Speaking at the recent Code 2022 conference, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was finally asked the most and perhaps the only relevant question about his career: Why are so many people leaving his state right now?
“Many factors — and there’s been two deep analyses that drives the No. 1 factor,” Newsom said, appearing a bit annoyed at the question. “The vast majority, almost the entire amount, impacted because of visa policies in the Trump administration. Our formula for success is getting first-round draft choices from the rest of the world. I mean, we’re as dumb as we want to be.”
This assertion is incredible on its face for several reasons. Newsom appears to be blaming the halt in visas that occurred for part of 2020 upon the initial outbreak of COVID. But California lost nearly 370,000 net residents to domestic migration from June 2021 to June 2022, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Domestic migration does not depend on visa policy. Also, Donald Trump was not president at any point during that period.
Even if Newsom is charitably interpreted to mean something about a broader, indirect effect of visa policy — say, that the relative lack of foreign tech moguls caused a brain drain — federal immigration policy applies the same in all 50 states. Texas, Nevada, and Utah aren’t having trouble attracting “first-round draft choices” to create jobs for all the former Californians who have been crowding their roads and driving up their home prices.
The real problem is Newsom wants to run for president in 2024, but he has to do it as the governor of a failing state.
At some point, he will have to explain why so many people are fleeing despite California’s gorgeous weather and natural beauty. Of course Republicans will bring it up, but he might even have to explain it in a Democratic primary against a more successful Democratic governor. After all, Jared Polis’s Colorado is not losing population, nor is Jay Inslee’s Washington. They’re gaining former Californians, too.
So far, it doesn’t look like Newsom has a satisfactory explanation for voters who might be apprehensive about exporting his policies to their states.
When people discuss why they’re leaving California — and yes, there is an entire genre of YouTube videos on this specific topic, by the way — they do not usually cite visa policies. Some of them point out that lower-middle-class Californians pay income taxes at marginal rates higher than millionaires pay in most states (an astounding 9.1% of earnings above $61,000). Some of them mention the hostile business environment California Democrats have created, especially for those involved in freelance work and the gig economy. Some bring up rising crime and the prominent big city prosecutors who have made it worse by refusing to enforce the law.
Some of those leaving California blame the unnecessary and inconsistent pandemic restrictions that the state and its municipalities imposed (and that Newsom and other top leaders famously flouted). They talk about the extremely high cost of living — a result of artificial housing shortages caused by widespread NIMBYism and paralysis in their one-party Democratic legislature.
Some also bring up the zombie invasion by homeless addicts, which has turned many once-pleasant urban locations into no-go tent cities riddled with trash, human feces, and drug paraphernalia.
Also, this summer, it is likely that many of those relocating are annoyed by California’s Third World mismanagement of its electrical grid. Global warming policy has reduced the supply of reliable electricity to the point that the state recently had to ask people not to charge their electric cars — electric cars that California Democrats are trying to force everyone to buy.
If governors like Ron DeSantis (R-FL) or Greg Abbott (R-TX) had the net population equivalent of Cleveland pack up and leave their states in a 12-month period, the questions about their competence would be relentless. The media would barely be able to mention their names or their states without commenting on how awful and backward conservative policies must be to cause such a conspicuous exodus.
Democrats aren’t usually held accountable in this manner because the media have become increasingly open about its partisanship. So this was a special treat — to see someone actually ask Newsom the only relevant question about his time in office so far.
