WASHINGTON — Two California Democrats could run for president in 2028: Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Republican operatives must be thinking: Bring it on.

Under Newsom, California's image has become less golden than it used to be.

The high cost of living has taken a toll. The IRS announced last month that California is the state experiencing the highest net loss of taxpayers, with one taxpayer leaving every 1 minute and 44 seconds.

Nearly 39,000 Californians moved to Nevada last year.

Hope that the Silver State newbies don't bring their progressive politics with them. And good luck with that.

The entertainment industry has been decamping from Hollywood for some time, but the decline of greater Los Angeles as an industry town accelerated after the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America strikes of 2023.

On-location production in the area fell more than 22% from January through March 2025, according to FilmLA, which tracks filming in Southern California.

California's loss could be good for Nevada. Actor Mark Wahlberg and others have been working to turn the Las Vegas area into a more affordable home for the industry, a Hollywood 2.0. The Nevada Legislature, however, has rejected rich transferable tax credits as a carrot to create film studios in southern Nevada.

Much of Silicon Valley's Big Tech has decamped to the Lone Star State because of its lower taxes and less restrictive regulations.

In 2021, Elon Musk moved Tesla's headquarters to Texas.

In 2024, Musk moved the headquarters for X (formerly Twitter) from San Francisco, and his personal home and other operations in Silicon Valley, to Texas.

I'll never forget interviewing former eBay CEO Meg Whitman when she was running for California governor in 2010. I worked for the San Francisco Chronicle at the time. Whitman told me how eBay executives had begun to talk about where they would rebuild if eBay had to start all over again. Whitman's answer was not California. "Probably Texas," she offered.

Energy companies fled. Chevron left San Ramon, California, for Houston.

California doesn't look like a can-do state anymore. Consider the Southland's inability to prevent fires from scorching Pacific Palisades and Altadena, as city, county and state governments seemed more interested in imposing their politics on the public than providing essential services and infrastructure.

With all that failure, hypocrisy doesn't look so bad. Republican rivals may not even bring up Governor Handsome's infamous COVID-19 dinner with fellow big shots at the tony French Laundry in Napa, even as his team was lecturing Californians that they should not to have Thanksgiving dinners with members of more than three households.

So run, Gavin, run.

As for Harris, well, she will have to answer for her erstwhile boss, former President Joe Biden, who opened the border to millions of unvetted immigrants without any inkling of the likely consequences.

Harris famously made a verbal blunder in October 2024, when the ladies of "The View" asked what she might have done differently than Biden and she answered, "There is not a thing that comes to mind."

California Democratic political consultant Darry Sragow wonders if, after losing the world's biggest prize, Harris might turn out "to be a very different candidate than she's been" if she does run for the White House again.

Sragow warns against assuming Harris did not learn from 2024's missteps.

As for Newsom, Sragow offered that voters have been "waiting for someone to go toe to toe with Donald Trump," and the slick-haired Democrat could be the man.

Newsom has served as anti-Trumpers' favorite troll.

Sragow notes that while the rest of America may see California as cray-cray (not his words), events can change everything. Besides, Californians enjoy a balmy climate that New Yorkers and Washingtonians envy.

The economic climate, I would counter, is another issue.

Contact Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at [email protected]. Follow @debrajsaunders on x.

Photo credit: Gustavo Zambelli at Unsplash