LONG BEACH -- Gov. Gavin Newsom’s last campaign rally before the Tuesday election featured a fired-up candidate and a warning from the president of the United States.
Newsom spent nearly half his speech in front of the crowd at Long Beach City College pointing out what would be lost if the recall succeeded. The governor said a Republican-led California would mean abandoning the progressive agenda of the last three years and called on voters to reject the GOP’s vision for the state.
“Long Beach, we have 24 more hours to vote no on this Republican recall, 24 more hours to send a message,” said Newsom.
Newsom went on to describe leading Republican candidate Larry Elder as being to the right of Donald Trump. He said that California voters had rejected Trump a year ago and to defeat what he called Trumpism, voters would need to step up on election day.
“Trumpism has no place here. Trumpism will be defeated all across the United States of America because we’re better than that,”said Newsom.
President Joe Biden was equally impassioned. He said he could not believe that voters would want a “clone” of Donald Trump in the governor’s office.
“You can’t let that happen,” said Biden.
In front of 800 cheering supporters of the governor, Biden described Newsom as the best governor in the nation. He added that with the still-raging COVID-19 pandemic, California needed Newsom in office, not a “Republican governor blocking progress on COVID-19, who is also anti-woman, anti-worker, climate change denier, who doesn’t believe in choice,” said Biden. “The choice should be absolutely clear: Gavin Newsom.”
Newsom tried to energize voters,saying that keeping him in office would also mean keeping California on a path towards a brighter future.
“Go out to make phone calls, to send those text messages, to do the social media posts, to continue the door-knocking and to continue to vocalize with all kind of energy that you have here tonight to vote no on this Republican recall,” he said.
Meanwhile, Elder spent his final day of campaigning in the Los Angeles area moving from Monterey Park to Downtown L.A. and then on to San Pedro.
Elder told his supporters that the governor has been a total failure.
"There’s no front that I can think of where this man has done a good job. Not on schools, not on homelessness, not on the way he shut down this state to the point we’ve only recovered half of our jobs pre-pandemic as opposed to two-thirds, [the] national average,” said Elder.
The candidate also took time to joke about his critics.
“So thank you for hearing for a few words from the Black face of white supremacy,” he said sarcastically.
Polls show Elder well ahead of all the other 44 candidates vying to replace Newsom, but the most recent poll also suggested that the recall effort is unlikely to succeed.
Polling locations across the state are open until 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Related
