California Recall Updates: California Recall Updates: Gavin Newsom Wins, in a Relief for Democrats (Published 2021) (2024)

Newsom keeps his job after receiving strong support from voters.

The Associated Press called the race for Mr. Newsom, who had won in a 62 percent landslide in 2018, less than an hour after the polls closed on Tuesday. About 65 percent of the nearly nine million ballots counted by 1 a.m. Pacific time said the governor should stay in office.

“It appears that we are enjoying an overwhelmingly ‘no’ vote tonight here in the state of California, but ‘no’ is not the only thing that was expressed tonight,” Mr. Newsom told reporters late Tuesday.

“We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to people’s right to vote without fear of fake fraud and voter suppression. We said yes to women’s fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body, her faith, her future. We said yes to diversity.”

The result reflected the state’s recent progress against the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 67,000 lives in California. The state has one of the nation’s highest vaccination rates and one of its lowest rates of new virus cases — which the governor tirelessly argued to voters were the results of his vaccine and mask requirements.

Though polls showed that the recall was consistently opposed by some 60 percent of Californians, surveys over the summer suggested that likely voters were unenthusiastic about Mr. Newsom. As the election deadline approached, however, his base mobilized.

Electoral math did the rest: Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one in California, and pandemic voting rules encouraged high turnout, allowing ballots to be mailed to each of the state’s 22 million registered, active voters with prepaid postage. More than 40 percent of those Californians voted early.

Since early this year, when it became clear that the recall would have the money and time to qualify for the ballot, Mr. Newsom campaigned relentlessly. Noting that Mr. Elder had built a career bashing liberal causes, the governor painted him as a Trump clone who would foist far-right policies on a state that has been a bastion of liberal thinking.

“Vote no and go,” the governor told voters, suggesting that they stick to voting against recalling him and not even dignify the second question on the ballot, which asked who should replace Mr. Newsom if the recall succeeds.

Millions of voters chose not to answer the second question, with Mr. Elder receiving nearly half of the vote from those who did. As of early Wednesday morning Kevin Paffrath, a Democrat, had received about 10 percent of the vote, and Kevin Faulconer, a Republican and former mayor of San Diego, had garnered about 9 percent.

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Big Tech and unions infused millions of dollars into the anti-recall campaign.

But those were simpler times, before a pandemic and a recall election that had threatened Mr. Newsom’s political career. Two years after those comments, the governor has backed away from his tech criticism and has instead focused on saving his job.

His effort has been bolstered by an infusion of tens of millions of dollars from big donors in recent months that delivered him an enormous financial advantage over his Republican rivals in the race’s final stretch.

Among the biggest donations: $3 million from Reed Hastings, the chief executive of Netflix; $500,000 from the liberal philanthropist George Soros; and $500,000 from the Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Millions of dollars more have come from interest groups with business before the state, including labor unions representing service workers, teachers and prison guards, the real estate industry and Native American tribes that operate casinos.

In Photos: Recall supporters react to Newsom’s win.

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High hopes for victory at Larry Elder’s party, and then a concession.

And then they prayed.

Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills thanked God for creating California. “We pray, we ask of you, to grant victory,” he said.

Later, after The Associated Press called the race for Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mr. Elder spoke to the crowd and conceded.

“Let’s be gracious in defeat,” he said, adding, “We may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war.”

The packed ballroom cheered.

Throughout the campaign, Mr. Elder made baseless claims about election fraud, echoing former President Donald J. Trump. He had previously suggested he would challenge the results if he lost and Mr. Newsom kept his job. But on Tuesday night, he did not say whether he planned to contest the results.

At the event, which the candidate billed as a “victory party,” some of Mr. Elder’s supporters said they would accept defeat if it arrived. “Of course,” said Cheryl Rosenberg, an educator in the Inland Empire. “I’m not going to call cheating.”

Ms. Rosenberg, 57, raced to the Costa Mesa hotel straight from work with her friend and colleague, Susan Sawyer, both wearing American-flag-themed attire. Ms. Sawyer also said she would also accept the election’s outcome if it didn’t favor Mr. Elder.

But Ms. Sawyer, 58, said that in any case, she had already decided to leave California because of its cost of living. A lifelong Californian, she said she wished she could stay. But she and her husband are close to retirement, and believe they can’t afford to spend their golden years in the state. So they recently sold their house for $720,000 and will move to Arizona.

“We’re just going to take the money and run,” she said.

The two friends were ecstatic when the recall effort qualified for the ballot, both believing that Mr. Newsom has been “a horrible governor.” They decided to support Mr. Elder, a conservative radio host, because he was not a career politician and had what they said were common-sense solutions to problems such as wildfires and the homelessness crisis.

“He wants a California that we want back,” Ms. Rosenberg said.

