The California activist movement to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom just got a national shot in the arm from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, two former Republican leaders who still have large conservative followings.
The bid remains a long shot in a state where Democratic President-elect Joe Biden won 63.5 percent of the vote and Republicans have no statewide officeholders. But Newsom’s attendance last month at an expensive dinner party for a top lobbyist, combined with mounting frustrations with pandemic closures, have sowed discontent among residents.
“Interesting timing at same moment the Supreme Court rejects Trump’s last ditch effort to overturn an election. Trump, Gingrich, Faulconer, and Cox are embracing the same playbook, the same refusal to play by the rules,” Newman said in a statement, referring to former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and former GOP gubernatorial candidate John Cox, both of whom are considering a run for California’s top office.