The effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom became official Monday, with state officials saying the campaign had collected 1.6 million valid signatures.
Organizers needed 1.5 million people to back the recall election, which likely won’t occur until the fall.
The announcement from the Secretary of State’s office comes days after Caitlyn Jenner — the former Olympian, longtime Republican and transgender activist — announced that she was joining the race as a “compassionate disruptor.”
Other challengers include former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and John Cox, a businessman who ran against Newsom in 2018 and lost by double digits.
A recent poll from the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank, found that the former mayor of San Francisco and lieutenant governor was well positioned to defeat the effort: 56 percent of likely voters did not support the campaign, while 40 percent wanted him out.
The Secretary of State’s office said that people who signed the recall petition have 30 days to remove their names from it. The state’s finance department then develops a cost estimate before Newsom’s lieutenant governor sets a date for the election.
There have been dozens of efforts to recall governors in the state over the last century. A successful recall in 2003 saw actor Arnold Schwarzenegger oust then-Gov. Gray Davis amid a power crisis. Other figures to challenge Davis included the publisher of Hustler magazine, Larry Flynt, former child actor Gary Coleman and an adult film star.