Capitol Alert

Kamala Harris will campaign against the California Gavin Newsom recall. Here’s when

Then-Sen. Kamala Harris spoke with Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, in front of melted playground equipment at Pine Ridge Elemetary School, burned by the Creek Fire, in the eastern Fresno County community of Auberry.
Then-Sen. Kamala Harris spoke with Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, in front of melted playground equipment at Pine Ridge Elemetary School, burned by the Creek Fire, in the eastern Fresno County community of Auberry. Fresno Bee file

Vice President Kamala Harris is coming back to California to campaign on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s behalf in the recall election, Newsom’s office announced Friday.

Harris will join Newsom at a rally in the Bay Area on Friday, Aug. 27, to urge Californians to vote no on the recall against Gov. Newsom.

“I am excited to join my friend and our vice president next week,” Newsom said in a statement. “The stakes of this election couldn’t be higher.”

Harris’s Newsom campaign stop is planned for the return leg of her second foreign trip since taking office earlier this year. She is traveling to Asia Friday night, where she will be making stops in Singapore and Vietnam.

On the return trip, Harris will deliver remarks in Honolulu, Hawaii, to military service members at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, then continue on to California.

The visit comes as Democrats are sounding the alarm about the recall election, which current polls show is a razor thin margin between “yes” and “no.”

“A couple weeks ago, Vice President Harris was asked if she would be campaigning for Governor Newsom, and she said yes then, and she is looking forward to campaigning for him and with him, because he will be there at that event on the 27th.”

If voters vote “no” on the recall election, Gov. Newsom will remain in office. If they vote “yes,” then one of 46 candidates whose name is also on the ballot will become the next governor of California.

Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder is the leading candidate to replace Newsom if the governor is recalled.

“Every major candidate running to replace Governor Newsom is a Republican who supported Donald Trump in the 2020 campaign,” Newsom’s office said in a statement.

Harris is the latest big name Democrat to speak on Newsom’s behalf against the recall. Sens. Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren all have cut ads against the recall.

Newsom had previously told the editorial boards of McClatchy’s California papers that he didn’t believe that the Democratic Party understood what was at stake in California. He has since said that he is satisfied with the party’s efforts on his behalf.

“The Democratic Party truly is united in opposition because we recognize what’s at stake,” Newsom said recently at a phone-banking event in San Francisco.

This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 10:26 AM.

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Andrew Sheeler
The Sacramento Bee
Andrew Sheeler is a former reporter for The Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Bureau.
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