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State of Resistance: What John Cox’s Top-Two Win Means

Now it’s a proper race.

Republican John Cox finished second in Tuesday’s top-two gubernatorial primary. He’ll face Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom in November’s general election to see who will succeed Gov. Jerry Brown. The odds of a Cox victory are long—but then again, Hillary Clinton was a mortal lock to win the presidency, too. 

The Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert headline from Wednesday morning encapsulates how Newsom and the Democrats will want to shape the campaign narrative in the months ahead: “Trump-backed Republican faces Newsom in California’s governor race.”

That “Trump-backed” bit is decidedly double-edged, and the line of attack is perfectly predictable. In this State of Resistance, the president is the Devil – racist, sexist, bigoted, unkind to puppies and kittens … name it. Therefore, Cox will be tarred as the Devil’s Apprentice. Newsom has already called him a “footsoldier” in Trump’s “war on California.” (Good Lord, who writes his stuff?)

But it isn’t so simple.

Read the rest at the Sacramento Bee.

Photo credit: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images

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About Ben Boychuk

Ben Boychuk is managing editor of American Greatness. He is a former weekly syndicated columnist with Tribune Media, and a veteran of several publications, including City Journal, Investor's Business Daily, and the Claremont Review of Books. He lives in California. Subscribe to his Substack newsletter, “Nice Things and Why You Can’t Have Them.”

Photo: SAN DIEGO, CA-MAY 5: California GOP Gubernatorial Candidate John Cox speaks during an election eve party at the U.S. Grant Hotel on June 5, 2018 in San Diego, California. Cox, a businessman from Rancho Santa Fe, CA, is the leading Republican candidate for Governor of California(Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)