California Republicans vote against endorsing a candidate to replace Gavin Newsom

After months of speculation, the California Republican Party on Saturday voted not to endorse a candidate in the upcoming recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The party for months has supported the Newsom recall, stopping short of publicly throwing its weight behind one particular candidate. Four candidates qualified, including talk radio host Larry Elder, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, Assemblyman Kevin Kiley of Rocklin and former U.S. Rep. Doug Ose.

A party endorsement would have given the chosen candidate the resources and infrastructure to support their campaign in the coming weeks. But it also would have given some voters a reason not to show up, delegates said.

The motion to table an endorsement vote was brought forward by Republican National Committee members Harmeet Dhillon and Shawn Steel, and 90% of delegates voted in support.

“This is the worst governor, not only in California history, but even before California became a state,” Steel said to delegates. “I think it’s time to focus on Sept. 14, and get our people out.”

Faulconer, whose campaign was most vocal in seeking the party’s endorsement, sent a message to delegates late Friday night urging them to support the motion by Dhillon and Steel.

“The California Republican Party should unite towards the sole goal of driving support for this historic recall,” Faulconer said in the email. “Ever since the close of candidate filing, it has become clear an endorsement of one candidate over another would only distract from that goal.”

Some delegates, like Reform California chair Carl DeMaio, have been skeptical of the party’s endorsement process for months. Tensions flared in February over how to go about endorsing someone, with worries that the decision would fall to only a handful of party insiders.

In July, party leaders voted to create a process that would allow delegates to endorse a candidate, if he or she won at least 60% of the votes.

DeMaio, in a statement Saturday, said he was glad to see the “endorsement fiasco” come to an end.

“But Faulconer’s insider scheming still did damage by dividing and distracting people for weeks when everyone should have been working on getting YES on Recall to a majority,” DeMaio said. “If Faulconer and the insiders want unity now, they should concede that the Faulconer candidacy is done and spend all their money on YES on Recall from this point forward. That would be true leadership – but they haven’t shown good judgment up to this point.”

Celebrity candidate Caitlyn Jenner, who was not eligible for endorsement, also urged the party not to endorse a candidate.

“We are all on the same team – we want corrupt #newsom out of office,” she said in a tweet Saturday.

Californians will vote on Sept. 14 whether to remove Newsom. If more than 50% choose to oust the first-term Democrat on question one of the ballot, the candidate with the most votes on question two will be named his replacement.

A recent poll from Berkeley IGS found the 47% of likely voters would recall Newsom, while 50% would keep him in office. Elder had the most support among the candidates, with 18% of likely voters saying he is their first choice. Faulconer, by comparison, earned just 10% of voters’ support. Kiley polled at 5%.

This story was originally published August 7, 2021 at 11:13 AM.