Last week, California held a recall election for governor. The election ended in victory for the incumbent governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom.
A recall election can be called to oust an elected official before the term and is widely used across the United States. The California election was called for several reasons, mostly centering around Newsom’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and issues surrounding it.
Newsom faced several challenges from a wide array of both Democrat and Republican candidates.
The clear front-runner was Larry Elder, a conservative radio host. Elder overcame a wide field of candidates that included reality show star Caitlyn Jenner and Youtuber Kevin Paffrath. Elder appealed to conservative-leaning voters by appearing on several right–wing-leaning radio stations and television shows.
Only two questions were asked on the ballot: the first was should the governor be recalled, and the second was if so, who should the governor be? If 50 percent of eligible voters say yes to the first question, then the candidate that has the most votes will become governor.
This rule has attracted much criticism because it means that a candidate can be elected with a small percentage of votes. The rule is currently under review at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The election has been very contentious with both sides attacking the other. Newsom attacked Elder over his statement saying that he would immediately rescind school mask mandates and vaccine requirements for healthcare workers.
Elder accused Newsom of not keeping many Californians safe through his progressive policies. He also labeled Newsom’s governing ability as “poor” and criticized him for his COVID-19 policies in schools.
“Schools where our kids were already behind a whole year, now they are behind another year, because Gavin Newsom ignored science and shut down schools,” Elder said at a news conference earlier this month.
Ultimately, Newsom won this recall election, with around 62.2% of eligible voters wanting to keep him in office.
A last-minute campaign rally with Joe Biden is believed to have helped push Newsom to a win, with Biden calling Newsom’s opponent Elder “the clone of Donald Trump.”
“Can you imagine him being governor of this state?” Biden said in reference to Elder. “You can’t let that happen. There’s too much at stake.”
Newsom had a wide enough lead that most news outlets called the race for him within an hour of the polls closing.
Carrie Vaughn, a freshman political science major at Winthrop, said, “I think that this sets a major precedent of minority dominating majority versus compromise and cooperation. The fact that this recall even occurred shows that bipartisanship is very low right now, and for this to be happening in California (a strong Democrat state) is very scary.”
Newsom’s win gives the Democrats momentum heading into the 2022 midterm election with the goal of keeping their majority in both houses of Congress. It also shows the power of the major Democrat campaign strategy of evoking Donald Trump and encouraging voters to vote against Trump-esque candidates and policies.
This latest recall election leaves the question best said by Vaughn, “If people were allowed to demand a recall election because they have so much distrust and dissatisfaction in their governor, what does that say about the basis of our government?”
