LOS ANGELES — Candidates in California’s recall election fanned out across the state and on media networks Monday for a final appeal to voters ahead of election day, with President Joe Biden expected to make an evening visit to Long Beach to stump for Gov. Gavin Newsom.
After spending the day in Boise, Idaho, and Sacramento touring wildfire devastation and discussing his administration’s response, Biden plans to arrive in Long Beach for a 7 p.m. campaign stop with the governor at Long Beach City College.
The president’s stop in California caps off the closing campaign act for Newsom, who has touted support from several high-profile Democrats in recent weeks, including former President Barack Obama, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris returned to California to rally voters for the governor.
The Biden administration has a vested interest in the recall’s outcome. A Newsom victory could lift Democrats after a politically challenging several weeks for the president, whose popularity has taken a hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s resurgence and the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. The election of a Republican governor could be devastating to Democrats nationwide, with the possibility that the new governor would appoint a replacement for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., should she retire and leave an open seat in the deeply divided Senate.
Recent polls suggest Newsom probably has little to worry about, after an early split among voters a few weeks ago developed into a strong showing of support for the first-term governor. A University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, released Friday showed that 60.1% of likely voters surveyed oppose recalling Newsom compared with 38.5% in favor of ousting the governor.
Long Beach busily began preparing for the presidential visit by sending a message to residents warning of street closures and traffic congestion.
“Incredibly proud that President Biden is visiting Long Beach on his first trip to California since his election as @POTUS,” tweeted Mayor Robert Garcia, a close ally of Biden and Harris.
Meanwhile, Republican front-runner Larry Elder made stops all over Los Angeles County, beginning at Monterey Park City Hall to present a medal to a World War II veteran and discuss his campaign platform, including his support for school choice and repealing vaccination mandates. He received a warm reception from attendees, as well as former Democratic state Sen. Gloria Romero and former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, who have steadily supported him in the final weeks of his campaign.
Across the street from the civic center complex, Robert, a retired truck dispatcher who did not want to give his last name, stood on the lawn outside his American flag-festooned home holding a cardboard sign with the words “No Recall” in white paint.
He said he’d hastily made the sign an hour earlier, when he saw the campaign bus passing his house.
“Just to make my little voice heard,” he said.
Elder later headed to Philippe the Original, a French dip sandwich shop by Dodgers Stadium, to talk with voters over lunch. Excitement rippled through the tables in the back of the restaurant as news spread that the candidate would soon be arriving at the downtown L.A. institution.
“I’m excited. I want my picture with him so I can send it out on Facebook,” said Kathie Stoddard, a 76-year-old homemaker and longtime Elder fan, who was sitting at a long table with her former classmates from Mark Keppel High School.
“Who’s this person coming through the door?” another woman asked as others at her table explained Elder was a Republican candidate for governor.
Dodging French dip-laden cafeteria trays, patrons scrambled toward Elder for photos when he entered the room. Many cheered and chanted his name. Even in heavily Democratic Los Angeles, the lunch crowd at Philippe was overwhelmingly on Team Elder.
“Scientific poll right here — I’m going to win,” Elder said, as several of Stoddard’s former classmates embraced him.
Of Newsom’s opponents, Elder leads the pack with 38% of support from likely voters, according to the Berkeley IGS/Times poll — a double-digit lead over Democrat candidate and YouTube star Kevin Paffrath, who garnered 10%.
“I think I’ve energized the state, I’ve energized the party. ... That’s why they’re bringing in this heavy load,” Elder said, referencing the national Democratic surrogates who have been campaigning for Newsom in recent weeks.
His final campaign event for the day is expected to be a rally for volunteers at a hotel in Costa Mesa.
Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, a Rocklin Republican, kicked off a “drive to election day” tour in San Diego on Monday morning, with an afternoon stop scheduled at Los Angeles’ Manual Arts High School, where he previously taught English.
Republican candidate John Cox also launched a bus tour through California, with an afternoon stop at the upscale French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley, a swipe at Newsom, who took part in a birthday gathering at the eatery last year. The governor’s attendance at the event — with several unmasked people outside his household — directly contradicted the state’s COVID-19 guidance to the public at the time, and ignited a wave of support for the recall from Californians frustrated with the governor for breaking his own rules.
Other replacement candidates finished their campaigns with a series of media interviews instead of trekking around the state. Republican former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer appeared on CNN and “Inside California Politics” over the weekend, and former Olympic decathlete Caitlyn Jenner, also a Republican, planned to participate in national media interviews Monday, a campaign spokesperson said.
Some Republicans already began laying the groundwork to contest the election should Newsom win, despite no evidence of voter issues. Former President Donald Trump weighed in with a statement Monday, alluding to the 2020 presidential election which he has continued to falsely paint as having been stolen from him: “Does anybody really believe the California Recall Election isn’t rigged?”
Newsom anticipated the pushback at a rally Sunday, addressing a gathering of a couple hundred supporters in Sun Valley.
“It’s Act 2 in the big lie. That’s what we’re up against, Democrats.”
