Newsom Claims California Manufacturing Capital of America – Receipts Don’t Add Up – RedState

When Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke to All swagger. No receipt.

The problem for Newsom and California Democrats who acquiesce is that the facts don’t bear it out. They wrap themselves in buzzwords like “innovation” and “jobs.” Meanwhile, California’s industrial infrastructure is eroding.

For decades, they have made it harder to build, hire or expand. Now they want applause for the same hollow economy they helped hollow out. The reality is that California is the manufacturing capital of nothing except excessive regulation, bureaucracy and self-promotion.

California is the manufacturing capital of America, period.

We create more jobs, produce more goods, and drive more innovation than anywhere else in the country – because what is built in California shapes the future and fuels the American economy.

– Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) October 6, 2025

California’s numbers don’t support the boast

Yes, California is big. The state’s manufacturing sector generated nearly $400 billion in annual output and supported an estimated 1.2 million jobs in 2024. Those raw numbers sound impressive in a press release, but size alone doesn’t equate to leadership.

If the standard is who produces the most per capita, who is growing the fastest, and who is attracting new industrial investment, California doesn’t even make the top ten.

According to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report, states like Louisiana, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska rank among the largest in manufacturing shipments per capita. These smaller, more efficient states produce more manufacturing value per person, meaning they actually build more, faster, and more efficiently than California.

This is what competitiveness looks like. And it’s something Newsom and his party refuse to discuss because it exposes a decades-old myth: California can stifle its industrial base while claiming national leadership.

This week, we highlight #manufacturing data before #MFGDay on October 3.

Discover our new #DataViz for a new twist on the value of states’ manufacturing shipments that analyzes per capita data.

To start #AmericaMatters.https://t.co/aTwGE9r7CR#MFGDay25 pic.twitter.com/t9kRQfVWZU

– United States Census Bureau (@uscensusbureau) September 29, 2025

California’s manufacturing boom is a thing of the past

California’s manufacturing strength today is the product of yesterday’s investments. The state’s industrial giants – aerospace, defense and high technology – were built in the postwar decades, when the business climate still encouraged risk and expansion.

But those days are long gone.

The 2016 Reinventing Manufacturing report from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute puts it bluntly:

“The high cost of operating a business in California is often cited as a reason why manufacturers choose to locate their facilities in other states. »

And the data tells the same story. In January 1990, California employed 1,985,500 manufacturing workers. By 2014, that number had fallen to 1,255,700, a drop of almost 37 percent. When Newsom took office in January 2019, manufacturing employment had briefly reached 1,293,100. By August 2025, it fell back to 1,211,200, the lowest in 35 years outside of the COVID economic downturn.

Despite Newsom’s boasts about “growth,” California has lost nearly 774,000 manufacturing jobs since 1990. The trajectory shows no signs of reversing.

Meanwhile, other states are seeing increases. Texas, Florida, and Arizona have all become hotbeds for factories by doing the opposite of California. They streamlined environmental permitting, cut corporate taxes, and welcomed employers instead of penalizing them.

California? It is busy taxing, regulating and advocating its way out of competitiveness.

That’s why companies like Hewlett-Packard, Superior Industries, and Spreckels Sugar Company left California. They did not flee because of bad weather. They fled because the Golden State became a bureaucratic nightmare.

So if Newsom’s California truly is the “manufacturing capital of America,” why is industrial investment heading east of the Sierras?

Democrats watch jobs flee and pretend everything is fine

As industrial investment heads east, California’s congressional representatives, including Maxine Waters, are offering no solutions. They cheer every time Newsom tweets that California “runs the nation,” and yet they have done nothing to protect the working class jobs that once made that statement a reality.

Where are they when the factories close in Torrance? When aerospace entrepreneurs quietly relocate their operations out of Hawthorne? When Compton machinists and welders lose their livelihoods?

Nowhere. Because they are complicit in the illusion.

They love to brag about “innovation hubs” and “clean technology corridors,” but ignore the steady loss of real manufacturing jobs, the ones that pay middle-class wages and support communities. They cut ribbons for “green tech” startups in Silicon Valley, but won’t defend the Gardena assembly worker.

Census Bureau data confirms what Californians already know: Manufacturing employment in the state has been stagnant or declining for decades, even as states like Texas, Florida and Arizona post double-digit job growth.

And the irony couldn’t be clearer. The same Democrats who preach “fairness” preside over a two-speed economy. A situation where working-class Californians are excluded, while insiders and wealthy elites pat themselves on the back for their “green innovation.”

ALSO: The numbers are in, and Gavin Newsom won’t like where California is tied for first

Capital of excuses, not factories

If California is the manufacturing capital of America, what exactly is being manufactured?

Because they’re not cars. Michigan is a leader in the production of automotive vehicles and parts. They are not semiconductors. Arizona leads the nation in semiconductor investment, supplier expansion and jobs. And it’s not about chemical manufacturing. Texas is the largest exporter of chemicals.

So what’s booming in California? Narrative. Press conferences. Glossy reports. Photo ops from the Governor’s Mansion.

The Census Bureau report shows that smaller, leaner states are outperforming California on the only metric that really matters: output per worker. And California’s outsized totals only seem impressive when you factor in the 39 million residents footing the bill. Divide it, and so-called “manufacturing capital” looks more like an overtaxed outpost of political theater.

The Bay Area Council report brought it home once again:

“California leads the nation in innovation and R&D, but much of the production associated with these innovations is developed elsewhere.”

Translation: California is dreaming, other states are building it.

Direction? Don’t hold your breath

If Newsom or any California Democrat really wanted to make the state competitive again, the path is no mystery. Reduce authorization times. Control CEQA abuse. Reform energy policy. Reduction of tax charges. Invest in the infrastructure that manufacturers depend on, like ports, electricity and water.

But they won’t. They’re too busy auditioning for higher office.

Instead, Newsom presents California’s industrial decline as progress. He turns legacy results into talking points and prays that no one checks the math. Predictably, the mainstream media is repeating his line. But they never ask, “Leads to what, exactly?”

True leadership is measured by results. Innovation that translates into production, real economic growth and competitiveness that attracts investment. On all three counts, Newsom and the California Democrats failed spectacularly.

Thanks to the Democrats of the last 20 years, California is:

– No. 1 in roaming
– No. 1 in poverty
– No. 1 in retail delinquency
– No. 1 in gas prices
– No. 1 in illiteracy
– No. 1 in wage stagnation
– No. 1 in frivolous lawsuits
– No. 1 in unemployment
– No. 2 in housing costs
– No. 2 in water bills
– #1 in… https://t.co/I9llSHFxjj pic.twitter.com/qNWsRcKNzI

– Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) September 27, 2025

Californian reality: myth versus fabrication

Newsom’s tweet about “manufacturing capital” was another of his famous smokescreens. The goal was to distract from the decades of policy failure that turned the Golden State’s once-world-class industrial belt into a museum exhibit.

He can visit the factories and pose with the workers as much as he wants. He can talk about “driving innovation” until the lights go out. But California’s manufacturing future lies in states that welcome manufacturers instead of punishing them.

And while Newsom campaigns as a savior of the middle class, California Democrats in Congress stand idly by and watch the decline. They protected the political machine, not the workers who ran it.

So, no Newsom. California is NOT the manufacturing capital of America. It is the capital of political theater, empty rhetoric and wasted potential.

The receipts have arrived. The numbers don’t lie. Now the truth is undeniable.

Editor’s note: Schumer’s closure is here. Rather than putting the American people first, Chuck Schumer and radical Democrats forced a government shutdown on health care for illegal immigrants. They own that.

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