Small-business owner Bart Avery announced on Wednesday his intentions to run for the governorship of his home state, California.
Avery, co-founder and owner of LA County’s Bravery Brewing Company, made national headlines earlier this month when a state health inspector erroneously forced his business to remain closed prior to kickoff on Superbowl Sunday. The state employee was caught on security footage seemingly dancing in celebration after forcing the business to close.
The story went viral, and on Wednesday Avery found himself on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co” venting his frustrations over California’s handling of the pandemic, saying “what we were doing out here in California, and particularly in LA County has not been working and businesses are dying, we're just we're on the verge of all of us going out of business.”
When asked for his thoughts on Gov. Newsom, Avery surprised the host, offering, “I'm going to shock you. This is an exclusive, I know this sounds completely crazy. I'm announcing on your show that I am running for governor of the state of California.”
While California’s next slated election is over 18 months out, Avery’s announcement is timely given the surging push for a statewide recall of Gov. Newsom.
This week, the organizers of Recall Newsom 2020 say they have obtained the required 1.5 million signatures needed to force a statewide recall. They have until March 17 to submit their signatures to the state for verification, and if all requirements are met, the lieutenant governor is required to call for a recall election within 80 days.
In California, a gubernatorial recall results in two questions being posed to the state’s citizens; one, should Newsom be removed from office, and two, if he should indeed be removed then who should be elected governor? The former requires a majority to pass, while the latter requires only a plurality.
California’s last successful gubernatorial recall effort occurred in 2003 and saw Gov. Gray Davis replaced with the Govinator, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
For his part, Avery expressed confidence in his qualifications, concluding his campaign pitch on live TV saying, ‘Well, you know what, I am a Republican but I'm just a normal guy, I'm a small business owner, that has gone through almost one year of hell. Okay. And I think that qualifies me to be governor, much more so than the guy that we've got in there right now.”