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Kevin Faulconer, the former San Diego mayor, also conceded but still tried to position himself as a less partisan alternative to Elder and the governor. “I’ve never been one to be part of the circus,” he said on Twitter. “I’ve been the one who comes in to end the circus.”

The Republican that many party leaders saw as the most electable, former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, never polled in the double digits. Every recall supporter I’ve spoken to in the last several weeks was backing Elder, and often could hardly name another candidate.

Once momentum started to build for Elder, it seems that supporters of the recall saw him as the Republican choice, even though the party didn’t endorse anyone. One voter I spoke with was interested in other candidates but said he didn’t want to “split the vote,” and chose Elder.

‘Thank you for rejecting this recall,’ Newsom says in Sacramento.

Mr. Newsom said he was “humbled and grateful” for his victory but he lamented continued divisions in California and the nation.

“We may have defeated Trump but Trumpism is not dead in this country,” the governor said.

Looking tired as he briefed reporters around 9 p.m. in Sacramento, he spoke without notes and took no questions.

“No is not the only thing we said tonight,” Mr. Newsom said. “We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to people’s right to vote without fear of fake fraud or voter suppression.”

“Thank you for rejecting this recall,” the governor said. He spoke in a courtyard of the Democratic Party’s California headquarters a short walk from the Capitol.

Two blocks away residents played kickball and basketball, oblivious to the governor’s presence. At a downtown theater a 20-minute walk away, the remaining members of the Monkees were performing their farewell tour.

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Newsom will want to portray this victory as a clear mandate, but we know from polling and interviews, many voters supported him with ambivalence. They often said were voting against Trumpism more than for Newsom.

A conversation that has stuck with me was one I had earlier this month with two college-age voters and a high schooler in the Central Valley who were phone banking for the governor. All three said they were hoping for someone better to run as a Democrat next year.

Minutes after the race was called, Donald Trump fired off a fundraising appeal. Subject line: “We. Cannot. Trust. Mail. In. Ballots.” That’s unlikely to cheer many Republicans who recognize both the political advantages and growing adaptation of vote-by-mail across the country.

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California is a vastly different place than it was nearly two decades ago — Republicans have steadily lost ground. Though it was relatively easy for recall supporters to get enough signatures to force a recall, Gavin Newsom always had the numeric advantage.

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There are only about a dozen counties that haven’t reported any results yet.

In Photos: The voters of tomorrow, witnessing the vote today.

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This is what we expected to see: a wide lead for Newsom in the early results that’s expected to narrow as the night goes on, since Republicans are more likely to vote in person.

What happens if you’re still in line after the polls close?

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Napa is also, perhaps appropriately, home of The French Laundry.

The U.S. Senate also potentially hangs in the balance. If a Republican wins, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein steps down, a Republican would likely take her place, handing power in the chamber to the GOP.

Given the state's huge Democratic lean, it would be hard for Republicans to win on the votes of their party alone. So one thing to watch for is how independents break. Do they defect from Newsom, who won in a landslide in 2018?

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Polls close in California as voters decide whether to remove Newsom.

Analysts say they have a pretty good guess of how the process will play out, because millions of Californians have already cast ballots early or by mail.

Thanks to an extension of pandemic election rules, all of the state’s some 22 million active registered voters were automatically sent ballots — a fact that experts say has led to high turnout for a uniquely timed and, for many, confusing special election in a year when voters aren’t already thinking about who they want to be president or governor.

As of Tuesday, 43 percent of those 22 million voters had returned their ballots. Most of the ballots that have already been cast were from registered Democrats, according to Political Data, Inc., a nonpartisan provider of election data.

Election officials in California’s 58 counties are allowed to begin counting votes early, but they can’t reveal any results until after polls have closed. Then, they have 30 days to complete their official canvass and must give vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on Election Day a week to arrive. The certified count is not expected until Oct. 22.

But experts have said that the state’s electoral math is very much in Mr. Newsom’s favor. Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one. And many more Democrats than Republicans have returned their ballots already.

Still, many Republicans said they were waiting to vote in person on Election Day, citing claims about election fraud that have been shown to be unsubstantiated.

If in-person turnout on Tuesday is significant enough, it could tighten the race and drag out the count.

Polls, however, have shown Mr. Newsom’s lead widening in recent days.

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Why is the recall on Sept. 14?

Who set the election date for Sept. 14?

The date was decided by Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat who is closely allied with the governor. It was the soonest that county officials said they could pull together a special election.

Previous estimates were later because the recall election process required an additional step, a cost review, before a date could be set. But lawmakers passed a bill in June allowing the state to bypass that review and pick an earlier date.

Is the date good or bad for Newsom?

It’s clear that Newsom and his advisers believe the earlier date is good for him. From a lawmaking standpoint, the Sept. 14 timing is advantageous for the governor, according to David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University.

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