California governor Gavin Newsom is eyeing a presidential run in 2028. He has openly proclaimed, “I will do for America what I’ve done for California.”

All I can say is this: let’s pray God never gives him the chance.

Newsom, now 58, has been entrenched in California politics for the better part of three decades—San Francisco Board of Supervisors, then Mayor of San Francisco, then Lieutenant Governor, and finally Governor beginning in 2019. That’s an impressive list of job titles. But does anyone seriously believe this résumé represents the blueprint America needs right now?

Under Newsom’s leadership, California has become a national leader in nearly every category a state should avoid bragging about:

• Worst infrastructure ratings among large states
• Largest homeless population in the country
• Highest poverty rate (when cost of living is factored in)
• One of the highest food prices in America
• A massive illegal immigration population
• Years of net population loss (roughly 19 million departures since the early 1990s)
• Top tier for violent crime rates
• Highest gas prices and statewide taxes
• Highest electricity rates in the nation
• A staggering debt load—driven by unfunded liabilities, wildfire costs, and insurance failures
• A tax structure so lopsided that 1% of Californians pay roughly half the entire state income tax

And then there’s the famous $15 billion “high-speed rail” that has been promised since the Bush administration. Seventeen years later—no high-speed train, not even a single mile of track connecting major metro areas. That money went somewhere. California just hasn’t seen it.

Newsom also presided over the passage of Proposition 50, a redistricting and election reform package critics call a “gerrymander in progressive clothing.” In other words, a structural effort to guarantee long-term single-party control. (Interestingly, courts struck down similar redistricting plans in Texas—but California got a pass.)

Then came COVID, wildfire mismanagement, insurance collapse, and pandemic restrictions that often bordered on surreal.

I saw this firsthand. I happened to be in San Diego on a golf trip during COVID. Half the hotels near ours were shut down. Restaurants were closed indoors—but allowed to build fully enclosed tents outside in the streets. We ate in one of those tents, and I had the misfortune of being seated next to the open flap. At one point, a homeless man stuck his head into the tent to look at our plates. He couldn’t go into the actual restaurant—but apparently he could join us through the zipper window of a plastic tent. Only in California.

And then comes J.B.

Now comes the twist: Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker seems eager for national office too. Considering Illinois matches California in almost every undesirable metric—soaring taxes, dwindling population, economic instability—you might as well add Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson and Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass to the ticket as Chief of Staff and Secretary of State. At least then the dysfunction would be coordinated.

So imagine a 2028 Democratic ticket featuring both men: Newsom for President, Pritzker for Vice President—the California-Illinois political partnership that would bring all of their experiments to the national stage. Call it the “The Progressive Powerball Ticket.”

If you absolutely insist on higher taxes, failing infrastructures, and a state government that lectures you about electric cars while the power grid collapses, buckle up—2028 is shaping up to be your Super Bowl. As for me, I don’t think America needs to be “Californianized,” and I’d like to believe most Americans would agree.

BTW – Here’s what I based much of this on—take it or leave it.

Hoover Institution: California Homelessness Spending and Outcomes (2019–2024)
Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research : California’s Population Drain
Reason Foundation: State Government Finance Rankings & Long-Term Liabilities
CALmatters / HUD 2024 PIT Count: California Homelessness Estimates
End Poverty in California (EPIC): California Poverty Statistics
California Immigrant Policy Center: Working Poverty & Economic Hardship Data