After California Governor Gavin Newsom targeted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with a massive ad buy in Florida, claiming freedom was under attack in the state, DeSantis was asked by a reporter about Newsom’s campaign ad.

DeSantis pointed out that the population decline in California is due to “terrible governance,” referring to Newsom’s leadership. For the first time, California saw a population decrease in 2020, and it saw another decrease in 2021. He added:

“When families are uprooting from the Pacific Coast to go almost 3,000 miles in search of a better life, that’s telling you something.”

DeSantis also hit back at Newsom’s claim that freedom is “under attack” in the Sunshine state.

“Yes, we’ve created a citadel of freedom here that has attracted people and we’re proud of it. But, let’s just be clear, California is driving people away with their terrible governance.”

California has the fifth-largest economy in the world, and due to Newsom’s inept leadership, the population has seen a decrease. Three of the most populous counties saw their population decrease. Not because California is a bad place to live, but because the majority of California leaders are incompetent, and that is driving people away, forcing them to vote with their feet. DeSantis continued:

“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. It’s almost hard to drive people out of a place like California, given all their natural advantages. And yet, they’re finding a way to do it,” he joked, to a laughing crowd.  

DeSantis is right. Living in California has more pros than cons, but when the leadership is ineffective and at times clueless, it’s difficult to praise the state. At a time when gas prices have surpassed six dollars in many counties in California, the inaction from the Governor and Democratic supermajority assembly to suspend the gas tax is just one of the reasons why we have seen an exodus.

This was a fight Newsom thought he would win, and DeSantis would not say a word, but when one state sees a decrease in population due to leadership and another state sees an increase in population due to leadership, Newsom should have gotten the hint that this is not a fight he wants.

DeSantis also noted that there have been many more California license plates in Florida recently.

“I can just tell you this, I was born and raised in this state, and until the last few years I rarely if ever saw a California license plate in the state of Florida. You now see a lot of them. I can tell you if you go to California you ain’t seeing very many Florida license plates.”

DeSantis then spoke about Newsom’s COVID-19 lockdown hypocrisy:

“As he was locking down his citizens, he would then go and have these extravagant dinners at the French Laundry to basically rub his citizens’ noses in the fact that he was treating them like peasants.” 

Newsom is an elitist who looks down on his constituents instead of listening to their concerns and coming up with solutions to solve the problems California is facing, most of which have gotten worse, not better, under his leadership.

For those who haven’t seen it, here is Newsom’s ad:

We’re about to celebrate Independence Day — but Freedom is under attack by Republican leaders in states like Florida.

Banning books.
Restricting speech.
Making it harder to vote.
Criminalizing women and doctors.
 
It’s time to stand up. Don’t let them take your freedom. pic.twitter.com/cFI5UzgZzX

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 3, 2022

The biggest difference between Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom is that DeSantis gets things done. Newsom only makes big, bold promises–and delivers the bare minimum.