Newsom nationalizes California recall, spotlights COVID, in run-up to Tuesday's election

Gov. Gavin Newsom is teaming up on the campaign trail with President Biden as he tries to save his job steering the nation's most populous state with one day to go until ballots must be postmarked, deposited in drop boxes, or handed in in California's gubernatorial recall election.

The event with Biden is the culmination of a push by the governor, his political team and allies launched earlier this year to nationalize the recall drive by characterizing it as a Republican "power grab." The embattled governor this summer has turned to well-known and influential Democrats and progressives to help inform and motivate California Democrats to vote, and in the past two months he has used the coronavirus pandemic – the issue that last year sparked the recall effort – to warn about morbid consequences if a conservative Republican replaces him in running the state. "This election is a choice about life and death," Newsom charged at an event in the Bay Area with Vice President Kamala Harris last Wednesday.