The Trump factor: Newsom spotlights former president in California

He’s not on the ballot in the California recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom, but former President Trump’s often front and center as the embattled Democratic governor fights to save his job steering the Golden State.

Newsom told a crowd at a rally this weekend in Culver City, California, that while Trump was defeated by now-President Biden in last November’s election, “we did not defeat Trumpism.”

The governor and his political team for months have framed the recall drive against him as an effort by the far right, Trump supporters, national Republicans and conservative media to oust him. So it’s no surprise that over the past month Newsom and his allies have been regularly blasting conservative talk radio host Larry Elder, who’s become the clear front runner according to public opinion polls among the nearly 50 replacement gubernatorial candidates on the ballot.

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Newsom and his team have sent out press releases, fundraising emails, social media posts and indirectly targeted Elder in ads, highlighting his opposition to having any minimum wage, his downplaying of climate change and the nation’s issues with racial inequity, his controversial comments about women — and tying him to Trump.

Newsom emphasized last month that it’s “important to focus on Larry” because he argued that Elder’s “even more extreme than Trump in many respects.”

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom campaigns against the California recall election at the Culver City High School in Culver City, Calif., Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021. Newsom enlisted progressive star Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Saturday to help him overcome a looming recall election that could remove him from office. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
(AP)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a former Democratic presidential candidate and rock star among progressives, took aim at Elder as she joined Newsom at a rally on Saturday, charging that Elder “dreams of being California’s own Donald Trump.” 

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Elder welcomes the attacks, telling Fox News last month “I think he’s (Newsom) in serious trouble and he knows it.”

It’s not just Elder.

Newsom’s recall campaign team, formally known as Stop the Republican Recall, has targeted another of the leading GOP replacement candidates – former two-term San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer – by spotlighting a photo of him beside then-President Trump in the Oval Office.  

“Donald Trump with his erratic and inept leadership has allowed Newsom to paint any Republican who has ever said anything nice about the former President as two peas from the same pod,” veteran California-based Democratic consultant Mike Trujillo told Fox News.

Newsom’s strategy is simple: Trump, outside of his conservative base, is extremely unpopular in the very blue state of California. The then-president lost…