Who’s Larry Elder?
Larry Elder is one of my favorite political pundits. As a man of many talents, Mr. Elder is a conservative radio show host, an author, syndicated columnist, film producer, and a YouTube video host.
Personally, I became a fan of Mr. Elder’s work a little over a year ago. My brother and I first got “hooked” on Larry Elder after watching some of his YouTube channel videos.
Here are just some epic videos that Larry Elder’s done:
In the last year, I have consistently tuned into Larry Elder either through his YouTube channel or his radio show. I also read his fantastic memoir A Lot Like Me earlier in the summer.
Much of Larry Elder’s work focuses on pushing back against leftist narratives about race, crime, and economics. In my personal opinion, Larry is one of the most effective conservative thinkers in showing the inherent fallacies of concepts like “Critical Race Theory” and “systemic racism”. Most Americans could learn a lot about issues such as the urban school systems,
The best way to sum Larry Elder’s thinking
The story with Larry does not stop there. About one month ago, Larry Elder shocked the world by announcing his bid to become the next governor of California.
From Talk Show Host to Running for Governor
How did we get here? How does Larry Elder have a legitimate shot to unseat Gavin Newsome become the next governor of California on September 14th?
First off, Gavin Newsome has done a horrendous job as Governor of California. Rampant homelessness, out-of-control housing costs, high rates of poverty, insanely high taxes, a hemorrhaging economy, a severe statewide COVID-19 lockdown, billions of dollars wasted on a failed high-speed rail project, and poor water/forest management. I could go on and on.
So, a lot of California natives are angry that their state is failing. California is failing due to years of incompetent politicians running the show.
Background-wise, Gavin Newsome became the governor of California in 2019 after serving as the state’s Lieutenant Governor and the Mayor of San Francisco.
Fast-forward to early 2021, California voters have been fed up with Gavin Newsome. Republicans and Democrats alike were tired of Newsome’s heavy-handed COVID-19 lockdowns that disrupted California’s economy.
Fortunately, some voters in California started a petition to recall Governor Newsome. California state law required that the petition possessed 1.5 million signatures by March 17. To many people’s surprise, the petition organizers did it. They got more than 1.5 million signatures from registered California voters.
Consequently, this petition triggered a recall election on September 14th, 2021. This recall election will decide whether Gavin Newsome will have a replacement serve out the last year of his term as governor of California.
Until fairly recently, it looked like Gavin Newsome had the recall election in the bag. Back in May and June 2021, no one thought that Gavin Newsome could actually lose. There were no compelling candidates to potentially replace Newsome as governor. Please, Caitlyn Jenner or John Cox have no shot of becoming governor. Give me a break. Enter Larry Elder.
On July 12th 2021, radio show host Larry Elder shocked the political world when he entered the ring for the upcoming recall election in California.
Ever since Elder joined the race, Gavin Newsome has started to look vulnerable in the upcoming recall election. In fact, the most recent polling data is showing a virtual toss-up in the recall election. The Real Clear Politics average of four different polls shows a slight edge in removing Gavin Newsome. In essence, it’s a 50-50 shot as to whether Gavin Newsome remains governor.
As a wise man once said, “so you’re saying there’s a chance!”
Regarding the potential replacement candidates, Larry Elder is dominating the field. He’s up by double digits over the 2nd and 3rd highest polling candidates (i.e. Kevin Paffrath and John Cox r) according to polling on August 28th. As the time this article is posted, Larry is polling at 21% among the replacement candidates. Paffrath and John Cox are hovering closer to 8% and 5% respectively.
Suffice to say, Larry Elder is poised to finish 1st among the replacement candidates.
How Does the Recall Election Work?
To close out this post, I want to briefly explain the upcoming the California recall election work. This election’s set-up is the only reason that a Republican—namely Larry Elder—can become the governor of California.
It’s basically impossible in the current time for a Republican to win a gubernatorial race in California. Not only do Democrats hold supermajorities in the both State Legislative Houses, the state has voted over 60% Democrat in the last 4 presidential elections. For instance, Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by over thirty points in California (in the 2020 presidential election).
Fortunately, none of that matters for the recall election.
THIS INFORMATION IS IMPORTANT: there are two parts to the recall ballot.
1. Shall Gavin Newsome be recalled (removed) from the office of Governor? Answer: Yes or No
2. Candidates to succeed Gavin Newsome as Governor if he is recalled: Vote for One
The process is simple in this recall election. If more than 50% of voters select to remove Gavin Newsome from office, then he is gone! Gavin Newsome would no longer remain governor of California. Moving onto the 2nd part.
Please remember that more than 50% of voters must vote to recall Newsome in order for the 2nd part to apply. If voters decided to remove Newsome, then they get to pick one candidate to replace Newsome as Governor. There will be 46 replacement candidates to choose from on the 2nd part of the ballot. The top-vote getter among the replacement candidates would become the next governor if Newsome gets removed. So, the recall election is not a simple head-head election as most general elections are for governor or president.
The winning replacement candidate needs only a plurality—not a majority—to become governor in this scenario.
What does that mean? A plurality just means you are the top-vote getter. A majority means that a candidate garnered more than 50% of the vote. That means Larry Elder could become governor of California with only 20% of the vote! That’s pretty wild to think about! However, Larry can only become governor if 50%
In all honest, the tough part of the recall election is going to be the 1st question on the ballot. That part of the ballot is about a 50-50 toss-up now. In contrast, it pretty much looks like Larry Elder is going to receive a plurality of the votes among the replacement candidates.
Simply put, Larry Elder will likely become the next governor of California as long as voters choose to remove Gavin Newsome.
If you are interested in supporting Larry Elder’s campaign, then please click on the link below and donate to Mr. Elder:
At this point, let’s just cross our fingers and hope that Larry Elder will become California’s governor on September 15th
This whole situation reminds me that there is some justice in this world. For further reading, here’s a great story in the Wall Street Journal that sums up the California recall election: