Exclusive — Larry Elder Wants to Be First ‘Good Governor’ California Has Had ‘in a Very Long Time’

Larry Elder, talk radio host, author, and Republican gubernatorial candidate in California, highlighted emergency powers vested in the governor as tools to combat crime, homelessness, and governmental failures in management of public education, energy resources, and water treatment.

“I’ve got the power to declare a statewide emergency [if elected governor],” Elder said on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday with host Joel Pollak. “I can do that on crime. I can do that on homelessness. I can do that on education. I have the veto power …  [and] also have a line item veto, and I have the power to appoint people to these various commissions that are shoving down all these rules and regulations down the throats of the American people.”

Pollak noted that if elected, Elder would be California’s first black governor.

Elder said, “I think of [myself] as a guy who’s … from the hood, public school product, got some common sensical ideas to bring to the table, and I want to be the first good governor we’ve had in a very long period of time. That’s all I want.”

Elder described his decades of experience as a talk radio host as a pedigree of public speaking and persuasion.

“They’re afraid I’m able to talk to Independents, to Democrats, to blacks to Hispanics, in a way that no Republican ever really has,” he stated.

Last week, Elder won his court challenge against the decision of California Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s decision to exclude him from a list of candidates in a recall vote of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).

“I never really said this was racism,” Elder said of the attempt to deny his candidacy for California governor. “I said it was faceism, as in my face, as in Larry Elder, as in somebody who can communicate, break down barriers, and that’s what Republicans can do in this state if they have somebody to go to the inner city, go to the barrio, talk to blacks and talk to Hispanics the way I do.”

He continued, “I’m a product of public schools. I know how bad they are, and they’re afraid I’m going to bring a message to regular people in a way that a lot of Republicans in the past haven’t done, can’t do, and they’re afraid of that. That’s what’s going on here. It’s not racism, it was faceism, as in Larry Elder’s face.”

Elder expressed support for “school choice” to improve accountability within and competition between government-funded schools.

“There’s a connection between these ridiculous left-wing policies and the crappy K-through-12 education that people are getting in urban schools,” Elder noted. “Seventy-five percent of black boys in California, cannot read at state levels of proficiency, and the bar is already low.”

“Fifty percent of third graders cannot [read at state levels of proficiency]. In my former high school — Crenshaw High School, which was featured in that movie Boyz n the Hood — only two percent are math proficient,” he said.

Public school teachers in California who are parents are twice as likely to place their children in private schools than in public schools, Elder said.

“I want to support the issue of [school] choice,” he held. “The money should follow the child rather than the other way around. That’s a big threat to them. I’m taking on the public sector unions. They have so much power. The largest funder of Gavin Newsom’s race was the teachers’ union, and as I mentioned, they don’t put their own kids in public schools.”

He added, “The majority of black and brown parents living in the urban setting support choice in school, yet they go into that in a voting booth and pull the lever for the party that does not get them what they want. I’m able to say this to them in ways no other Republican ever has, and they’re they’re scared to death I’m going to peel off some Democrats and some Independent support, and they’re right.”

Despite issuing stay-at-home orders and mask-wearing mandates as part of broader lockdowns across California, ostensibly to reduce coronavirus transmission, Newsom was photographed dining at French Laundry, a $350-per person restaurant in the Golden State’s Napa Valley.

Elder said, “I think he’s trying to run from the pantry in the French restaurant because he’s not gone on TV to defend his record, so all the enthusiasm is on our side.”

Newsom has not agreed to a public debate against Elder.