We have defeated SB 871, the student vaccine mandate, with the bill never receiving a single vote. What’s more, we have forced Gavin Newsom to back down.
Things happened very quickly on Thursday. Shortly after I sent you the post about how we almost had the bill killed, the author made it official. He acknowledged he would not try to move it forward.
I then released a statement calling on Newsom to rescind his own mandate immediately, as the people had spoken. For once, the Governor listened; shortly thereafter, he called off the mandate for this year.
As the CalMatters headline read: “Student Vaccine Mandates Fall Like Dominoes.”
Technically, Newsom says the mandate is “delayed” until July of 2023, but in my opinion, that’s just a way to save face. For all intents and purposes, it’s cancelled. This decision has been placed back where it belongs: in the hands of parents.
This comes six and a half months after Newsom announced the mandate, trumpeting California as the “first state in the nation.” As time passed, we remained the only state. Newsom’s grandiose hopes of “leading” the nation were shattered when no one followed.
In a governorship replete with humiliation, this may be Newsom’s biggest embarrassment to date. And it effectively ends the era of one-man rule in California.
For anyone who tries to tell you that your voice as a citizen doesn’t matter, we are proving otherwise. Even in the most corrupt Capitol, even under the yoke of an endless “State of Emergency,” we are fighting back and winning. And we’re just getting started.