“Your vote could be the difference between protecting our kids and putting them at risk, helping Californians recover or taking us backwards,” Obama says in the straight-to-camera ad. “Protect California by voting ‘no’ on the Republican recall.”
The ad echoes Newsom’s own messaging on Covid — that the decision between him and Elder is a “a choice about life and death” because of how differently each would approach the fight against the coronavirus. Elder has said one of his first actions as governor would be to roll back many of Newsom’s orders to fight the pandemic.
Elder has blasted the involvement of top Democrats in the recall, arguing that it shows the party is “scared to death” that Newsom could be ousted.
“They know they are in trouble,” Elder told reporters on Tuesday. “They know that Gavin Newsom can’t defend his record on crime. They know he can’t defend his record on how he ignored science and imposed all sorts of mandates that he didn’t abide by himself. They know that he is unpopular.”
Polls show, however, that Newsom is in a better position now than he was weeks earlier, when the possibility of the Democratic governor being recalled looked more likely.
Far more Democrats have returned ballots in the election than Republicans so far, with Democrats outperforming their statewide registration numbers. So far, about 53% about of the more than 6.4 million ballots cast before Election Day have come from registered Democrats and 25% from registered Republicans, according to the latest data from Political Data Inc., a firm that does work for Democrats, nonpartisan and progressive groups.
Obama is not the first top Democrat to appear in ads for Newsom.
