California governor Gavin Newsom will face a recall election, it has been confirmed, and will face his challengers on September 14.
Newsom, 53, a Democrat, is only the second governor in California's history to face a recall election, after a move in 2003 to recall and replace Governor Gray Davis with Hollywood superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.
The 2003 election was a circus-like campaign that featured more than 130 candidates, including a porn star and a bounty hunter.
His recall is the result of a petition, that received more than 1.7 million signatures.
Newsom's recall is the result of a political uprising largely driven by angst over state coronavirus orders that shuttered schools and businesses and upended life for millions of Californians.
The election in the nation's most populous state will be a marquee contest with national implications, watched closely as a barometer of the public mood heading toward the 2022 elections, when a closely divided Congress again will be in play.
Yet recent opinion polls showed Newsom had favorable job approval ratings - a rise driven in large part by California’s emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic and an economy on the upswing.
Gavin Newsom will face a recall election, it was confirmed on Thursday, with the date set for September 14. Newsom faces no significant Democrat challengers but several Republicans
Gavin Newsom has faced months of protest over his handling of the COVID pandemic
The date was set on Thursday by Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat, after election officials certified that enough valid petition signatures had been turned in to qualify the election for the ballot.
'Although the window of time from which I could select a date was narrow, I believe we have chosen a fair and reasonable date for this election to take place,' Kounalakis said in a statement released Thursday.
'It has always been my intention to choose an election date that gives election officials and the public ample time to ensure a smooth election with broad participation.'
The announcement will set off a furious, 10-week burst of campaigning through the California summer - a time when voters typically are ignoring politics to enjoy vacationing, backyard barbecuing and travel.
Many voters have yet to pay attention to the emerging election, while polls have shown Newsom would beat back the effort to remove
