Wannabe POTUS Gavin Newsom has been spending a lot of time fake campaigning against a so far non-existent opponent in Florida. Newsom has been touting California as the true “freedom” state (please control your laughter), inviting Americans to move to the Golden State for wonderful amenities like abortion on-demand up until the moment of birth and state-funded transgender surgeries.

Unfortunately for Newsom’s phantom presidential campaign, the stats don’t match the drapes.

Recent census statistics reveal that California has lost more than 500,000 residents over the last two years. That’s 143,000 more people than New York state lost during the same period. Both states have seen massive migrations to red states like Utah, Texas and Florida. In fact, between 2020 and 2022 Texas gained around 700,000 residents, and Florida welcomed nearly 900,000 new residents.

Much of the net migration out of California was “people seeking safe refuge during the pandemic” with parents or friends, causing people to “get out of the central cities,” said Dowell Myers, a professor of policy, planning and demography at USC.

Newsom’s extended school closures, suffocating business closures and rigid vaccine mandates served to drive families and business owners out of the state in droves in search of schooling and a better business environment.

It seems they just couldn’t handle all that California dystopian utopian freedom.

There are other issues driving Americans away from the “left coast.” Housing costs are the highest in the nation, as are taxes. It isn’t a welcoming environment for young families.

The state “still attracts them, it just can’t hold them as well,” Myers said, noting that many young people come in as renters, then leave the state for lower housing prices elsewhere.

“People who are leaving are much more likely to be homeowners after they leave,” he explained.

Add to the housing issue the hellacious crime rates, open-air drug markets and a homeless crisis that grows exponentially every month. California is becoming unlivable and it shows. It is also apparent that no lawmakers have the political will to fix anything. Things are only going to get worse.

Gavin Newsom is on year three of a COVID state of emergency, one he has vowed to end on February 28, 2023. It remains to be seen if he will keep that promise. Given that “15 days to slow the spread” has turned into three years, it doesn’t seem likely.

In the meantime, the carefully coiffed (non)candidate will continue pretending California is the land of opportunity it once was, even as the population escapes to greener pastures by the hundreds of thousands.