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--:-- John Bickley: Census data shows that the mass exodus from California has continued post-COVID, showing no signs of stopping. The deep blue state has been hit with a net loss of nearly 700,000 people since 2020, more than any other state in the nation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In this episode of Morning Wire, we discuss the great California exodus, what's driving it, and what it means for the rest of the country. I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's March 26th, and this is a Sunday edition of Morning Wire.
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--:-- John Bickley: Hey, guys. Producer Brandon here. Inflation has consequences. And as the Fed continues to raise interest rates to combat out-of-control government spending, long-term bonds are diminishing in value and crippling banks. Diversifying your savings is crucial in this volatile market, which is why you need to get in touch with the experts at Birch Gold Group today. Gold is a great hedge against the stock market and against inflation. Birch Gold will help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into an IRA and precious metals. Text WIRE to 989898 to get your free info get on gold today. That's WIRE to 989898 today.
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--:-- John Bickley: Joining us to discuss the exodus from America's most populous state is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta-Giacomo.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Hey, John. So how significant are these numbers out of California?
--:-- John Bickley: Hey, Amanda. It's not looking too good for California, and it really hasn't for years. Census data show a loss of about 509,000 residents from April 2020 to July of 2022. That's second in the nation, only behind New York, another blue state that's struggling with population loss. New York lost about 15,000 more people to edge out California. However, if you look at just the total number of people who moved out of the state during that period, that number is nearly 700,000 people, and that is the highest in the nation.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: 700,000, that's a sizable percentage of the state's 40 million. So why are we seeing this mass exodus from these blue states, California in particular? Are the reasons commonly assumed?
--:-- John Bickley: For the most part, yes. It largely comes down to freedom, cost of living, crime and safety, the stuff that really matters to Americans. California had some of the strictest lockdown measures in the United States. It has the highest personal income tax rate some of the most onerous regulations and about half of all homeless people live in California.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: It's true that the state is the most populous in the union but it only makes up a total of about 12% of the US population. So a really high number there. Tack on this trend of remote work, which allows people to move and you've got yourself in an exodus.
--:-- John Bickley: I wanted to learn more about this trend of people leaving, especially after lockdown restrictions have eased. So I spoke to Scott Shepard, a real estate agent who founded ExitCalifornia.org back in 2019, right before the pandemic.
--:-- Scott Shepard: Once I started to see the trend take place and the fact that I started working with more clients than I had worked with up until that point, I decided to build a model around it.
--:-- John Bickley: Shepard told me people were already on the edge of leaving the state before COVID hit because of things like cost of living, outrageous taxation and crime and homelessness. Business himself included. Shepard and his family picked up and left California, the only place he'd ever called home back in 2019 for a lot of those same reasons.
--:-- Scott Shepard: My wife and I were doing well financially, but we were bleeding out. We make good money, but it's like a sieve, it's just in the front door and out the back door.
--:-- John Bickley: Then these really draconian COVID measures were implemented and pushed those people on edge who hadn't moved yet right out of the state. Shepard said he witnessed the peak of move inquiries during the pandemic, which is really no surprise.
--:-- Scott Shepard: Ayazwood has changed since then, and he said only the matter of urgency in those trying to get out of California. I think maybe, if anything, individuals who were feeling the squeeze during COVID, some of them weren't ready but forced themselves to be ready, where now I feel like people who are still wanting to leave but maybe feel like, okay, at least the heightened sense of fear of this lockdown and all the measures being put in place has kind of eased.
--:-- John Bickley: I also spoke to 46-year-old Tito Soto. He lived in California his whole life before he picked up a move with his wife and two high school-age sons back in 2021 during the pandemic.
--:-- Tito Soto: The move was so urgent, Soto actually had to quit his job where he'd worked for 24 years without having something lined up in Nashville where he moved.
--:-- John Bickley: I've been wanting to get out of California for many years, multiple reasons. Obviously, expenses, cost of living is more than anything was really the push. Soto told me how hard it was on his children to be out of school in California and miss out on things like sports due to those really extreme lockdown measures.
--:-- Tito Soto: I think with COVID and everything, the way that went down, that was, I think, the straw that broke the camel's back. You know, we finally just like we got to get out of here.
--:-- John Bickley: The big trigger I believe was really my kids and the things that were at their schools being shut down for so long. You know, a lot of talks about having vaccine requirements things like that for them to go to school. When they were out of school for, I think, a year, year and a half, they were part-time for a little bit. When they did finally go back full-time, they were being sent home. My youngest was sent home with post-contact rules.
