Larry Elder conceded his campaign to oust California’s Gavin Newsom and become the state’s next governor.
Elder, the Republican frontrunner and one of the 46 candidates, told supporters “to be gracious in defeat,” before adding, “By the way, we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war.”
As Newsom will face reelection next year, there is speculation that the former radio host is planning to run against him again — although he declined to confirm his plans to reporters.
“All they want is Black people to think about is oppression, that you are under siege, that you are a victim. Really? In 2021, after we elected the first Black president?” Elder charged, per the Associated Press.
“This is what we’re facing: rising crime, declining quality of our public schools,” he said. “Rolling brownouts. Water shortages. … I can’t think of anything that this man has done in the last two years that suggests he deserves another day in office.”
Elder’s controversial views may well have contributed to his defeat. His past remarks about women and matters of race resurfaced at the peak of his run.
“Glass ceiling? Ha! What glass ceiling? Women, women exaggerate the problem of sexism,” radio host Larry Elder said in a 1996 ad for his radio show. “Blacks exaggerate the significance of racism. Medicare should be abolished.”
During an interview earlier this month, he stated that slave owners should have received reparations once slavery was abolished. Elder argued that enslaved individuals were legally deemed “property” at the time and that those slave owners and their estates are owed compensation for the human property they “lost” following the end of the Civil War.
