What Went Down At The California Recall Election: Live Results

Nathaniel makes a good point. Recall (heh) that Walker’s survival in the 2012 Wisconsin recall helped make him into more of a conservative hero, and after he won reelection in 2014, he was a leading GOP presidential contender in 2016, although his campaign ended up collapsing early on. Perhaps Newsom could find himself as a big Democratic name for the future …

Chiming in with this chart from Geoff and Nathaniel’s piece this morning:

I don’t really think the recall has hurt Newsom’s standing. Though I do think recalls (and similar efforts) could become more and more common. Lots of people (especially in the Republican Party) see the opposing party as enemies and deny that they should even have a seat at the table, let alone lead the meeting. Losing an election, then, becomes existential, rather than a temporary political setback.

Newsom probably wants to be president someday. I’m not sure when his moment will come — especially given that the next Democrat in line is his close political ally, Kamala Harris — but he is pretty young (53) so he could run in 2028, 2032 or even 2036 after Biden and Harris have left the stage.