By emphatically turning back the effort to recall him from office, Newsom made clear that California’s cherished role presaging the politics of tomorrow was not as significant as another, larger factor in Tuesday’s results: the tribal politics of today.
Larry Elder, the Republican front-runner in the bid to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom, thanked supporters at his election night party Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, at the Hilton Orange County in Costa Mesa, Calif. “The future happens here first,” says Gov. Gavin Newsom, calling his state “America’s coming attraction.
The recall does offer at least one lesson to Democrats in Washington before next year’s midterm elections: The party’s preexisting blue- and purple-state strategy of portraying Republicans as Trump-loving extremists can still prove effective with the former president out of office, at least when the strategy is executed with unrelenting discipline, an avalanche of money and an opponent who plays to type.
The last time Democrats controlled the presidency and both chambers of Congress, in 2010, the Republicans made extensive gains but fell short of reclaiming the Senate because they nominated a handful of candidates so flawed that they managed to lose in one of the best midterm elections for the GOP in modern history.
Moreover, Newsom’s success politically vindicates the president’s decision to enact a mandate on businesses to require the COVID-19 vaccine. The governor campaigned aggressively on his own vaccine requirements and lashed Elder for vowing to overturn them. Earlier this summer, it appeared that, once again, California could augur national trends. Burdened by rising crime, homelessness and COVID fatigue, Newsom was seen in polls as in danger of being recalled.That began to change when Newsom outspent his Republican opponents and supporters of the recall 4-to-1 on television over the summer.
In 2003, Schwarzenegger was better known for his Hollywood credits than for his politics. He also hammered away at a distinctly local issue, California’s tax on automobiles, which kept the race centered on state rather than federal policies. And the incumbent, Davis, was far more unpopular than Newsom is.
While House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the most prominent California Republican, kept his distance from the recall, Newsom was regularly joined by Democratic members of Congress, who linked the recall to Trump’s refusal to concede defeat and to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.
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