Biden Comes to California to Help Newsom Fight off Recall

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. - President Joe Biden is providing last-minute help Monday to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is only the fourth governor in U.S. history and the second in California to face a recall election. 

The only other time a recall election for a California governor was held, in 2003, voters removed Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. Voting ends Tuesday in the race that could oust Newsom, a first-term Democrat, and it’s being watched ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, when control of Congress and more than half of governorships are in play.  “We can show the rest of the nation that we won’t let Republicans drag our state backwards,” Newsom tweeted. “Make sure your voice is heard. VOTE NO.”  Amateur Republican political organizers upset with Newsom’s approach to crime, homelessness and immigration launched the recall drive in early 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic got it to the ballot. Newsom was the first governor in the country to issue a statewide stay-at-home order that shuttered many businesses for months and kept kids out of classrooms.