California’s recall election officially ends as Newsom prepares for 2022

SACRAMENTO — Election results showing California voters refused to oust Gov. Gavin Newsom were certified by state officials Friday, bringing to an end a historic and bitter recall effort while possibly boosting the Democratic governor’s chances next year at winning a second fouryear term.

With all the votes tallied, the recall failed by a substantial margin: 61.9% of the votes were to keep Newsom in office through the end of 2022 while only 38.1% of voters cast ballots to remove him.

The final election returns released by Secretary of

State Shirley Weber show an outcome for Newsom that was largely unchanged from 2018, when he won the most lopsided California governor’s race since

1950. Recall supporters failed to capitalize on the dissatisfaction of some voters with Newsom’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, having successfully used the pandemic as a catalyst for their longshot bid at getting a recall on the statewide ballot.

Although the percentages were the same in the final results as in 2018, the political climate was starkly different for the Sept. 14 recall election. It was also different from California’s only other gubernatorial recall, in 2003, when voters removed then-gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. In that election, polls showed Davis to be deeply unpopular and voters convinced he should be removed from office.

This year’s polls were never as bad for Newsom, though some early surveys sounded a warning to his supporters.

A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by The Times and released in late July found that likely voters’ opinions were almost evenly split, driven mostly by the indifference many Democrats expressed about the recall. Momentum then turned strongly against recall after a deluge of political ads and support from leading Democrats, who slammed the effort as a Republican power grab orchestrated by far-right supporters of former President Trump and antiCOVID-19 vaccine activists.

Newsom’s campaign to defeat the recall was aided by a string of prominent Democrats descending on California in the weeks before election day, including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as television ads by Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Conservative talk show host Larry Elder, who led the field of candidates hoping to become California’s next governor, emerged as the perfect foil for Newsom. Among the field of 46 men and women running to replace Newsom, Elder came out on top with more than

3.5 million votes. His tally bested that of established GOP candidates such as former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and pop culture celebrities including reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner.