Newsom To Deliver 'State Of The State' From Dodger Stadium

CALIFORNIA — Gov. Gavin Newsom will virtually address the Golden State from an empty Dodger Stadium Tuesday night, state officials said. There will be no audience in the arena as the state prepares to close out a year living with pandemic restrictions.

The governor will deliver his address to some 56,000 empty seats in Dodger Stadium, a number that is eerily close to the amount of Californians who have died from the coronavirus.

Newsom, who is still in his first term, will likely focus on a pandemic that has devastated the country's most populous state. He will also likely highlight his recent work with the state Legislature to pass a $7.6 billion state stimulus package, as well as a $6.6 billion plan to resume in-person classes by the end of March.

"Stands once filled with roaring crowds are now silent and empty," Sahar Robertson, Newsom's spokesperson, said in a statement Monday.

The quintessential California stadium has seen a lot over the past year — from hosting the World Series Champions to serving Angelenos as a central testing site for the coronavirus to becoming one of the nation's largest vaccination sites.

"Dodger Stadium represents California’s spirit of service," Robertson said. "Once filled with dedicated fans, it is now filled with dedicated health care providers, doing their part to vaccinate some of the most vulnerable Californians against COVID-19."

Newsom's third State of the State address will begin at 6 p.m. and will be livestreamed on the governor's Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages.

Newsom continued his tour of vaccination sites in California on Monday, stopping in the Central Valley where he told reporters that his State of the State would be a little different, according to CalMatters reporter Emily Hoeven.

"It's a different kind, also shorter, a little more sober, because we're mindful of the lives that have been lost. I hope it will be received as optimistic," Newsom said.

The address comes as the final signatures are being collected for an effort to recall the Democratic governor. Organizers for the campaign have until March 17 to get the 1,459,709 million signatures needed to put the effort on the ballot and trigger a recall election. Although the recall effort kicked off before the pandemic severely affected Californians, supporters said that Newsom’s response to the pandemic has been misguided.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Monday slammed supporters of the recall effort and backed the Democratic governor.

"Right-wing Republicans in [California] are trying to recall [Gavin Newsom] for the crime of telling people to wear masks and for listening to scientists during COVID," Sanders tweeted. "Extremist Republicans have done enough to undermine democracy already. We must all unite to oppose the recall in California."

Aside from a trip to the upscale Napa restaurant French Laundry with a large group of people during the same week he urged Californians to stay home, the governor has received backlash about California's disjointed vaccine rollout. The state has been able to inoculate more Californians each week, but the distribution has been marred by a significant supply crisis, which Newsom attributed to a manufacturing issue at the federal level.

This week, the state was expected to receive some 320,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines. On Tuesday, Newsom announced that 210,224 of California's education staff had been vaccinated just a week after the state began setting aside 10 percent of its dosage supply for them.

Last year's State of the State was held on Feb. 19, about a month before life in California was turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic. A 57-year-old San Jose woman was the first known person to die of COVID-19 in the United States on Feb. 9, according to the Los Angeles Times. It was previously thought that the first reported U.S. coronavirus death happened on Feb. 28 in Kirkland, Washington, the Times also reported.

The majority of Newsom's 2020 address was centered on homelessness and its inequities.

"This crisis was not created overnight, and it will not be solved overnight — or even in one year," Newsom said last year. "But as a State, we must do everything we can to ensure no Californian is homeless."