Escalating his shadow presidential campaign, Gavin Newsom spent his Fourth of July week visiting and lecturing red states listed on California Democrats’ travel ban list,  including Idaho, Montana and Utah. Since he once again seems preoccupied elsewhere, we thought we’d catch him up on some of the major stories he missed while away from the state he was actually elected to lead.

California Democrats’ Crime Crisis

It’s been one bad headline after another for California Democrats’ surging crime crisis. Thanks to their reckless soft-on-crime policies, Attorney General Rob Bonta tried to bury devastating new state crime statistics by releasing them the Friday before the holiday weekend. Those 2022 numbers showed that since 2021, violent crime in California has increased 6.1%, property crime has increased 6.2% and robberies surged a whopping 10.2%.

It’s no wonder nearly two thirds of Californians consider violence and street crime in their communities to be a problem, according to a PPIC survey.

But crime also hit close to home for Democrats while Newsom was away. A second California Democrat who is currently running for higher office in a targeted seat, Clarissa Cervantes, was arrested for driving under the influence. This was Swerving Cervantes’, candidate for AD 58, second DUI arrest in just 8 years! It also comes on the heels of state Senator and CA-47 candidate DUI Dave Min’s arrest for driving with a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit.

That sound you’re hearing is deafening silence from California Democrats on both Min and Cervantes’ DUI arrests. Governor Newsom, care to weigh in with your reaction to multiple elected Democrat leaders recklessly putting Californians’ lives at risk?

While California Exodus Escalates, California Democrats Raise Gas Tax

As Newsom lectured red states about the success of the California Way, he and Democrat Legislators were simultaneously raising the state’s gas tax by 8% on July 1, making the nation’s second-highest gas prices even higher. They did this on the Saturday going into the holiday weekend, over the course of which AAA estimated a record-breaking 50.7 million Americans would travel 50 miles or less.

It’s no wonder 4 in 10 Californians are considering leaving the state, mostly because of costs. This LA Times poll should hardly come as a shock, since California Democrats’ incompetent policies have already caused:

• California to lose a Congressional seat for the first time in state history after 2020 redistricting (with Decision Desk predicting we could lose 5 more after 2030!)
• 700,000 Californians to move away in the last 2 years
• California’s population to decline for the last 3 years
• California to lose $29.1 billion in adjusted gross income in 2021 as those fleeing the state took their tax dollars with them

Explain to us again, Governor Newsom, how the California exodus is simply a “myth?”

Homelessness Worsens

A new study found that homelessness in Los Angeles County increased by nearly 10% in 2023, ballooning above 75,000 people experiencing homelessness. These are startling numbers to see in the state’s most populous county while California overall holds  half of the nation’s unsheltered population.

Newsom and California Democrats have thrown tens of billions of taxpayer dollars at the homeless crisis while the problem only gets worse. By comparison, a red state Newsom loves to hate, Texas, has reduced  homelessness by 28% in the last 10 years, all while California has increased it by 43% and spends 13 times more per homeless person than Texas does.

BOTTOM LINE: Gavin Newsom should really give his red state savior tour a rest and focus on fixing any host of the issues he’s helped to create back home in California. The Golden State is struggling enough thanks to his incompetence. He doesn’t need to inflict that same damage on the American people as he fantasizes about taking his failures straight to the White House.