The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Recall brings Harris home for Newsom
Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters to defeat the recall against Gov. Gavin Newsom in California.
SAN LEANDRO >> Vice President Kamala Harris returned to her home state of California on Wednesday to rally voters against the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose campaign expressed growing confidence the first-term Democrat would survive the attempt to remove him from office a year early.
Harris crafted the race as a battle between California’s progressive values and Republicans looking to take the nation’s most populous state backward on women’s rights, abortion access and labor and immigrant rights. She echoed Newsom’s campaign message that the outcome will ripple beyond the state.
“California, let us send a message to the world that these are the things we stand for, these are the things we fight for, and we will not give up,” Harris told a cheering crowd of about 200 volunteers and labor union members in San Leandro, a San Francisco Bay Area community not far from Oakland, where she was born.
California, the world’s fifthlargest economy, is a laboratory for many progressive policies before they hit the national stage and losing a liberal governor would be a national embarrassment for the Democratic Party. President Joe Biden also is expected in California just ahead of Tuesday’s election.
“My name may appear on the ballot, but we’re all on the ballot. Our principles, our values are on the ballot,” Newsom said before introducing Harris.
The outcome also will provide a test ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, when control of Congress and more than half of the nation’s governorships are up for grabs.
The California Republican Party said Harris’ appearance was inappropriate as some Californians remain stuck in Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal.
“It is both pathetic and telling that Vice President Harris and Governor Newsom think political campaigning is a better use of time today than working to rescue the California children and families, Americans and allies who were abandoned in Afghanistan by the Biden administration,” party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson said in a statement.
Three California school districts said recently that they know of more than 30 children who have not been able to return from Afghanistan.
They are among U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents looking to escape Taliban rule, and President Joe Biden has promised that evacuation efforts will continue for the 100 to 200 American citizens who want to leave.
The visit by Harris, a longtime friend and political ally of Newsom, came with six days left in the recall campaign. More than 6 million of the state’s 22 million registered voters already have cast ballots by mail. Voting ends Tuesday.
Democrats hold a 2-to-1 registration edge over Republicans, making the recall a decidedly uphill battle for the GOP. A poll by the Public Policy Institute of California released last week showed a slight majority of Californians approve of Newsom’s job performance and a larger majority — 58% — oppose the recall.
The election has two questions: First, whether voters believe the governor should be recalled, and then, who should replace him. Voters choose from a list of 46 replacement candidates — most of them political unknowns. With so many candidates, if the recall succeeds, it’s possible a candidate could win with 25% or less of the vote. Newsom won in a landslide in 2018.