California Republicans Skip Recall Candidate Endorsement

CALIFORNIA — To unify the party and mitigate further infighting, the California Republican Party voted overwhelmingly opt out of endorsing a candidate for the recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The state GOP reconsidered the endorsement after two committee members, Harmeet Dhillon and Shawn Steel, warned delegates that an endorsement could discourage voters whose preferred candidate might be left out.

"The polls are showing that the recall is in a statistical tie and we cannot afford to discourage voters who are passionate about a particular candidate, yet may not vote because their favored candidate didn’t receive the endorsement,” they wrote in a Friday email obtained by the Associated Press.

On Saturday, delegates agreed that choosing a front-runner for the special election could steer attention away from one unifying goal: recalling the Democratic governor.

The Sept. 14 election will implore voters to answer whether Newsom should be recalled and who should replace him. If more than 50 percent of voters cast a ballot to recall Newsom, the replacement candidate with the largest share of votes will win the governor's seat.

"Any of our GOP candidates would be superior to Gavin Newsom," Dhillon and Steel added in their Friday email. "We believe that the voters should decide his replacement, which will not only ensure a higher turnout of recall proponents but give Newsom’s successor the best chance of reelection in 2022."

The about-face decision came down just hours before some 1,400 delegates were set to convene virtually and choose between four high-profile candidates: talk show host Larry Elder, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, Assemblyman Kevin Kiley and former U.S. Rep. Doug Ose.

"Today's overwhelming decision by our delegates to offer no endorsement speaks to the strength of our field of candidates and the outstanding position our party is in going into the recall election," state GOP chairwoman Jessica Millan said in a statement Saturday.

Endorsing a candidate would have also opened up party spending for the winning candidate, the Public Policy Institute of California reported.

Businessman John Cox, who was not one of the finalized, also argued against the endorsement process and accused the state GOP of trying to sway voters toward the more moderate Faulconer.

"Changing the rules at this point is a slap in the face to the grassroots activists who made this recall happen," Cox tweeted on July 23. "It wasn't the @CAGOP insiders who gathered the signatures, who knocked on the doors. It was the grassroots. Today, I stand with them and NOT the political insiders," he said, further framing the move as "trickery" and "political scheming."

While the election season has been characterized by voter apathy on the left and candidate infighting on the right, Republicans are energized to oust Newsom from office.

While polls leading up to the summer showed that Newsom was still on track to win the recall election, a recent poll from Survey USA and the San Diego Union Tribune found that 50 percent of respondents would vote to recall Newsom and just 40 percent would keep him in office.

Newsom has pushed back against the effort to unseat him, painting the campaign as one backed by extremists, supporters of former President Donald Trump and those against the coronavirus vaccines.

"This is — and forgive me — a Republican-backed recall where the principal proponent of the recall effort wants to microchip immigrants," Newsom has said. "These folks don't believe in science let alone climate science, and they don't believe in the science behind this pandemic. There's a lot at stake for Californians in this race."

SEE ALSO: Recall Leaders Sue To Block Newsom From Calling Election GOP-Led

Recall supporters have argued that Newsom's response to the pandemic was disastrous for businesses and that his leadership revealed serious fissures within the state's crime rates, homelessness and unemployment agency after an audit found widespread fraud.

Ballots for the Sept. 14 election will start arriving in mailboxes around the Golden State later this month.

What's A Recall?

California has had recall elections as part of its political system since 1911. The process allows the public to attempt to remove an elected public official from office before the end of his or her term. Before a recall election can be initiated, a certain number of voters must sign a recall petition within a specified amount of time.

The state has had 54 previous attempts to recall California governors. Only one governor was recalled in California's history: Gray Davis in 2003.

READ MORE:

• Newsom Recall Election Date Set
• CA Recall Election: Who Is Running?
• Newsom Recall Election Officially Happening: What To Know
• A Serious Man: Can Kevin Faulconer Run For Governor Without The Gimmicks?
• CA Democrats Propose $215M To Expedite Newsom Recall Election
• Follow The Money: Gavin Newsom Recall Edition
• Total Recall: An Illustrated Guide To The Newsom Recall

The Associated Press contributed to this report.