What Went Down At The California Recall Election: Live Results

And so while ABC News and other outlets have projected that the recall vote will fail, one thing to point out is that Question 2 on the ballot — who should replace Newsom — is essentially moot. As such, it will not be projected by the ABC News Decision Desk. That said, it seems as if Elder was leading on that question with more than 40 percent of the vote.

The ABC News Decision Desk is now projecting that the recall of California Gov. Gavin Newsom has failed.

While it may not be totally clear if running on COVID-19 policy is an advantage for Democrats outside of a heavily blue state like California, I think that’s certainly the lesson that many people will take away from this race. Newsom’s campaign leaned into the issue aggressively and closed strong, so Democrats may feel confident about taking the fight to Republicans on this issue.