A new poll has found that conservative radio host Larry Elder leads the pack of GOP candidates to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom in the Sept. 14 recall election.
The Emerson College/Nexstar poll of California found Elder is polling at 23 percent support, up from a poll last week that found he had 18 percent support.
Elder was followed in popularity by the option "someone else," which is polling at 14 percent. John Cox and Caitlyn Jenner are both polling at seven percent with Kevin Kiley has support from five percent of those surveyed. Kevin Faulconer is at four percent, and Kevin Paffrath is at one percent. A whopping 40 percent are still undecided.
Sonoma State University Professor of political science David McCuan said the poll shows Jenner's campaign was a novelty, but the results come as a surprise for Cox.
“If you look behind the curtain this is partly Kevin Faulconer and his team trying to navigate the California GOP to assure that John Cox could not come out more powerful out of the endorsement process,” he said.
The California Republican Party said it would endorse a candidate if someone was able to secure support from 60 percent of the state's delegates.
The poll also found that 44 percent of Republicans and 29 percent of Independents are planning to vote Elder, along with 55 percent of those who voted for Trump in 2020. 70 percent of those who voted for Biden in 2020 said they were undecided about who they would vote for in a recall or answered "someone else" if Newsom was recalled.
As for the likelihood of recalling Newsom, the Nexstar poll's margin is even smaller than last week's from UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. Nexstar found that 46 percent of residents are in favor of the recall while 48 percent are against it, down one point from the narrow three-point margin of success Berkley's poll found for Newsom.
When asked about the number one issue California is facing, homelessness took the lead at 19 percent. The other responses were housing at 16 percent, COVID-19 at 15 percent, crime at 13 percent, the environment at 13 percent, jobs at 6 percent and education polled at 3 percent.
The poll was conducted from July 30 through August 1.
You can learn more about the poll's results by clicking here.