Ahead of Wednesday's Republican presidential primary debate, California's GOP chairwoman weighed in on some of the the state's biggest issues, including crime, homelessness and the state of public education, offering dire warnings to the rest of the country should the U.S. follow in the state's footsteps.
California Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson told FOX News Digital that while The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California is a great place to host the debate, there are many other places in the state where the failures of the state's politicians are on display.
"When you come to California, you've got a wonderful backdrop of the Reagan Library, but when you go into places like Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, it really shows you what one party Democrat regressive rule has done to a once beautiful state, California," she said.
Despite the fact that California has spent $22 billion to address the state's homeless crisis, Patterson said they still have the highest numbers of homelessness and people living in poverty in the country. She also blamed "soft on crime" policies that have allowed "brazen snatch and grabs" in cities across California where decriminalization efforts have permitted violent criminals to walk free while politicians come down on the sides of criminals, rather than the victims.
"This is what a person like Gavin Newsom wants to bring to the rest of the nation," she warned. "A once beautiful state turned into what now California is, when 700,000 people have left our state in the last two years and places like Florida have gained 800,000 people in the last two years, where we have lost a congressional seat for the first time in our state's history, [while] places like Florida, Arizona and Texas have all gained congressional seats."
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Patterson slammed the California Assembly Public Safety Committee, calling them a "pro-criminal committee" for delaying Senate Bill 14, which would make human trafficking of children a "serious felony," after it cleared the California Senate unanimously with bipartisan support. The bill finally passed both houses on Sept. 13 and is now headed to California Governor Gavin Newsom's desk.
"Had it not been for Republicans and the national media humming at this public safety committee in the Assembly, it would have never passed," she said. "It would have never gotten a second look, it would have been somewhere in the rearview mirror… Some of them [bills] don't even get a hearing within this Democrat regressive, controlled legislature."
She also pointed to California's "failing" education system as one of the reasons why Americans are leaving the state in droves for other states like Florida, Arizona and Texas, which aren't governed by "one party Democrat rule."
"There is nothing that is more important to us as parents than our children's education," she added. "That is their future, that is the great equalizer in our country and what we saw here in California, being the longest schools closed in the nation, Governor Newsom was not putting California's children first, California's children were put behind the teachers union."
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The pandemic, she said, gave parents a front row seat to their children's classrooms and put Newsom's allegiance to the teachers unions on display. While his children were in in-person private education as 6 million kids in the state were kept at home because of his policies.
"Before, we got to see what teachers wanted us to see and what school districts wanted to see and this was a real opportunity for parents to have their eyes opened up to the realities of what was happening in these classrooms," she said.
"Right now we are 50 out of 50 when it comes to literacy in the entire nation, half of our students are not reading at grade level [and] less than a third are performing at grade level when it comes to math and science," she said. "Our schools are failing our children and Gavin Newsom kept our schools closed longer than any other state in the nation."
Patterson said that even thought California is a beautiful state with the best weather, Californians are still continuing to leave the state for a variety of reasons, most prominently affordability concerns, soft on crime policies and the failing education system at the hands of California Democrats who "have been in charge of everything."
"They have supermajorities in both of our legislatures, they have had the governor's pen for over a decade, every single policy that you see enacted today that has caused 700,000 Californians to leave in the last two years," she said. "California is one of the most beautiful places in the world to live and people are leaving because the Democrats have ruined our state."
She said Newsom is already campaigning for president and attending the debate on "behalf of the Biden campaign as a surrogate."
"When we talk about solutions to these problems, Republicans are coming to the table with solutions to these problems," she said. "Democrats often don't even give them a hearing. If you want to see what's happened in California, come to the rest of the country, continue to elect people like Joe Biden and supporters like Governor Gavin Newsom."
Because of "rampant crime," high costs of living and an inadequate public school system, Patteron said bad policy has not only been enabled, but made worse by Democratic politicians in her state/
"I think all of those things combined have made people really look and say, ‘You know, is the best future for me and my family in this state?’" she said. "Now, listen, I see all of those same things, but I love my state and I don't want to leave and that's why I choose to stay here and fight."
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