Posted March 28, 2023 – Updated April 20, 2023: Conservative radio talk show host and former California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder is jumping into the race for the White House, joining a growing field of contenders taking on former President Donald Trump in the battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. (Fox News)
Elder on Thursday announced his candidacy for president in an interview on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight”
“America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable. We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. That’s why I’m running for President,” Elder wrote in an accompanying statement.
Elder, a longtime conservative commentator and popular nationally syndicated radio host, easily topped the field of replacement candidates in California’s gubernatorial recall election in September 2021 that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom convincingly survived. Elder passed on taking on Newsom a second time when the governor easily won reelection last year in the heavily blue state…
…The conservative host, who is Black, has said that he believes that among the top issues in the 2024 election are inflation, energy, an border security. But he’s also emphasized that he wants to highlight the plight of children in American being born to parents who are not married and to target what he argues is “this lie about systemic racism.”
Democratic National Committee chair Jamie Harrison, in a statement, argued that “when Larry Elder isn’t busy cozying up to Donald Trump pr parroting conspiracy theories, he’s laying out an extreme agenda that doubles down on abortion bans. Elder is so extreme he even suggested abolishing Medicare entirely.”…
April 20, 2023: Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder launched a 2024 presidential campaign Thursday, joining a growing list of candidates seeking the GOP nomination. (Politico)
“America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable,” Elder wrote on Twitter Thursday night. “We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. That’s why I’m running for President.”
Elder won the most votes of any candidate in the unsuccessful effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021. The radio host and regular Fox News commentator emerged from the packed field of candidates seeking to replace Newsom, touting his opposition to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and attacking abortion rights.
He now enters a crowded GOP primary field, which includes former President Donald Trump, former South Caroline Governor and former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson…
July 24, 2023: Republican 2024 presidential candidate Larry Elder isn’t placing in any national polls, but for him, his candidacy is very much alive and real. (ABC News)
The 71-year-old Elder has garnered criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for his controversial views about topics like race and his attention-grabbing headlines. One of them involves his ex-fiancée filing a police report, accusing him of brandishing a gnat her, which Elder has vehemently denied.
A former Democrat, he’s never held an elected position, instead earning his living as a lawyer before becoming a talk show host. He was a staple on KABC, calling himself “The Sage from South Central.” Elder’s popularity led him to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2015. His most recent show “The Larry Elder Show,” was nationally syndicated on the Salem Radio Network and drew 1.5 million listeners, according to 2021 estimates…
…”The more thought about it, the more I thought, ‘Frankly, it would be easier for me to run and become president of the United States than to run and become a Republican candidate statewide in California.”…
…Finances are a touchy subject for Elder. He’s raised $467,531 in the second quarter, with $324,616 cash on hand, falling in the lower end of the fundraising spectrum. He has yet to break 1% in three national polls, according to FiveThirtyEight’s average, one the new requirements the Republican National Committee has placed candidates to make it to the first debate, and he told ABC News he’s only about halfway to the required 40,000 unique donors needed.
Elder calls the rules put in place by the RNC “arbitrary and unfair.”…
…”I’m running for president,” he said. But “if my phone rings and the nominee calls and offers me a position as a vice president, I’m not going to let the call go to voicemail.”
October 27, 2023: Former radio show host and California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder has dropped out of the 2024 presidential campaign race and endorsed former President Donald Trump. (WBAL News Radio)
“The reason that I’m doing this is because in the very beginning, the [Republican National Committee] shafted me… if you can’t make the first debate, it’s almost impossible for you to make the second debate, let alone the third debate. So I’m being realistic,” Elder told ABC News, referring to how he failed to meet the national party’s donor and polling qualifications to be at the debates.
Elder is the fourth Republican candidate to drop out…
October 27, 2023: Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder announced Thursday he is suspending his 2024 Republican campaign for president and endorsing former President Donald Trump’s bid to reclaim the White House. (The Gazette)
Elder, from California, is the fourth major candidate to suspend or end his bid for the GOP presidential nomination, following Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, former Texas congressman Will Hurd, and Michigan businessman Perry Johnson…
…Elder, in a statement, said he made the “difficult decision” to end his bid after “careful consultation” with his team.
Trump’s leadership, he said, was “instrumental in advancing conservative, America-first principles and policies that have benefited our great nation.”…
…”Although I’m suspending my campaign for president, my commitment to addressing the crisis of fatherlessness, promoting conservative ideals, and supporting the MAGA movement remains unwavering,”Elder said in his statement…
January 16, 2024: Elder, a conservative radio host and frequent talking head on Fox News, has never held political office but led the race to replace California Gov. Gavin Newson, a Democrat, in an unsuccessful recall campaign in 2021. He dropped out of the GOP primary and endorsed Trump in late October 2023 after failing to make the debate stage. (Vox)
…Elder, a vocal Trump supporter, has espoused conservative stances on issues from abortion rights to pandemic restrictions, including mask mandates. And as a Black Man, he has critiqued the Black Lives Matter movement and called the idea of systemic racism a “lie,” though he framed his policies in the recall election as benefiting Black people…
…He and businessman Perry Johnson, who has also dropped out of the race, have said they will sue the Republican National Committee for excluding them from the debate state…