Larry Elder, a Republican candidate in California’s recall election, and members of his staff were accosted by an angry crowd during the kick-off of his “Recall Express bus tour.”
A video showed Elder touring a homeless encampment in Venice, California when a woman wearing a gorilla mask hurled an egg at him and narrowly missed.
A member who appeared to be part of Elder’s campaign staff addressed the woman who could be heard yelling, “You better take your hands off me, motherf***er! Touch me again! Touch me again!”
She then punched the man in the face.
Elder was escorted to his SUV as others could be heard yelling, “Get this piece of sh*t out of here!’
Watch the video below:
https://twitter.com/KateCagle/status/1435689908098592771
Elder addressed the incident in a tweet as he wrote, “Today I kicked off the Recall Express bus tour. Before we even left Los Angeles, my security detail was physically assaulted, shot with a pellet gun, and hit with projectiles.”
“The intolerant left will not stop us. We will recall Gavin Newsom. We will save California,” he added.
Today I kicked off the Recall Express bus tour. Before we even left Los Angeles, my security detail was physically assaulted, shot with a pellet gun, and hit with projectiles. The intolerant left will not stop us. We will recall Gavin Newsom. We will save California.
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) September 9, 2021
Elder, a conservative radio host, is one of 46 candidates running to replace Newsom if Californians vote to recall the governor on Sept. 14.
If more than 50% of Californians vote to remove Newsom, he would step down, and whoever received the most votes among all the candidates would be his replacement.
According to RealClearPolitics’ average of polls of the candidates, Elder is the front runner with a 20 point lead.
In early August, FiveThirtyEight’s average showed a razor-thin race with just a .2% margin in favor of keeping Newsom.
However, an average of polls also appears to show that the movement is slipping away from the recall side, with 54.4% opposed to recalling Newsom and 42.8% in favor of the push.