Polling on Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris should alarm Californians

As former British Prime Minister Tony Blair aptly said: A good way to measure a country is how many people want to get in, and how many want to get out.

The same can be said of a state. 

And when it comes to California, people are increasingly opting for “out.” 

The state is unaffordable, with a declining quality of life, a long list of crises and a failed yet arrogant governing class.

California Governor Gavin Newsom at the US Conference of Mayors’ 94th Annual Meeting. David Buchan for Ca Post

It’s against this backdrop that Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom remain the front-runners for the 2028 presidential nomination, according to a Center Square Voters’ Voice poll.

Per the early-June survey, 27% of registered Democratic and left-leaning independent voters favor Harris, followed by “not sure” at 17% and Newsom at 14%.

California voters might ask themselves: If a train-wreck (2024) presidential candidate and a plastic, egocentric governor are the best this state can offer, then what exactly are we doing here? 

Gov. Newsom likes to boast that California is a model for other states and even the world. While that once was true, years of Democratic misrule have made the state a laughingstock.

Former VP Kamala Harris speaking at the National Action Network Convention. Robert Miller for NY Post

Consider: a slow, lax and opaque voting system that breeds mistrust and national derision. Some of the highest energy and housing costs in the country. Epic levels of health-care fraud. High-speed rail that after 20 years has yet to lay an inch of track. A homeless-industrial complex that fleeces taxpayers and enriches Dem cronies while entrenching the problem to keep the money coming. And on it goes.

Why exactly would Americans want to replicate any of this on a national scale? Or elevate one of its leading architects, Newsom — or another prominent product of its dysfunction, Harris?

And why, beyond personal ambition, might either of them run? Neither one has made such a case, much less offered a vision for the state or nation. 

The fact that these are California’s top two prospects for the White House should comfort Republicans — and alarm state residents.

Californians who value competence, attention to the job itself, and solutions rather than slogans and word salads should examine just how we reached this point.

What’s more, Newsom and Harris have long feuded, according to reports in The California Post, with Harris peeved that Newsom sent her a kiss-off text and Newsom miffed that she made him look bad by sharing it.

It all speaks to the superficiality of those who rise and emerge from a failing one-party state.

American voters, beware. If you send this crowd to the White House and then decide you want “out,” there’s pretty much nowhere to go.