.MaddowBlog: GOP operatives at the national level harbored hopes of turning the California race into a bellwether. So much for that idea.
Governor Gavin Newsom speaks after the polls close on the recall election, at the California Democratic Party headquarters in Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 14, 2021.Headed into Election Day in California's gubernatorial recall race, there was some uncertainty about when the public would learn the results. If the early tallies were close, and incumbent Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared to be in real trouble, it could take weeks to know the outcome.
As of this morning, with roughly two-thirds of the votes tallied, Californians voting to keep Newsom in office outnumbered recall supporters. The governor's detractors needed to get more than 50 percent of the vote, and as things stand, they didn't quite get to 36 percent. Similarly, GOP operatives at the national level harbored hopes of turning this race into a bellwether: The more Newsom struggled in the country's largest blue state, the more Republicans could credibly claim that Democrats in the Biden era are in serious trouble and facing dramatic electoral headwinds.
There was a scenario in which the state Republican Party might have rallied behind Faulconer as a credible and mainstream alternative to the status quo, while dismissing other GOP contenders as irrelevant oddballs. Instead, the Trumpified party ignored the qualified contender, coalesced around a conspiratorial talk-show host, and created the electoral dynamic Democrats wanted: a choice, rather than a referendum.
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