California Governor Gavin Newsom Launches ‘Stop the Republican Recall’

California Governor Gavin Newsom kicked off an effort to save his administration on Monday, called “Stop the Republican Recall.”

Newsom is facing a likely recall, given that opponents have collected over 2 million signatures before the Mar. 17 deadline. They needed about 1.5 million to force a recall; hundreds of thousands of additional signatures were collected to ensure that the recall effort would survive any challenge to the validity of the signatures submitted to the Secretary of State.

On Monday, Newsom tweeted: “I won’t be distracted by this partisan, Republican recall — but I will fight it. There is too much at stake. Getting Californians vaccinated, our economy safely reopened, and our kids back in school are simply too important to risk.”

Later, Newsom retweeted a video from the “Stop the Republican Recall” Twitter account (@), featuring Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA):

Newsom has received support from national Democrats, including President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

However, Newsom’s prospects are unclear, after his approval rating collapsed over the winter, thanks to new coronavirus restrictions — and the perception that he himself was skirting them, after attending a friend’s birthday dinner at the elite French Laundry restaurant with well-connected lobbyists.

A poll released Monday by Nexstar Media Group’s six California Television Stations and Emerson College showed California evenly split on the prospects of recalling Newsom. Several Republicans and Democrats have shown interest in running to replace him.

In his “State of the State” address last week, Newsom admitted mistakes but struck an optimistic tone about the state.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.