California Governor Gavin Newsom won the recall election. He is only the second governor to face a recall election and the only one who has survived it.

This was the second recall election since 2003, over 20 years ago. Twenty years ago, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger became the governor of California. Governor Newsom assumed office in 2019 and his current term ends in 2023.

Democrats tried and succeeded in keeping Democratic governor Newsom in office. Some of the reasons they encouraged people to vote no to the recall were that “voting yes will unleash months of political chaos that will be bad for the state at a time when it needs its leaders focused on responding to and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic” according to The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board.

Another reason the recall failed was that the candidates to replace Newsom were “ill-fitted” because most did not support the public health measures that have helped protect California from COVID-19, and promoted controversial anti-mask sentiments similar to the governors of Texas and Florida.

Although his term is not over yet, Republicans tried to get him out of office before his term was over. One of the reasons they tried to get him recalled was that he failed to overhaul the state’s pathetic Employment Development Department, which has been overwhelmed with claims from jobless Californians who are still waiting for checks to pay their rent and buy groceries.

Newsom’s argument for saving the only job he seems to care about — his own — boils down to this: “I may be incompetent, but at least I’m not a Republican,” as stated by Ruben Navarrette special to the Sacramento Bee.

Despite all these reasons that Republicans have offered for his recall, Governor Newsom won the recall election with a clear majority of votes. The votes were 63.9% in favor of keeping him in the office versus 36.1% in favor of replacing him. After winning the recall election, Governor Newsom said, “We said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines, and we said yes to ending this pandemic.”

The top candidate to replace Newsom, Larry Elder, said this after losing the recall election, “We recognize that we lost the battle but we are certainly going to win the war.” Despite having said this days before the election, Elder and his supporters began to claim that Democrats rigged the election to make sure Elder lost. When asked what was next for him as a former radio host, Larry Elder answered with, “stay tuned.”