Will Newsom’s big recall win in California help Democrats across the country?

The morning after California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s convincing victory in his state’s recall election, top Democratic Party national leaders shed light on the victory and suggested how it could translate into an election later. this year and midway through 2022.

“We’re pretty excited about California and it’s not because we thought we were going to lose it. It’s because the margin is better than expected and it shows that the Republican message is failing badly in swing districts,” said the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York told reporters on Wednesday.

NOs HAVE IT – NEWSOM SURVIVES RECALL ELECTIONS IN CALIFORNIA

Highlighting Newsom’s great victory, Democratic Governors Association president Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico said she “looks forward to the same effort at all levels of the ballot box across America as we are heading towards the mid-terms ”.

According to the latest unofficial results from election officials, around 64% of Californians voted no – that is, against the impeachment of Newsom – in Tuesday’s recall election, with just 36% of the vote to oust the. Democratic governor of the first term in difficulty. Newsom’s margin exceeded expectations, beating the latest opinion polls ahead of the election, which suggested the governor would survive on a much smaller double-digit margin.

Newsom, who was overwhelmingly elected governor in 2018 in the heavily blue state, faced a recall campaign sparked last year mainly over accusations he mismanaged his state’s response to the coronavirus, the worst pandemic to hit the world in a century. The effort was fueled by frustrations over the state’s COVID restrictions on businesses and places of worship, school closures, as well as opposition to high state taxes.

Newsom, his political team and his allies spent the summer trying to nationalize the recall campaign by calling it a Republican “takeover”. And they turned to well-known and influential Democrats and Progressives including President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former US Senator and State Attorney General in California, former President Obama, Senator Bernie. Sanders of Vermont and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. – to help inform and motivate California Democrats to vote.

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Over the past two months, Newsom has also been shining a light on the pandemic to tout his efforts to vaccinate Californians and warn of the morbid consequences if a conservative Republican succeeds him as head of state and quickly abolishes the terms of the State in terms of vaccines and masks. He has repeatedly called the elections a “choice of life or death”. And he targeted conservative talk radio host Larry Elder, the favorite among 46 replacement candidates on the ballot. Elder, who like many other top GOP candidates opposed mandates, has been regularly compared to former President Trump.

“We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to the end of this pandemic,” said the governor on Tuesday evening.

The big question going forward is whether Newsom’s landslide victory – in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans – will result in more competitive electoral battlegrounds.

WHAT DOES NEWSOM’S VICTORY MEAN FOR SMALL BUSINESSES IN CALIFORNIA?

Lujan Grisham predicted, “I have no doubt that we will see the same successful efforts in Virginia and New Jersey,” the only two states to hold gubernatorial elections in November.

And Maloney argued that “there are four seats in Orange County that we’re going to win (midway through 2022) and last night I think you saw the people of Orange County and the California residents more broadly reject the Republican brand.

“You could not have had a better spokesperson for the Trump brand than Larry Elder in this election,” accused the president of the DCCC. “And he got his ass kicked and I think that should shudder Kevin McCarthy’s spine… We’re pretty excited about California and it’s not because we thought we were going to lose it. is because the margin is better than expected and it shows that the Republican message is failing badly in swing quarters. “

Asked about comments from top Democrats, veteran Republican strategist Colin Reed said, “Democrats who brag about winning a callback in California is like the 1992 Dream Team bragging about beating Cuba. should never be close. The fact that it wasn’t fair shows that political gravity has set in. “

Republican National Committee of Congress communications director Michael McAdams said that “Democrats celebrating a statewide victory in California – who voted for Joe Biden by 29 points – are embarrassing and show how point the electoral environment is bleak for their vulnerable candidates “.

And Republican Governors Association communications director Jesse Hunt argued that “this does not bode well for Democrats in 2022 if they have to burn millions of dollars in a recall in the state. America’s most liberal. Obviously, Democratic governors are struggling to help their constituents recover from the pandemic and the turmoil it has caused. Weak and ineffective leadership is not a strong selling point for their re-election campaigns. “

Congressional Republicans and GOP governors across the country have vigorously pushed back the president after Biden’s announcement last week demanding vaccines for up to 100 million American workers in a bid to stem the increase in cases of COVID this summer due to the spread of the highly infectious delta variant.

But Grisham predicted that the next election “was going to be a referendum on the pandemic.”

And she claimed that “what we saw in California last night was an incredible shining example of Americans rejecting all of the incredibly dangerous, negative, inappropriate and ineffective lies, quite frankly, and not just wanting to get back to normalcy, but they want progressive policies. in their states and they want governors who will be the bulwark against not only this nonsense, but also the real harm and fear that Republicans continue to promote across the country. “

Maloney agreed, accusing that “California voters have really rejected the Republican view that we don’t have to do more to end the pandemic. I think that’s one of the big takeaways from California.”

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Reed, a veteran of many GOP presidential and senatorial campaigns, said Republicans holding elections “in swing and competitive parts of the country” later this year and next must strike a balance.

“What they have to do is present themselves as pro-vaccine but anti-mandate,” he said. “The vaccines were developed and brought to market under Republican administration. There is no reason for the Republican Party to shy away from them. It’s okay to be anti-mandate, but to be anti-vaccine in its whole will create challenges in blue and in moderate regions of the country.