Remember when Gavin Newsom started running ads in Florida attempting to convince voters to move to California — and in many cases, return there? Maybe Newsom’s campaign was more personal than we thought. Was he trying to convince his in-laws to come back to the Golden State after fleeing Newsom to live under Ron DeSantis’ governance?

It certainly looks that way this morning:

Not only did the in-laws of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom give money to one of his biggest political foes; they fled from his state during the pandemic.

Kenneth F. Siebel Jr. and Judith A. Siebel, parents of Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel and longtime California residents, became Florida residents in 2020 after purchasing a $3.3 million Naples home in March of that year, records show. The Siebels appear to still have ownership of their California home in northern San Francisco suburb of Ross.

Newsom’s in-laws, however, officially became registered voters in the Sunshine State as of June 2020. Kenneth Siebel is a registered Republican while Judith Siebel has no party affiliation.

The voter registration shift occurred as their son-in-law enacted some of the country’s strictest COVID lockdowns, which have widely been juxtaposed to the lack of restrictions in red states like Florida.

Fox News is having fun with this, but under normal circumstances, I’d give this a pass. Plenty of my own family and friends disagree with my takes on politics, and we love each other anyway, but I’m not sure they’d enjoy living under an Ed Morrissey Administration. I’d certainly enjoy it, of course, and it would be a vast improvement over the disaster that progressives have wrought in California, but some of my family and friends might just admire my work … from afar, let’s say. Very afar.

But this isn’t a normal circumstance. Newsom singled out DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas for his campaign ads claiming that denizens of both red states would far prefer the freedoms that Newsom provides Californians. What freedoms? The freedom to abort babies, and … not much else. This week, Californians are experiencing the freedom of mandates that will prevent them from buying gasoline-powered vehicles in a few years, along with orders not to charge the EVs they have already because the state doesn’t produce enough power to meet demand today, let alone after millions of EVs hit their grid.

Having picked that fight and making it personal, Newsom made his family situation relevant. Even his wife’s parents aren’t willing to endure Newsom’s governance. They prefer DeSantis to their own son-in-law. That will make for some awkward Thanksgivings.

More to the point, it demonstrates the futility of Newsom’s pitch. Californians are voting with their feet in droves, almost all of whom owe Newsome no familial loyalty. He can’t even sell this argument among those who do have that loyalty. Good luck in 2024, Governor Newsom.