Gov. Gavin Newsom might have the backing of Democrats in the deep blue state of California, but his mismanagement might be opening the door for a new future, according to conservative California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder on Newsmax.
"He should be very, very afraid," Elder, a columnist, radio host, author, and political pundit, told "Saturday Report." "It's almost 50-50, right in the margin of error, and that's about five point change in favor of the recall.
"Just a couple weeks ago, he gave a very feisty interview to a serious newspaper editorial board just the other day, and he was very, very scared, very angry, very defensive because he couldn't defend his record. He couldn't defend his record on how he shut down the state in a more dramatic way in the other 49 governors did."
Elder pointed not just to COVID-19 lockdowns and mask mandates, as the governor himself dines mask free at French Laundry and his own son violates mask protocols, telling host Carl Higbie, "crime is up, homelessness is up, the cost of living outrageous" and Californians are flocking to once red states Arizona and Texas.
"This is David versus Goliath, and I ain't Goliath," Elder said, referring to campaign finance issues that preclude a well-funded challenger to the Democrat establishment, including millions from Big Tech and Democrat-favoring unions. "This man can raise and spend an unlimited amount of money to defeat me.
"That's why Democrats keep beating Republicans because the unions dominate the state. They have a stranglehold over Sacramento and I'm going to change all of that, and that's why they're afraid of me."
As a Black conservative, Elder does have potential benefit of pulling the long-controlled Black votes from the Democrat incumbent.
"Crime doesn't have a color, homelessness doesn't have a color, the way this man shut down the state and cost untold people to lose their businesses doesn't have a color, the cost of living doesn't have a color," Elder said. "So common sense people, independents and Democrats are steaming and they want a change."
Elder, saying he's "from the hood," noted he can appeal to moderate Democrats and independents in the state, because he has taken "the most challenging calls so that my idea my ideas are tested under fire."
"My mom was a Democrat, my brother with a Democrat," he continued. "I don't despise Democrats. If you talk to them in the commonsensical way you can get maybe some of them to rethink some of their assumptions.
"And the beauty of having a secret ballot, you can pull that lever for Larry Elder with the R at the end of my name, and you don't tell anybody, if you're an independent."
Democrat establishments in California need to be broken down, he added, vowing to do just that.
"There's reason homelessness is so high," he concluded. "There's a reason crime is so high, and it's not because of you. It's because of these people like Newsom and his cohorts in Sacramento. The Sacramento legislature is supermajority Democrats in both chambers of the of the assembly and in the Senate, and that's the problem.
"I'm going to change that, and if I turn that around, and I think can peel off a lot of votes who are Democrats and independents."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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