Larry Elder’s Political Rise Is a Mess Gavin Newsom Needs to Clean Up

California Democrats have only themselves for blame for a tightening gubernatorial race they could lose to a terrible successor

Michael Arceneaux
5 min readAug 23, 2021
Photo: Nina Riggio / Getty Images

Larry Elder is the kind of person I try to forget even exists despite his being a menace for as long as I’ve been alive.

Some are only recently learning Elder’s name in light of the growing national attention he’s garnering as the leading Republican to serve as the alternative to California Gov. Gavin Newsom in his looming recall election in September, but for decades now, the Black conservative commentator has made a name for himself in select circles for more or less being a Black parrot of white supremacy. I imagine Elder would vehemently object to that description of his schtick, but it’s better to be blunt and succinct when describing a horrible human being.

First, there are his thoughts on women.

In a book published in 2001, Elder argued that “smart” women would ignore being harassed at work. “Smart women simply overlook some boorish behavior by men,” he reportedly wrote. “Off-color jokes and stupid remarks may be irritating, but a smart woman deals with this. She makes it clear to the speaker that she finds the remark unfunny and…

--

--

Michael Arceneaux

New York Times bestselling author of “I Can’t Date Jesus” and “I Don’t Want To Die Poor.”