to every registered voter in the state, begin going out this week. For months, the outcome of the September 14 recall seemed like a forgone conclusion in a state that elected Newsom just two years ago with 62% of the vote — a place where the simple math overwhelmingly favors registered Democrats, who outnumber Republicans by nearly two to one. As the pandemic has raged on, there has been feverish enthusiasm within the Republican minority to recall Newsom, but often rank-and-file GOP voters could not recall the name of a single GOP candidate running to replace him during interviews with CNN across the state.
That changed when Elder entered the race in July, snapping the slumbering contest into sharp focus. Though Elder is not a household name in California, he has been well known and widely admired for decades in conservative circles — a charismatic and frequent presence on television as well as talk radio. In a field of GOP candidates who failed to spark excitement among voters, his late entry infused a jolt of electricity to the recall race.
But it has also allowed Newsom to sharpen his message — making the race less of an abstraction for his party’s voters and more of a direct ideological contrast with an adversary who he can portray as a threat to the Democratic agenda.
In an interview on Saturday, Newsom laced his remarks with criticisms of Elder and acknowledged the challenge of getting Democrats to pay attention in “an off-month, off-year election” — noting that it is the likely voters who become decisive, rather than the broader universe of registered voters who lean heavily Democratic.
“We turn out our base, we’re going to win, unquestionably,” Newsom said. “It’s not a persuasion campaign. People are locked in. But the profound…
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