Larry Elder got too comfortable and made many gaffes along the way
Or voters just got to become familiar with him. It's pretty hard to run a campaign against California becoming expensively unlivable under Democrats when your leading replacement candidate is loud and proud about abolishing the minimum wage. The Republicans failed to put two-and-two together on that, assuming that base turnout alone and Democratic complacency could causer an upset here. They will be proven wrong about that next week, and will deserve it.