Newsom Visits South Carolina, Where Democrats Question His Appeal

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D) trip to South Carolina this week, a visit that has generated many headlines, comes a little more than six years after California government workers were banned from traveling on official business to the Palmetto State in accordance with a law signed by Newsom. While South Carolina is on the other side of the country, many former Californians now call it home, with tens of thousands having moved from the Golden State to South Carolina during Newsom’s time as governor.

South Carolina topped the U-Haul Growth Index for the first time ever last year, meaning it was the number one destination from one-way movers who used U-Haul. “Texas, North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee round out the five leading growth states,” U-Haul noted in a statement about the 2024 index release, adding that “California experienced the greatest net loss of do-it-yourself movers in U-Haul equipment and ranks 50th for the fifth consecutive year.”

According to Census data, South Carolina had the nation’s highest rate of population growth through domestic migration in 2024, while California once again lost population due to net domestic outmigration. During his interactions reporters in South Carolina, Gavin Newsom was never asked to explain why he thinks his state is losing so many residents to South Carolina and other red states.

“Texas (85,267), North Carolina (82,288) and South Carolina (68,043) saw the largest gains from domestic migration, while California (-239,575), New York ( -120,917) and Illinois (-56,235) experienced the largest net domestic migration losses between 2023 and 2024,” the Census Bureau explained in a statement. The only reason California’s population didn’t shrink last year is because of international migration.

Asked about a prospective Newsom White House bid, Congressman Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters “I feel good about his chances.” South Carolina Republican Party chair Drew McKissick didn’t share Clyburn’s sentiment, suggesting that Newsom might’ve come to South Carolina “looking for voters who left California due to high taxes, government over-regulation, and woke insanity.”

South Carolina and California’s contrasting approaches to public policy and governance are instructive, particularly to the extent that they are indicative of the ideologies and preferences that differentiate the two major political parties. On fiscal policy, South Carolina has a top marginal income tax rate of 6.2% that will fall to 6% at the end of 2025, down from 7% only three years ago. While that is a relatively high rate compared to other southeastern states, South Carolina’s top rate is less than half of California’s 13.3% top marginal income tax rate, which is the nation’s highest.

What’s more, though South Carolina’s top income tax rate is high relative to neighboring states, legislators in Columbia are working to make sure that won’t be the case much longer. The South Carolina House approved tax reform legislation this spring that will move the state to a 1.99% flat tax in the next five years and then fully phase it out over the subsequent five years. The South Carolina Senate will take up that reform in January. Meanwhile, in California not only is income tax relief not on the agenda, Gavin Newsom was the only governor in the country to raise income taxes on businesses during the depths of the pandemic-driven economic downturn of 2020. Newsom did, however, recently approve tax breaks for movie producers.

Aside from tax policy, California and South Carolina take diametrically opposed approaches on labor, energy, and other key policy areas. While South Carolina is a Right-to-Work state where workers cannot be forced to join a union as a condition of employment, coerced unionization is a reality in California.

In addition to tax rates, utility bills and gas prices are also much higher on average in California than in South Carolina. California’s relatively high energy prices are driven, in part, by progressive policy preferences, such as the imposition of the nation’s first cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions.

Dick Harpootlian, a former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman who also served in the state senate, told the Los Angeles Times that “Newsom would find it hard to find a foothold in many places in South Carolina.”

“If he had a track record of solving huge problems like homelessness, or the social safety net, he’d be a more palatable candidate,” Harpootlian said of Newsom’s prospects as a White House contender. “I just think he’s going to have a tough time explaining why there’s so many failures in California.”

Gavin Newsom visited South Carolina to bolster local Democrats, which also helps lay groundwork for a potential White House bid should the California governor decide to launch one. Newsom didn’t use this week’s trip to South Carolina to offer his theory on why South Carolina is attracting so many new residents while California continues to lose population to other states, but the topic will remain a timely one for a local reporter to raise should the California governor return.