Here’s the latest news out of California:
Governor Gavin Newsom's performance with Latino voters and outreach to the community, questioned just one month ago, appears to have improved just in time, with voters headed to the polls Tuesday for the recall election.
Three weeks ago Democrats were sounding the alarm, worried that a conservative talk radio provocateur like Larry Elder could wrest control of the deep blue state's governorship, upending coronavirus policies and dealing a critical blow to the party.
On August 27 lagging Latino enthusiasm was cause for concern, with Latinos only returning 6% of mail-in ballots, behind Asian and Black voters in the state. But as of September 11, when the PDI ballot tracker last updated, Hispanics had returned 1,379,094 ballots, comprising 23% of the total.
But it’s not just Latino and Hispanic voters Newsom will have to thank:
Should California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) survive Tuesday's recall election, he might "have women to thank," Politico reports Monday.
Sixty-six percent of female voters said they would vote to keep Newsom in office, while a "razor-thin majority" of men would vote to recall him, Politico writes, per a new poll. And the fact that California women are keeping the governor "afloat" cements "their status as a key voting bloc for Newsom and Democrats heading into the 2022 election cycle."
"However you look at the makeup of the electorate, it emphasizes the importance of women voters in Democratic causes," said Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California. "I think that's why there's been a big emphasis in this election around the importance of women," he said.
While campaigning, Newsom has urged female voters against a California run by Republican frontrunner Larry Elder, pointing to states like Texas and Florida "as cautionary tales" of what might happen if he loses. Those "what ifs" seem to be working, Politico notes.
"The idea that Larry Elder would be granted the ability to control decisions about women, whether it's about our bodies or our kids' mental health or schooling, it's unconscionable," said Ann O'Leary, Newsom's former chief of staff and former aide to Hillary Clinton. "I think women really get that."
Here’s what the latest polling tells us:
And look who just arrived:
According to Gov. Gavin Newsom, California residents have one day left to decisively reject a Republican takeover of the nation’s biggest and most powerful Democratic stronghold.
On Monday, President Biden is set to join the governor in Long Beach to make his case on behalf of Mr. Newsom — the last in a stream of national Democratic leaders to offer their support in the final days of the campaign to help Mr. Newsom keep his job.
Mr. Newsom’s leading rival, the conservative radio host Larry Elder, was making his own last push on Monday. The day before, he held a news conference with the actor Rose McGowan, who accused Mr. Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, of trying to bribe her to prevent her from publicly disclosing her sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein. A spokesperson for Ms. Siebel Newsom told ABC News that the allegation was “a complete fabrication.”
And here’s something to consider:
With polls now showing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom ahead by double-digit margins on the eve of California’s much-hyped recall election, voters here seem ready to reject the laissez-faire COVID-19 policies that have failed to contain huge summer surges in Republican-led states such as Florida — and vindicate the Golden State’s more careful approach to the hypercontagious Delta variant.
Their verdict could have national implications for both Democrats and Republicans heading into the 2022 midterm elections.
“No Republican running for governor could possibly have defeated Gavin Newsom in the recall election, but COVID could have,” Dan Schnur, a former spokesman for Republican former California Gov. Pete Wilson and the late GOP Sen. John McCain who teaches politics at several leading California universities, recently said on Yahoo News’ "Skullduggery" podcast. “The reason it’s not is because voters here have come to conclude that he is doing a much better job on it than they’d thought last spring and last winter.”
So if Newsom does win, Schnur added, “every smart Democratic candidate running in next year’s midterms is going to be looking to take that playbook and run it for themselves.”
The latest numbers from California paint a clear picture of where things stand — and Newsom is looking strong.
Democracy and Health are on the ballot tomorrow and we need to crush this Republican Recall.
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