The top Republican candidate in California’s recall race conceded late Tuesday as unofficial results showed Gov. Gavin Newsom staved off the effort to remove him from office. Larry Elder, 69, garnered nearly half the votes from voters who chose to replace Newsom but some 64 percent of Californians who cast ballots opted not to remove the governor. Newsom, 53, would have been replaced if a simple majority voted in favor of the recall. Elder, as the top vote-getter among those running to succeed the Democrat, would have replaced him. “Let’s be gracious in defeat. And by the way, we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war,” Elder told a crowd in Costa Mesa after the results indicated Newsom prevailed. Newsom, in his first term, trumpeted the results after weeks of anxiety for him and his fellow Democrats. “It appears we are enjoying an overwhelmingly …https://www.theepochtimes.com/c-us-politics