There’s a popular saying: As California goes, so goes the nation.
The state combines America’s largest cultural and tech hubs with a staggering economy. At 4 trillion dollars, California isn’t just the largest economy in the nation, but the fourth largest economy in the world- larger than the economies of Japan, the UK, and India.
And yet, California is also emblematic of a unique form of blue-state decline. It leads the nation in income inequality. California also has the nation’s largest homeless population—187,000 people representing 24% of homeless Americans live in California, and it ranks among the top states for drug addiction.
Gas and electricity are much more expensive due to environmental restrictions, and huge numbers of Californians are living in “energy poverty”—meaning they pay over 25% of their income toward energy. They are overwhelmingly people of color.
And housing is astronomically expensive and hard to come by thanks to further environmental restrictions about where and how you can build.
It’s a microcosm of what’s gone wrong in blue America: Unbelievably rich, white Californians are living the American Dream- while everyone else is struggling to make ends meet, thanks to the vanity morals of the rich, who don’t have to live with the consequences of their terrible policies. Those consequences are borne by the working class.
But could a shift be afoot?
In California’s race to replace Gavin Newsom, whose term limits as governor are up, two Republicans—Steve Hilton and Sheriff Chad Bianco—have surged to the front lines of the primary, which allows Republicans and Democrats to compete against each other in what’s called a jungle primary.
Meanwhile, in the race for Mayor of L-A, Republican Spencer Pratt is creeping up on his Democratic opponents, driven by rage at the handling of the LA wildfires that left so many without homes.
Could a Republican take L.A. and California? And if so, would the nation follow?
Sheriff Chad Bianco joined me to discuss.
We talked about his views on immigration, how he would convince Democrats to vote for him, why he thinks Republicans are surging, and how he would get down costs in California.
