California has lost nearly two million residents in seven years – and Democrats keep winning elections there anyway.
Now the cracks are spreading somewhere Democrats never expected.
His exact words are something no California Democrat ever expected to hear from CNN.
Fareed Zakaria Calls California Democrats a Failing Model of Governance
CNN host Fareed Zakaria dedicated his entire Sunday opening monologue to dismantling the Democrat Party's record in California.
He pointed out that state spending has exploded from $2,300 per resident at the turn of the century to $6,300 today – a 200-plus percent increase while the state's population grew only 15%.
"Does anyone think that California government and its benefits have gotten 200% better in the last 25 years?" Zakaria asked his CNN audience.
His answer, delivered in plain terms: no.
California's test scores have gotten worse while taxes have gotten higher.
The homeless crisis has turned Los Angeles and San Francisco into open-air disaster zones.
Then he got to housing – and called it California's "central failure."
Too much red tape, too little construction, and a middle class that can no longer afford to live in the state it built.
"People are leaving," Zakaria said. "Over the past seven years, the state has lost a net 1.9 million people through domestic migration."
That's not a rounding error. That's a mass exodus.
California Exodus Has Lasted 20 Years and the Housing Crisis Is Getting Worse
The California Department of Finance confirmed the bleeding is ongoing.
In 2024–2025 alone, the state lost a net 216,000 residents to domestic out-migration. That follows a loss of 140,000 the year before.
The state's total outbound losses now stretch across more than 20 consecutive years of negative domestic migration – a streak that predates Trump, predates COVID, and points directly at the permanent damage done by one-party Democrat rule.
California is ranked dead last among all 50 states by U-Haul for inbound one-way traffic – for six straight years.
The people leaving aren't radicals or political activists. They're middle-class families priced out of starter homes, small business owners buried under regulations, and retirees watching their fixed incomes evaporate in the face of taxes that never stop climbing.
Steve Hilton and the 2026 California Governor Race Show Democrats Are Losing Voters
Zakaria didn't just critique policy. He pointed to what's happening at the ballot box – and that's where the story gets interesting for the rest of the country.
Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, just finished second in California's June 2 gubernatorial primary with 25% of the vote – advancing to a November general election matchup against Democrat Xavier Becerra.
In Los Angeles – a city so reliably Democrat it's essentially a one-party municipality – Republican-turned-independent Spencer Pratt ran a shockingly competitive race for mayor before finishing third.
These aren't Republicans winning converts. These are Democrats losing voters they've taken for granted for 16 years.
Hilton explained what was happening during a primary debate.
"Some of these Democrats on the stage, they talk as if we're in some parallel universe where Democrats haven't been running the state for the last 16 years of one-party rule."
He's right. And now even CNN is saying so.
Why the Rest of America Should Be Paying Attention
California isn't just a state in trouble. It's a preview.
Every policy Democrats are pushing nationally – massive spending increases, housing regulations that strangle construction, social programs that consume budgets while failing the people they're supposed to serve – has already been tried in California at full scale.
The results are measurable: a state that was once the American Dream is now exporting its middle class to Texas, Nevada, and Arizona.
Families who built lives in California are loading up U-Haul trucks and driving east. Hollywood can't even film its movies there anymore – according to Zakaria's own broadcast, none of the ten films nominated for Best Picture this year were primarily produced in the state that hosts the Oscars.
Zakaria framed it as a paradox: "A successful economy attached to a failing model of governance."
Democrats broke something that didn't need fixing, and they've been breaking it for a quarter century.
When CNN starts telling its own audience the same thing conservatives have been saying for years, the only question left is: how many more Americans have to leave before Democrats admit it?
Sources:
- Sean James, "CNN's Fareed Zakaria Slams California's 'Failing' Democratic Rule," Mediaite, June 14, 2026.
- Fareed Zakaria, "How California Became a Case Study in Failed Governance," Washington Post, June 12, 2026.
- Jeanne Kuang, "Republican Steve Hilton Advances to November Governor's Election," CalMatters, June 9, 2026.
- California Department of Finance, "E-2: California County Population Estimates and Components of Change," July 2025.
- "California Exodus Continues in 2025," Malibu Times, January 18, 2026.