by Brandon Poulter
Nearly half of Californians are considering leaving the state, according to a June California Community poll.
The top cited reasons residents had for wanting to leave the state included the cost of living and political disagreement, according to the poll results. The poll was conducted between June 6 and June 16 and is an “ongoing partnership between Strategies 360 the Los Angeles Times,” the website reads.
“Voters who are anxious about the economy but happy with the cultural climate are a complicated challenge for candidates who have to appeal to those mixed feelings,” Dan Schnur, who teaches at the University of Southern California and the University of California at Berkeley, told the Los Angeles Times.
The poll revealed that 81% of respondents were dissatisfied with the cost of everyday living expenses in the state. Additionally, 41% said that middle-class people have “few” to “no” opportunities to improve their financial conditions, according to the poll results.
“Even if folks make the same income as they did even just three years ago, their sense of financial security has fallen dramatically,” Ben Winston, who is a political consultant for Strategies 360, told the Los Angeles Times.
The poll also showed that 47% of respondents felt that the state had “over-corrected and gone too far in its attempts to give everyone equal rights,” and that 43% said California was “on the wrong track.”
Nearly 350,000 people left California in 2022, and the state population has declined by more than 500,000 people since 2020.
The poll’s margin of error was 2.7% and it surveyed 800 adults statewide.
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Brandon Poulter is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Moving Day” by Ketut Subiyanto.
