DeSantis fires back after California governor runs Fourth of July attack ad in Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis fired back Friday after California Gov. Gavin Newsom ran an attack ad throughout the state of Florida on the Fourth of July.

“Freedom is under attack in your state,” said Newsom in the ad. “I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight or to join us in California, where we still believe in freedom.”

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But DeSantis argued that based on where people are moving, Florida is the freer state.

“We’ve created a citadel of freedom here that has attracted people, and we’re proud of it. But let’s just be clear: California is driving people away with their terrible governance,” said DeSantis during a press conference in Cape Coral.

And data tends to favor DeSantis’ narrative.

“The raw numbers of people leaving California are pretty insane compared to other states,” said Mercedes Martinez with moveBuddha.

The company recently published a report that found Florida is absorbing roughly 8% of those leaving California.

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Martinez said a big motivator is the business climate.

“And a lot of that is underlyingly political, because businesses want to escape the high tax laws in California; or at the time, maybe COVID restrictions were holding them back,” said Martinez.

California has also seen its population decrease over the past 10 years, while Florida’s population has ballooned by 3 million.

As for Californians abandoning the Golden State, Florida is their No. 2 landing spot.

“When families are uprooting from the Pacific coast to go almost 3,000 miles in search of a better life, that’s telling you something,” said DeSantis.

But Martinez noted Newsom’s ad appears to have struck a chord with some Florida residents, according to Google search data.

“We looked for the last seven days after the ad had run and saw a clear spike,” said Martinez.

She added the vast majority of the recent searches were for smaller apartments, which may suggest younger Floridians were the most influenced by the ad.

“Younger people tend to lean more liberally or would make a move based on political decisions; or it’d be easier for them to make a move. So I thought that was kind of a bit interesting,” said Martinez.

Martinez said the data also revealed the Jacksonville metro area led the state in the number of searches for moves out of Florida into California over the past year.

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Overall, while Florida is currently winning the migration battle, Martinez said California has been becoming a more popular choice for Floridians packing up their bags and moving out of state.

Last year, Florida was taking in five Californians for every Floridian that moved to the Golden State.

Now, it’s taking in only about two.

“The playing field is getting a little bit more even,” said Martinez.

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