Gavin Newsom, D, is projected to defeat a recall campaign against him Tuesday with a large Democratic turnout. The first is whether Newsom, elected with nearly 62% of the vote in 2018, should be removed from office a year early. But the "no" vote against recalling Newsom was ahead by more than 20 percentage points as polls closed. What gave the effort focus and momentum was the pandemic, which began ravaging the nation's most populous state in early 2020. Biden won California by almost 30 percentage points, and recalling Newsom for a Republican governor was never going to be easy.
