Democrats are nervous at the thought of Joe Biden running again in 2024.

Other party hopefuls are polishing their résumés and preparing to make a pitch.

And a Democrat governor hoping to run for president has one huge problem on his hands.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is desperate to run for president.

He tried to boost his national profile by lobbing petty criticisms at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has emerged as the top contender for Donald Trump in the Republican primary.

Newsom’s cheap shots at DeSantis were an attempt to distract from his mishandling of COVID and his recall election that had him and the Democrats sweating bullets.

Gavin Newsom has overseen stunning Golden State exodus

Another problem for Newsom is that his horrible governance has contributed to more and more people fleeing California.

Hundreds of thousands of residents are escaping high taxes and burdensome regulations, and they’re taking their businesses with them.

Human Events reported that the “population of California has fallen for the third straight year as exorbitant costs and declining quality of life have led to increasing numbers of people leaving the Golden State. Data published by the U.S. Census Bureau found that despite births outnumbering deaths and the arrival of over 125,000 immigrants, the state’s population shrank again as more than 300,000 moved out of the state. Between July 2021 and July 2022, the number of people fell from 39,142,991 to 39,029,342 — a fall of around 114,000 people.”

More and more celebrities are talking about the problems of the Golden State.

Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, and Ben Shapiro are three of many public figures who have spoken repeatedly about why they left California.

Taxes, regulation, homelessness, and crime were at the top of the list.

And all of those problems are moving in the wrong direction.

Housing costs among many factors helping drive people out

H.D. Palmer, deputy director of external affairs at the California Department of Finance, explained to The Sacramento Bee, “If you talk to demographers, they’ll say that one of the factors is the cost of housing…And that’s continued to be a challenging issue for the state.”

Some of the reasons for the cost of living are the extra gas taxes, regulations, and housing supply that has not come close to meeting demand.

Bureaucrats make it incredibly difficult to build in California, especially in a city like San Francisco.

Human Events added that “Texas’s population rose by 470,708 people since July 2021, reaching a total of over 30 million. Meanwhile, Florida’s population increased by 416,754, resulting in a total resident population of 22,244,823. This migration likely had an impact on the results of the midterms, as Republicans tightened their control over both states.”

If Newsom can’t convince people to stay in California, he’s going to have a tough sell convincing people to vote for him for president of the United States.

Stay tuned to Blue State Blues for any updates to this ongoing story.