EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Tuesday, Sept. 14, is a landmark day in California political history.

Voters are deciding whether to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom from office and — if successful — which candidate would replace him.

Dan Schnur teaches political communications at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine. He said recall candidate frontrunner Larry Elder continues to affect voters on different ends of the political spectrum.

“No question that Larry Elder has certainly enlivened the recall campaign in terms of motivating not just Republican supporters behind his candidacy, but arguably, motivating Democratic voters behind Newsom’s effort to defeat the recall,” he said on Inside the Issues.

Schnur predicted Elder’s divisive nature will make him a popular replacement candidate.

“Because he’s so combative, because he can be so incendiary and because Elder has been an on-air presence for such a long time, it looks pretty certain at this point that he’s going to amass more votes on the second question on the ballot than any other candidate by a pretty large margin,” he told host Alex Cohen.

However, Schnur said Elder may help galvanize voters to support Newsom.

“If Larry Elder didn’t exist, Gavin Newsom would have had to invent him,” he said.

Click on the arrow above to watch the conversation.

Let Inside the Issues know your thoughts and watch Monday through Friday at 8 and 11 p.m. on Spectrum News 1.