--:-- John Bickley: He also expressed to me the intolerance he witnessed in California over his personal politics. That certainly played a role in his relocation, too.
--:-- Tito Soto: Politics started coming into play, but even then, for a long time, it really never was that bad until the last few years, where I felt basically if you weren't from one party, you were under attack. I just didn't really feel like being a conservative that I had a voice at that point.
--:-- John Bickley: On the flip side, there are, of course, people who can't imagine leaving the state and just love California. I spoke to Susan Faris, a former Navy nurse and now publicist, who has lived in several states and is originally from New Jersey. She's now lived in California for 25 years.
--:-- Susan Faris: I love the environment here. I absolutely love it. I have always loved the ocean because I grew up in New Jersey on the central coast. So the ocean means a lot to me. But as a bird watcher and nature photographer, I love the lagoons. I just love the nature and the environment around here.
--:-- John Bickley: Faris really gushed over California's geography, weather, theater, film, the attractions, and the diversity in the state. But she did acknowledge some drawbacks.
--:-- Susan Faris: The prices have gone up, I think, since COVID and everything. Prices are higher probably everywhere. But, you know, the gas prices, the electric bill, cable, food, restaurant, definitely have increased over the past year or so.
--:-- John Bickley: Safety, crime, it comes and goes. And when I asked her about the number of people leaving California, Faris said she thought it might be due to rising prices and the housing crisis in the state, which seems to at least partly align with the analysis from Shepard.
--:-- Susan Faris: I wonder if it's just the amount of income and the housing prices to be able to sustain, or even the rentals are pretty high here too. So it's difficult, especially for young people just starting out that might want to buy a house. It's difficult for them to buy houses in this market.
--:-- John Bickley: High housing costs are certainly a major factor in this trend. So where are these people that are leaving California moving to? Well, states like Idaho, Tennessee, Texas, and Florida have had an influx in their population since COVID.
--:-- John Bickley: Texas has had a net gain of nearly 640,000 people, with Florida picking up a net of nearly 800,000 people. Those states largely resisted lockdown measures during COVID and are governed far more conservatively.
--:-- John Bickley: I asked Shepard if he noticed a trend in where Californians were looking to relocate, and here's what he had to say.
--:-- Scott Shepard: I did a quick analysis of our gross data just our relocation form somewhere or the other There was about 51 total entries that we received I ended up analyzing that to see if there was a particular trend in the way of maybe a red state relocate or a blue state relocate. So out of the top 20 states, 13 of them were trending on a conservative red state and seven of them were blue states. So Texas was the top, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, and Washington.
--:-- John Bickley: Not every single person that I talked to was motivated for political reasons, but I could definitely say a hefty portion of every conversation I had had some political undertone on their reasons for wanting to leave.
--:-- John Bickley: Soto has personally seen an influx of Californians moving to the greater Nashville area.
--:-- Tito Soto: I couldn't tell you the number of people that I know move. Just here in the greater Nashville area, there's 10 families that I personally know that have moved within 20, 30 miles of me. That's 10 families from one small city in Los Angeles County that have moved within 20, 25 miles. And we're 25, 2,000 miles away from Los Angeles.
--:-- John Bickley: It will absolutely continue, in my opinion. So these policies that are causing so many Californians to flee the state, are leaders in the state actually backing away from them at all? No, not at all. It seems to be business as usual in California.
--:-- John Bickley: Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom faced a recall effort in 2021, but handily fended that off and then coasted to reelection last year.
--:-- John Bickley: Newsom did try to lure residents to California by buying up billboards in seven GOP-led states, including Texas, touting California as an abortion destination. He even aired a TV commercial in Florida.
--:-- John Bickley: Freedom is under attack in your state. Republican leaders, they're banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors. I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight or join us in California.
--:-- John Bickley: This ad aired on July 4th last year, but it doesn't seem to have stemmed the flow out of a state of people or businesses. Tesla, Oracle, Align, Hewlett-Packard, Yelp, Dropbox, and Airbnb have all reduced their company footprint in the state. As has the Daily Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Right. Amanda, thanks for reporting. That was Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo. And this has been a Sunday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: If you're a Morning Wire super fan and you want to represent our show, you can shop our merch selection at dailywire.com slash shop. We have a pretty elite Morning Wire mug. We have t-shirts. We have tote bags. Pretty soon we're restocking our hoodies. And you can find all of that at dailywire.com slash shop.
--:-- John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.
