The combination of California’s political makeup and terrible governance has led to coastal Democrats forcing the Central Valley to bear the brunt of every poor policy decision.

California has a population of just over 39 million people, according to 2024 estimates. Roughly 27 million of those people live in a county on the coast, including over 9 million in Los Angeles County. California’s Central Valley has a population of 7.2 million, according to the 2020 census. That number drops to about 4.7 million if you exclude Sacramento, the liberal-haven state capital.