Governor Gavin Newsom’s political future now hinges on turning out enough Democratic voters in California to counteract surging Republican enthusiasm.
In a call with Democratic Reps like Barbara Lee and Karen Bass, Newsom admitted the race is close. Newsom went on to say they know the people more likely to vote at this moment tend to skew the RNC’s direction. For many months, the effort to recall the Democratic governor was viewed as having little chance of success in a state where no Republicans hold statewide office and Democratic voters outnumber Republican voters by nearly two-to-one. But in this final month before the September 14 special election, Democrats are facing some unforeseen hurdles that are creating a lot of unexpected handwringing as election officials get ready to mail out ballots to every voter in the state.
"They're not focused on it," said longtime California Democratic strategist Bill Carrick. "They're happy about (President Joe) Biden. They're happy about ... having control of Congress, so they're not coming down off that high to be depressed about a recall."
"Turnout is a problem," Carrick added. "If you're a Democrat, it's scary."