California recall effort decisively denied, Newsom to remain governor

A months-long effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom failed in a landslide Tuesday. The video above shows Gov. Newsom declaring victory Tuesday night.

According to the state’s election results website as of early Wednesday morning, just under 64 percent of voters said “no” to the question “Shall Gavin Newsom Be Recalled (Removed) From the Office of Governor?” Just over 36 percent of voters said “yes”.

The margin of defeat for the recall effort is expected to get smaller over the coming days, but not by enough to come back.

“I’m humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of Californians that exercised their fundamental right to vote and expressed themselves so overwhelmingly by rejecting the division, by rejecting the cynicism, by rejecting so much of the negativity that’s defined our politics in this country over the course of so many years,” Newsom said Tuesday.

Larry Elder was by far the most popular candidate to replace Newsom if the recall effort was successful. He took just under 47 percent of the vote. The next highest voted getter was Democrat Kevin Paffrath at 9.8 percent. Elder had conceded by Tuesday night, as well.

“Let’s be gracious, let’s be gracious in defeat,” Elder said. “And by the way, we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war.”

Elder’s Tuesday night comments marked a shift from what he had said leading up to the election. Elder had already claimed election fraud in the days leading up to the final day of the recall effort. His campaign even launched a website where people could sign a petition demanding a special legislative session to investigate “twisted results” before the results were even announced.

Former President Donald Trump echoed these claims, although he stayed out of the race for the most part. For months now, Newsom has compared the recall effort to the former president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, as well as efforts to change voting laws in Republican-led states.

“Democracy is not a football, you don’t throw it around. It’s more like — I don’t know — an antique vase,” Newsom said Tuesday. “You can drop it, smash it into a million different pieces — and that’s what we’re capable of doing if we don’t stand up to meet the moment and push back.”