Gubernatorial candidates Gavin Newsom and John Cox make final efforts to reach voters

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- With less than 24 hours until the midterm election, gubernatorial candidates Gavin Newsom and John Cox made their way up and down the state of California to reach as many voters as possible.

Cox spent part of his morning in a Berkeley auto shop, an unlikely choice to some.

"Berkeley has a special place in my heart. My mom went to Berkeley," Cox said.

Cox got right to it during a roundtable discussion with employees at Platinum Auto Body and Collision.

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The real estate man gave employees his key priorities, like supporting proposition 6 and increasing housing opportunities.

"Streamlining regulations, lowering the cost, streamlining the approvals so they can happen faster, providing incentives for builders," Cox said.

"Very refreshing what he's trying to say about our housing situation," said Eugene Young, the owner of Platinum Auto Body and Collision.

"Rent control is the opposite of what we need to be doing because that will chase investment away," Cox said.

Some of the shop's employees travel for two hours to get to work. Affordability and improving roadways are top of mind for them.

"I think he is a man with a plan and action and is going to do something about these changes and not just talk about them," Gevenvie Cushman said.

"Driving down the road I saw people living in tents, we can't continue to allow this," Cox said.

Cox denounced needle exchanges and believes getting people clean and sober are better tools to combat homelessness.

In Los Angeles, similar topics were discussed between Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom and voters on Monday.

"We have a lot of work to do on issues of housing, homelessness, affordability, those remain to be stubborn," Newsom said. "As Governor, I hope it's me, we have to hit the ground running."

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Newsom believes there should be more renter protections and has plans to appoint a homelessness czar.

As Newsom goes north, Cox is taking his tour south.

Newsom will hold his final get out the vote rally in San Francisco Monday night and cast his ballot in Marin County Tuesday.

Full coverage on the 2018 election at abc7news.com/election.