California
Kamala’s California problem
In the final days of the presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump never missed a chance to tie his opponent to California. It was a critique that required no elaboration—though true to form, Trump didn’t shy away from providing an overheated one. At his Madison Square Garden rally in October, he proclaimed that Vice President Kamala Harris was a “radical-left lunatic” who “destroyed California.”
Breathless rhetoric notwithstanding, it is a problem for national Democratic ambitions that California—the state most associated with the party’s rule—is now synonymous with the top issue of the election: the rising cost of living.
For the first time in recent memory, housing costs emerged as a major presidential election issue. (Experts agree that it’s the last major driver of inflation.) And while Harris promised to oversee the construction of 3 million homes over her term, that wasn’t enough to shake the California stigma.
As of 2024, California has the most expensive housing of any continental U.S. state, with a median home price that is more than eight times the state median household income. (A healthy ratio is considered between three to five times the state median income. The ratio in Texas is four.) As a result, working- and middle-class Californians have virtually no path to homeownership.
Locked out of homeownership, half of California renters spend at least a third of their income—for many, up to 50 percent—on rent. And they’re the lucky ones: Nearly 200,000 Californians and counting are homeless.
On some level, rank-and-file Democrats understand that the state is a problem. Ask a progressive in swing states like North Carolina or Wisconsin what she thinks about California, and she will likely try to change the topic of conversation. (Could you imagine a conservative having the same reluctance about Texas?)
Where millions of Americans—myself included—once knew California as a place where friends and family went off and claimed their slice of the dream, the Golden State is today better known as the source of embittered migrants making cash offers on homes.
Over the past 25 years, hundreds of thousands of people have voted with their feet and left the state. Sluggish population growth over the 2010s led California to lose a congressional seat after the 2020 reapportionment. (On net, red states picked up three seats in that election.) Amid declining immigration, the state has started losing population for the first time in history.
In 2022 alone, an estimated 102,000 Californians moved to Texas. They weren’t fleeing the perfect weather or the high-paying jobs—by and large, they were pushed out by the cost of living.
Occasionally, California’s progressive NIMBYs celebrate this unhappy exodus as a way of flipping other Mountain West states blue. Yet this year, Nevada voted for a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in 20 years. Even before the election, the polls acknowledged that Arizona was a lost cause for the Democrats.
It turns out that forcing people to abandon their home state in search of an affordable home doesn’t exactly engender party loyalty. Indeed, it may be having the opposite effect: Surveys out of states like Texas suggest that new arrivals from California might actually be more conservative than the locals.
Of course, Kamala Harris isn’t the reason California has a housing crisis. Democrats aren’t even solely to blame—the zoning that has made it illegal to build housing in California has been backed by NIMBYs of the right and left, and it was Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan who signed the state’s infamous environmental review act into law.
But the state has been under Democratic supermajority control since 2011. Outside of the unusual case of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a moderate Republican who backed Harris for president, they have effectively run the state since 1999. The undecided voter might be forgiven for wondering why this issue has only gotten worse under a quarter century of Democratic governance.
Immediately after the election, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom—who has made no secret of his presidential ambitions—called for a special session to address how California will respond to anticipated attacks on reproductive rights, immigrants, and the state’s climate policies by the Trump administration. The proclamation makes no mention whatsoever of the cost-of-living issues that likely handed the election to Trump.
There is a small but growing cadre of pro-housing Democratic state legislators who have taken up the cause of cutting through the red tape and getting California building again. And they’ve had some successes: Since 2017, the state has legalized granny flats, abolished parking mandates, and streamlined permitting. But all too often, reform efforts have been stymied by members of their own party.
It’s too late for Kamala Harris. But the next Democratic nominee for president had better hope those reformers are successful.
If you visit Disneyland with any frequency, a discount from the usual price of more than $100 a day would feel like a blessing.
However, almost as soon as Disney recently offered a rare chance to purchase limited evening passes to its two Southern California parks at about half of the regular cost, the online speculation among Disney enthusiasts behind the company’s strategy spiked. It was no surprise that the lower-priced tickets sold out in about a week.
Some fans referred to the five-hour ticket as a “recession” indicator on social media or as a way to “capture random stragglers.”
Others believed the ticket offered fireworks enthusiasts an opportunity to catch a nighttime spectacular, while one person said the pass allowed visitors to partake in other Southern California activities before finishing their evening at Disneyland.
Buyers of the pass are first set to attend the parks this Sunday, with dates extending until August.
