ELDER: Virginia Blows Up The ‘Larry Elder-Was-The-Wrong-Candidate’ Narrative

After the California gubernatorial recall election, many pundits, as well as my opponent’s campaign manager, pushed the narrative that “Larry Elder was a gift” to Gov. Gavin Newsom. A kinder, gentler Republican, they insisted, who distanced himself from the loathsome former President Donald Trump, would have made all the difference in the world, despite the fact that 75% of California voters are registered as Democrats or independents.

CNN’s Lincoln Mitchell wrote: “Elder was precisely what Newsom needed to make the fear of Trumpism real in the eyes of California’s substantial Democratic majority. Elder, a long-time conservative talk radio host, is well known among right-wing Californians, but many other voters have only gotten to know him in more recent weeks.” A San Francisco Chronicle headline read: “Larry Elder Is the Trumpist Who May Save Gavin Newsom’s Job.”

After the race, Politico asserted: “By Labor Day, Newsom had turned what started as an up-or-down vote on his governorship into a choice between him and Elder, the radio show host Newsom relentlessly tethered to Trump. … For Newsom, the emergence of Elder as the GOP’s standard bearer was an unexpected gift.”

Really?

The treatment of Virginia governor-elect Glenn Youngkin and black lieutenant governor-elect Winsome Sears completely destroys the “Elder-was-the-wrong-kind-of-Republican” analysis. The hysterical reaction to the Republican victory demonstrates that any Republican, especially a black one, would have faced the same unhinged attacks leveled against me during my campaign.

After the Republican victory in Virginia, in which Sears, a black female Marine vet with a master’s degree, was elected lieutenant governor, black MSNBC pundit Michael Eric Dyson said: “The problem is, here, they want white supremacy by ventriloquist effect. There is a black mouth moving but a white idea … running on the runway of the tongue of a figure who justifies and legitimates the white supremacist practices.”

I did not invite Trump to campaign for or with me. Neither did Youngkin. Like Youngkin, I support school choice, oppose vaccine mandates, and am pro-life. Unlike in the Youngkin race, Trump did not publicly endorse me. Still, Newsom described me as “more Trump than Trump.” In Newsom’s ungracious victory speech, he said: “We may have defeated Trump, but Trumpism is not dead.”

About Virginia, CNN’s black pundit Van Jones said: “The stakes are high. When this election is over in Virginia, we will know. Have we seen the emergence of the delta variant of Trumpism? In other words, Youngkin, same disease, but