A Los Angeles restaurant owner who voted for Gavin Newsom just watched his family's American Dream die.
This week, CNN put that restaurant owner on television – and what he said is now following Newsom straight to 2028.
The man Newsom never worried about just became the reason his presidential campaign may never launch.
The California Small Business Owner Who Voted for Newsom and Lost Everything
Tom Sopit's family built something in Los Angeles – his parents came to America as immigrants and opened a restaurant, the exact story Democrats claim to champion. Sopit kept that restaurant alive through COVID, voted for Gavin Newsom, and is now shutting the whole thing down.
"The cost of goods, the cost of labor is much higher than everyone else in the country," Sopit told CNN's Kyung Lah.
Insurance premiums exploded because wildfire risk drove every carrier out of California. Hollywood studios fled to cheaper states, taking the foot traffic that kept small restaurants alive. Regulators kept coming.
Sopit called it a "death by a thousand cuts."
He's now a registered independent.
"You can't just keep taxing businesses and people," he said. "How are we just keep paying more taxes, but somehow the state just keeps going downhill? That doesn't make sense."
That description – pay more, get less, watch the state collapse – is Gavin Newsom's governing record.
The CNN Reporter Who Said California Cost of Living Will Follow Newsom to 2028
After interviewing Sopit ahead of the September 30 California gubernatorial debate between Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra, CNN's Kyung Lah went back on air with anchor Dana Bash to explain what she found on the ground.
"These Democrats today are looking at generations where they can't have what their parents have," Lah said. "Sopit's parents, who were immigrants to this country, had a business in Los Angeles, a restaurant, and their son could not do the same thing. And that is going to chase these candidates, and, frankly, it's going to chase Gov. Newsom as he seeks higher office."
A CNN senior national correspondent – on CNN – handed Newsom's 2028 rivals the exact attack line they needed. The network that spent four years running interference for California's Democrat leadership just told its own audience to pay attention to Tom Sopit.
Tom Sopit didn't leave – he couldn't take his restaurant with him – but Tesla, Oracle, SpaceX, and Charles Schwab all did, heading for Texas.
The Washington Free Beacon documented at least $375 billion worth of businesses fleeing California in recent years. Analytics firm Black Box Intelligence found that 9% of all full-service restaurants nationally are at serious risk of closing in 2026 – and in Los Angeles, the closures are visible in every neighborhood.
The California Restaurant Association's CEO confirmed that state regulators keep piling restrictions and complications onto small businesses, year after year, without relief. The $20 minimum wage for fast food alone cost 18,000 California workers their jobs.
Gavin Newsom looked at that wreckage and told the country "there's literally no better place to do business" than California – words he will be answering for every day of a 2028 campaign.
Why Newsom Cannot Run From His California Record in the 2028 Presidential Race
Gavin Newsom has spent years positioning himself as the man who stood up to Donald Trump.
The problem is that there is a man in Los Angeles – a man who voted for Newsom – whose restaurant just died because of every policy Newsom signed into law.
Political records do not disappear in presidential campaigns. They get amplified.
Every Republican debate stage in 2028 will feature some version of Tom Sopit's story – except the candidate delivering it will have Kyung Lah on record as a witness.
Newsom cannot dismiss it as partisan noise. She works for CNN, not the Republican National Committee.
Lah's words are a presidential campaign ad waiting to air in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan: Sopit's parents came to this country and built a restaurant in Los Angeles, and their son could not do the same thing.
Newsom can pivot to Medicare or climate or Trump all he wants – but you cannot argue your way past a man who survived a pandemic and still could not survive your governorship.
California's damage is already done.
The question for 2028 is whether enough voters outside California have been paying attention.
Sources:
- Nick Givas, "CNN Reporter Says Newsom's Mismanagement of California Will 'Chase' Him as He Seeks 'Higher Office,'" The Western Journal, October 1, 2026.
- Megan Barth, "Becerra Finally Agrees to CNN Debate With Hilton," California Globe, September 8, 2026.
- "Run (From) The Hills: Newsom Dismisses California's Mass Business Exodus," Washington Free Beacon.
- "Why Los Angeles Restaurants Say They're Struggling to Survive in 2026," Fox LA, 2026.
- "San Diego Restaurants Face Tough Landscape," Times of San Diego, March 2026.
- "WTF – What the Fork," California Restaurant Association, calrest.org, 2026.