Gavin Newsom wants to run for president in 2024, and that’s been made obvious by his more recent obsession with Florida. The California governor recently used his campaign to purchase ads in the Sunshine State, and though we don’t know for sure what they’ll entail, we can arrive at a reasonable conclusion given his recent activities: He sees Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a threat.

RedState’s Jennifer O’Connell, who resides in California, originally reported on the ad buy. Here was her read on the situation.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is running for president. If you had any doubt about that, consider which state he focuses on the most, while ignoring his own. Yeah, you guessed it: Florida, along with Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis. Newsom assumes that DeSantis is who he will be opposing for President in 2024 and thinks his record of governance can best Gov. DeSantis’ work in his state.

Deluded is, as deluded does.

If you need any more proof that Newsom is deadly serious, look no further than a statewide cable ad buy Newsom just made— in Florida. Newsom is so overly confident that he doesn’t have to campaign for re-election in California that he is looking ahead and pouring his resources into his 2024 campaign.

Newsom’s calculous that he will be facing DeSantis in a 2024 matchup isn’t a terrible one. Certainly, at worst, Florida’s governor is the second most likely person to end up with the GOP nomination. The problems arise when you consider the condition California is actually in compared to Florida. The Washington Examiner recently published a piece outlaying Newsom’s results as governor, and they aren’t good.

What California successes Newsom would brag about in Florida is unclear. Newsom likes to boast about California’s economy, which rings hollow when the state tops the list for poverty and homelessness. Newsom could boast about COVID, but people moving to Florida are doing so in part because DeSantis didn’t rule over their lives with an iron fist during the pandemic. Newsom did exactly that, all while ignoring his own restrictions and wreaking havoc on the lives of students and families.

The unemployment rate in Florida is currently just three percent. In California, unemployment comes in at 4.3 percent and above the national average. California also has the highest poverty level in the nation, with 18.2 percent of residents becoming impoverished over the last three decades.

By comparison, Florida sits as an example of individual freedom, low taxes, and population growth while California is losing more people per capita every year than any other state in the union. That alone is enough to show Newsom’s failure. People vote with their feet in a republic, and they are casting their ballot for red states like Florida.

And while high taxes and COVID regulations have been part of that exodus, exploding homelessness and violent crime are factors as well. California resides in a weird limbo where it has good economic growth because major corporations continue to prop up its budget, but its individual residents suffer greatly under the thumb of an overbearing, completely incompetent state government. Eventually, all the subsidies and pretty beaches in the world aren’t enough to get people to stay there.

So again, what exactly is Newsom planning on bragging about in his ads? His state’s GDP numbers? Because that’s about all I can think of that’s going well in California, and certainly Florida has seen its share of big-time economic growth as well without harming its residents and destroying society along the way. In the end, I’m guessing this is a fight DeSantis is happy to have, and I know who I’d put my money on.