Larry Elder Tells Supporters To Be “Gracious In Defeat” As “Humbled” Gavin Newsom Wins Big Victory Against Recall – Update

Ted Johnson and Dominic Patten
·3 min read
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(Updated with Larry Elder remarks) California Governor Gavin Newsom said that the state’s voters, in soundly defeating a recall effort, were rejecting cynicism and division in politics.

However, even as Larry Elder told his booing supporters to be “gracious in defeat tonight,” Newsom’s chief GOP rival didn’t sound like he was graciously leaving the political stage. “By the way, we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war,” the conservative radio host added to cheers in a concession speech that was more like the start of another campaign.

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Taking the unconventional route of speaking after the candidate who beat him, Elder went on to tell a Costa Mesa ballroom that “we are forcing them now to pay attention to the things they should’ve paid attention to two years ago.”

“Stay tuned,” the Republican concluded of his own political future after seeing the long and winding recall effort go down to double digit defeat at the cost of $276 million to California taxpayers.

In contrast, winner Newsom did not hold an election night party but instead gave brief remarks at California Democrats Party headquarters in Sacramento. In the third year of his first terms, the newly re-empowered Governor used his speech tonight to more soberly push back at what Newsom said was negativity that will have an impact on younger generations.

“I just think of our kids, watching all of this, nightly news, day in and day out,” Newsom said. “I got four young kids, the oldest is about to turn 12 this weekend, and what they are growing up to. A where where we are so divided, these kids increasingly fearful, isolated, disconnected. And we’re teaching them that. It doesn’t have to be that way. I think we owe our kids a deeper sense of respect and all of us as adults have a responsibility to disregard the false separateness.”

Newsom also chided former President Donald Trump for suggesting that the election was rigged, even before the votes had been counted. “Democracy is not a football. You don’t throw it around,” Newsom said in language that CNN’s Jake Tapper compared to a man looking at White House bid.

With a war chest of about $70 million, including $3 million from Netflix’s Reed Hastings, Newsom enjoyed a large financial advantage in the recall against contenders that included Elder and Caitlyn Jenner.

Scoring a near blowout, Newsom is likely to see his victory as an affirmation of his Covid-19 policies, as exit polls said that the coronavirus was the number one issue in the state. But it also may be a roadmap for him and other Democrats going into next year’s midterm elections, in that they will embrace Covid-19 restrictions as an electoral winner . Newsom leaned into the need for mask and vaccine mandates as a way to curb the pandemic, contrasting his position with that of Elder, who said that he would roll the restrictions back.

Newsom said at the end of his speech, “I’m reminded a few decades ago someone told me, when describing a difficult or challenging moment. He said, the world is too small. Our time is too short. And our wisdom is too limited to win fleeting victories at other people’s expense. We must all triumph together. So in that spirit of recognizing and reconciling this moment, and try to understand what’s going on not just here in the state but all across the United States of America, I just want to say this. Tonight I’m humbled, grateful but resolved in the spirit of my political hero, Robert Kennedy, to make more gentle the light of this world.”

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