Editorials
GOP candidate Larry Elder must drop out of recall. California doesn’t want a sexist governor
Republican talk radio host Larry Elder, the leading challenger in California’s gubernatorial recall race, is unrepentant. He has mocked and demeaned women for decades — in his books, columns, in tweets and on the airwaves.
In his book, “The Ten Things You Can’t Say in America,” Elder said that women should tolerate crude language and behavior from men in the workplace, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Sexual harassment doesn’t hold women back in their careers, he wrote.
In a 2000 column, Elder wrote that “Women know less than men about political issues, economics, and current events.” He misrepresented a study to claim that Democrats have an edge over Republicans because “the less one knows, the easier the manipulation.”
In a 1996 radio ad, he mocked the glass ceiling women face, and said that they exaggerate sexism, CNN reported.
In 2017, he implied on Twitter that Women’s March protesters, who took to the streets worldwide to disavow Donald Trump’s presidency, were too unattractive to be sexually assaulted, according to the Los Angeles Times. Elder called them “obese” on his radio show.
There are so many aspects of Elder’s candidacy that should trouble voters: his position on the minimum wage, his embrace of and employment by Falun Gong’s The Epoch Times propaganda network and his tendency to duck debates and interviews, just to name a few.
But his misogynistic attitudes toward women and the damning allegations revealed this week about how he treated his ex-fiancee Alexandra Datig are disqualifying, and make him wholly unfit to be California governor. Elder must drop out of the race immediately.
According to a story by Politico, Elder — while high on marijuana — allegedly took out a .45 caliber pistol during an argument with Datig in 2015. She ended their 18-month engagement after the incident, saying that she feared for her safety.
Elder also demanded that Datig get a tattoo reading “Larry’s Girl,” Politico reported. Datig agreed, and Elder apparently then put a large nude portrait of her in their home with the tattoo on prominent display.
Unsurprisingly, Elder denied the allegations.
“People do not get into public life precisely because of this type of politics of personal destruction,” he tweeted. “I am not going to dignify this with a response — it’s beneath me.”
Many of the roughly 20 million women in California think it warrants a response.
Some prominent figures in the recall campaign have wisely started distancing themselves from Elder, who polls suggest is the leading candidate to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom. Orrin Heatlie, head of the recall campaign, tweeted on Thursday that he felt Politico’s reporting was “credible and the information is substantiated.”
“Make an informed decision,” Heatlie said.
Fellow GOP candidates Caitlyn Jenner and former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer each took it a step further on Friday, publicly stating that Elder should immediately drop out of the race.
“You are not what CA wants let alone what we need,” Jenner tweeted. “I am the proud father of very powerful, intelligent, successful women.”
Faulconer said in a prepared statement that his opponent was unfit to serve as governor.
“Elder’s backwards positions harm women’s rights and the livelihoods of California families,” Faulconer said. “Elder’s lack of judgment and character flaws threaten the success and credibility of this historic recall movement.”
California needs to take a moral and ethical stand against Elder’s chauvinistic candidacy. In the Golden State, women hold some of the most successful corporate, nonprofit and governmental positions in the country. The vice president, Kamala Harris, is from our state. Elder’s long-held views on women are antithetical to everything they have fought tirelessly to achieve.
Being governor isn’t just a gig on a provocative radio show; it’s a sacred trust, and citizens live or die based on the actions of the state’s chief executive. The pandemic has made that clear. The job requires personal dignity, respectability and humanity. Elder falls far too short to meet these standards for California’s highest elected office.
Some GOP leaders have spoken out, but the remainder must swiftly denounce his views and make it clear that they do not align with California Republicans. The longer party leadership waits, the worse every Republican looks.
Elder, now lacking any moral authority or political claim on this very complex job, should exit this race promptly to spare this long-suffering state and the nation the embarrassment of his potentially disgraceful governorship.
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