Disneyland officials brush off the speculation, saying the ticket sale is business as usual. Fortunately for us, industry insider Dennis Speigel offered some analysis behind the move.
Let’s jump into the offer and his thoughts on the deal.
All about the ticket
Late last month, Disneyland offered a one-park evening pass for $59 to Disneyland or California Adventure. The ticket is good from Sundays to Wednesdays, starting this Sunday until Aug. 5.
California Adventure would allow evening patrons in at 5 p.m. until closing at 10 p.m. and Disneyland at 7 p.m. until closing at midnight.
A park reservation was still required for evening passes.
The tickets became available June 30 and sold out by July 6, according to a Disneyland spokesperson. Disneyland officials declined to say how many tickets were sold.
What’s Disneyland’s rationale?
The ticket offering is not all that rare.
Similar opportunities began as far back as 1957 with Disneyland date nights admission running from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m, a park spokesperson said.
“Our goal is to provide guests with a variety of limited-time ticket offers throughout the year — this being just one example of that,” a Disneyland spokesperson said.
Softer than a dole whip
Speigel, founder and chief executive of Cincinnati-based International Theme Park Services, Inc., a theme park consulting firm, said theme parks, ranging from small, regional locales to international destinations are struggling with a “softness” in admission demand that began in April but became more acute in June.
That slump at Disney and Universal Studios properties nationwide, Speigel said in a call with The Times, is due to three primary factors: the economy, weather and the Iranian War.
“There’s a nervousness from visitors, a lack of understanding of what to expect because of the war and economy,” he said. “We saw something like that last year driven by tariffs with soaring gas prices, and we monitored how people started moving back on their spending.”
Visitors still want deals
To counter that softness, Disney is turning to discounts, hoping to kindle interest, Speigel speculated.
“They understand their guests are in a crucible, and this drives the decision to discount,” he said. “People still want their escapes; that doesn’t go down. They just want to pay less to escape.”
Disney’s evening pass is also a shrewd offer because it aims to attract another type of guest: budget-minded locals who might be enticed by $59, Speigel said.
“It’s a smart attempt on Disney’s part,” Speigel said. “It moves in the local people who aren’t the season pass holders or tourists, and it fills the park. That’s what parks are looking to do right now.”
The week’s biggest stories
(Etienne Laurent / For the Times)
Boyle Heights fire
Two graduation traumas
Beach takeovers
Science and technology
What else is going on
Must-reads
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Going out
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L.A. Timeless
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Have a great day, from the Essential California team
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CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. (KABC) — An Amber Alert was issued Friday by the California Highway Patrol for a 3-year-old child out of California City believed to be in imminent danger.
Emaria Peel, 3, was last seen Friday at about 7:17 p.m. in the area of Redwood Boulevard and 83rd Street in California City, according to police.
Authorities believe 31-year-old Charnay Mclin took Emaria. Investigators have not yet said what relationship, if any, Mclin has to the child.
The suspect was described as being 5 feet 9 inches tall, 185 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
The child was described as being 1 foot 6 inches, 20 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
Police believe they’re traveling in a gold-colored 2021 Kia Sorento with the California license plate: 36095DV
Mclin is considered armed and dangerous. Authorities wants anyone who sees them to call 911.
No further details were immediately known.
Copyright © 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.
A 17-year-old suspect has been arrested in Texas in connection with the deadly shooting after a high school graduation ceremony in Fairfield, California last month, police said.
Fairfield police said U.S. Marshals, accompanied by department detectives, served search and arrest warrants Friday morning at a home in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The teen was taken into custody without incident on suspicion of murder and related offenses.
Investigators said the suspect fled California and traveled to Texas within days of the June 3 shooting. He will remain in custody while awaiting extradition to Solano County.
The shooting happened after Sem Yeto Continuation High School’s graduation ceremony, which was held on the Fairfield High School campus.
Police said 18-year-old graduate Jamario Baker died at the scene. Three others – an 11-year-old child and two adults, ages 20 and 25 – were wounded.
Authorities have not released the suspect’s name because he is a minor.
Although an arrest has been made, police said the investigation remains active and detectives continue to pursue additional leads.
“While today’s announcement may provide a measure of relief to some, it does not lessen the pain felt by our community,” the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District said in a statement.
Police plan to hold a news conference Monday at 4 p.m. to discuss the case and arrest.
Fairfield is a Northern California city about 40 miles northwest of San Francisco.
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