… Newsom won the governor’s chair with 61.9 percent in 2018. His performance this month was 1.5 points better. In most of the state’s large counties, he was between zero and 2 points stronger in the recall than in his successful 2018 gubernatorial campaign.
California congressional Democrats who competed against Republicans took 63.5 percent of the vote in 2018 and 62.2 percent in 2020.
It would seem that statewide, a candidate with a D next to her or his name, facing a Republican, has a hard time getting less than 62 percent, or more than 64 percent. …
Party is voters’ most potent political identity, and politics is frequently about identities. Those basic political identities — Democrat or Republican — dictate how the vast majority of us vote, nearly all the time. Exceptions exist, but they’re fewer and farther between. CONTINUED
Mark Mellman (Mellman Group), The Hill
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