LOS ANGELES: Californians voted overwhelmingly to keep their Democratic governor on Tuesday, roundly rejecting a Republican attempt to unseat him in a special recall vote spurred by mask mandates and Covid lockdowns.

Gavin Newsom handily survived a confidence vote that could have seen him replaced by a Republican with only minority support in one of the most liberal parts of the United States.

With more than 60 percent of the votes tallied, NBC, CNN and Fox News said Newsom was set to prevail, with two thirds voting against the effort.

“‘No’ is not the only thing that was expressed tonight,” a triumphant Newsom said moments after the race was called.

“I want to focus on what we said yes to, as a state. We said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic.” Newsom acted quickly as the pandemic took hold of California, ordering people to stay home and shuttering schools, in moves praised by scientists. But entrepreneurs blamed him for suffocating their businesses, and parents chaffed at keeping their children home.

The vote had been eagerly watched by politicians across the deeply-divided country as a possible indicator of how incumbents who listened to doctors — instead of angry constituents — would fare at the ballot box.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2021