It is not the 2024 elections, but we already have a fight between two politicians with presidential aspirations. The war was started by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who chose a day of national celebration and unity, the 4th of July, to air ads in Florida targeting his governor, Ron DeSantis.
The ads accused DeSantis of banning books, blocking voting, censoring children in schools, and criminalizing women and doctors. And it encourages Floridians to go for the California model, which Newsom says is based on freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom to love, and ending hate.
California loses, Florida wins
Those ads seem designed for the thousands of Californians who have left the state Newsom links to freedoms and love, and moved to the state of oppression and hate, Florida. In fact, Florida is one of the states that has benefited the most from internal migration, with California contributing just over 10% of Florida's new neighbors. Low taxes have made Florida an attractive place.
The opposite is true for California, which is the state with highest taxes, and the paradise of progressive regulation. A situation that causes Californians to flee the state presided over by Gavin Newsdom, some to Mexico. California is the state that has lost more population in 2021.
But it's not just about population. During the pandemic wealth also fled California, and took up residence in Florida. According to an article written by the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which is based on public IRS data, Florida is the state that has gained the most in income during the pandemic from out-of-state migrations: $23.7 billion. The states that have lost the most in revenue from people migrating within the country are New York (-$19.5 billion) and California (-$17.8 billion).
In another article, the newspaper showed that Republican states have recovered the best economically since the pandemic. Among them is Florida. The worst have been almost all Democratic, and among them is California.
Newsom is against messages that generate anger and division.
The striking thing about the case is that Gavin Newsom, in his speech on the state's situation denounced precisely that type of attitude. He denounced then that "we are plagued by agents of a national anger machine that fuels division, weaponizing grievance. Powerful forces and loud voices, feeding fear and trying to divide us."
Newson has a combative speech. When the press leaked the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, he said, "Where the hell is my party? Where is the Democratic Party? Why aren't we denouncing this? This is a concerted, coordinated effort. And, yes, they are winning."
In any case, a portion of his party does follow him, at least in the strategy of generating institutional messaging against political adversaries. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, has applauded Newsom's ads against DeSantis.
DeSantis' response
The Florida governor has waited more than a week to respond, but he has. Precisely his criticism focuses on Newsom's inability to stem the exodus of people from California: "California is driving people away with their terrible governance. Some of the best weather in the world in southern California, they have some of the best natural advantages, probably the best natural advantages of any state in this country. And for the entire history of California, they never lost population until this recent governor got into office, and now they’re hemorrhaging population".
