Governor Gavin Newsom from the State of California has been projected to defeat the recall effort. After millions of votes were counted across all of California, it has become clear that Newsom has enough votes to survive and finish his term in office.
More than 10 million votes have already been counted and it could take several weeks to finish counting the votes across the state.
The Republican Party in California had hoped that there would be enough support to recall Newsom and replace him with a candidate that could immediately change the trajectory of the state.
Newsom’s victory doesn’t immediately solve all of his problems. An estimated 40% of voters in California did vote in favor of removing him from office. This means that Newsom will continue governing millions of people that don’t support him or his party’s policies. Even a large number of Democrats were reluctant to support him.
Gavin Newsom claimed to have been ‘humbled’ by the victory, although it will likely require actions against many of California’s most important problems for voters to truly believe him. There are still some sour feelings towards Newsom for his hypocrisy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
As more votes are counted and the final vote margins become clear in California, political observers will be able to truly explore the percentage of Californians that are looking for change in the golden state.
Democrats have avoided a ‘worst-case’ scenario. Losing the governorship in the most liberal state in the country would have been a tough pill to swallow. A materialistic loss did take place in some form for Democrats. They were forced to spend tens of millions of dollars to protect their Democratic governor from a recall election. Behind the scenes, that could be looked at as an embarrassment, even though Newsom will get to celebrate a public victory with his supporters.
