The state’s laboratory of policy chaos has produced another misbegotten experiment for progressives to replicate elsewhere. Gavin Newsom doesn’t need to run for president in order to shape national policy. The Biden administration has made clear it’ll follow California off a cliff, taking Newsom’s campaign against independent contractors national with a March 2024 Department of Labor...

When interviewing for a legislative fellowship in Sacramento, California over two decades ago, the panel asked about my career plans. I worked through a progression I thought was essential for any aspiring politico, concluding confidently that I was eventually going to run for Congress. In my mind, that’s where all the important political action was....

The optimal public policy regarding unions may not be realistic in states like California, but that shouldn’t prevent us from performing an occasional what-if. For anyone even slightly right-of-center, what unions have done to this state is a catastrophe. And even for those to the left-of-center, many are realizing, for example, that California’s failing system...

California’s political landscape is changing, and that’s cause for celebration. In 2018, the Supreme Court’s Janus ruling prohibited the collection of union dues from public employees as a condition of employment. Before that ruling, with few exceptions, no dues meant no job. By protecting a worker’s right to choose to financially support a union, Janus...

In appointing Laphonza Butler to take Dianne Feinstein’s still-warm U.S. Senate seat, Gov. Gavin Newsom has picked his twin, someone of Cirque-du-Soleil-level flexible morality and connections to wealthy donors on all sides of most issues. In that regard, at least, she’s a perfect representative of California politics. She is “simply the best person that I...

Frisco, Texas — nestled in the north Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex — has been making headlines for the number of companies flocking to the city to take advantage of its business-friendly environment and rapid growth. This month, the Frisco Economic Development Corporation (FEDC) released a statement highlighting the city’s impressive 2022 track record, having welcomed sixteen...

Editor’s note: This is the first article in a series on California’s water crisis. You can read the entire series including recent updates in his new book “The Abundance Choice, Our Fight for More Water in California.” In October and again in December, as the third severe drought this century was entering its third year,...

Latest episode of the Radio Free California podcast is out! San Francisco mayor London Breed says she had to dance maskless in a nightclub, and blames the “fun police” for documenting the moment. How Newsom explains his recall win. L.A. County kills oil drilling (to kill working-class jobs). California liquor licenses remain a prerogative of...

Editor’s note: This is the seventh article in a nine-part series on how to fix California. Read the first article in the series here, the second here, the third here, the fourth here, the fifth here, the sixth here, the seventh here, and the eighth here. The policy topics considered in this series—energy, water, transportation, housing, law enforcement and the homeless, forestry,...

For lovers of freedom, living in California can sometimes feel like a losing battle. Teachers unions run the schools (or, more recently, ensure they don’t run), Sacramento politicians refuse to grant hearings to minority bills, and high taxes and excessive regulations are forcing more and more of our neighbors and family members to pack up...