Ever have an unwanted guest crash your party, tell everyone how much better he hosts parties, and then pass the hat before he leaves? No? Well, neither have I, but Democrats in red states can now add that experience to their lists, thanks to Gavin Newsom.

Perhaps in anticipation of a presidential run, Newsom has decided to tour the states to which Californians have fled in the historic exodus under his governance. Needless to say, residents in Florida, Texas, and other better-run locales find Newsom’s presence valuable as a dire warning as to what his party would do to their states. According to Politico, though, Newsom’s putative allies would prefer to see him stay put in his own morass back in the Golden State:

But, like a California cabernet left out on a humid afternoon, the Newsom brand may not travel all that well. Montgomery is a long way from Sacramento, and Newsom’s political machine has only been tested in friendly territory, where his party enjoys a supermajority. Many Democrats will be glad to spend his money, but it’s far less clear that they’ll want his advice or his obsessive focus on the culture-war contrasts between Democratic and Republican states.

“They will do much better if they will strategically fund operations in Texas that are overtly political and engaged in actually winning races,” said Matt Angle, who directs the Lone Star Project, a Texas committee devoted to defeating Republicans.

Florida Democrats echo that view. State Party Chair Nikki Fried said she’d welcome extra resources “to highlight the failures of Ron DeSantis,” but there are limits. She also said Newsom’s favorite California-versus-Florida framing, which resonates with some West Coast liberals, would backfire in DeSantis’ backyard.

“What would not be helpful is a comparison between the two states,” Fried said. “Florida is very different from California.”

That, in fact, is why so many Californians have decamped to Florida. And Texas. And Tennessee, too, and other red states with sane regulatory, tax, and energy policies. If Newsom’s pitch had any connection to reality, the flow would go in the other direction. People are literally voting with their feet, and it’s a landslide loss for California over the last few years.

That means, if anything, Newsom has actively made the standing of Democrats in these states worse over the last few years. And that is measurable, too. In November, Ron DeSantis blew out former governor Charlie Crist by over nineteen points just four years after barely eking out a win for his first term by less than a single point. DeSantis turned nearly every  Florida county red in that effort, including Miami-Dade, formerly a bastion of Democrat support in statewide elections. Marco Rubio beat nationally-supported Val Demings by sixteen points too, so it wasn’t just Crist.

What about Texas? A massively funded Beto O’Rourke got an 11-point shellacking from Greg Abbott after coming within four points of a Senate seat four years earlier against Ted Cruz. Democrats might have won around 10% of Texas’ 254 counties.

Small wonder, then, that red-state Democrats don’t want to hear from Newsom. He represents everything that repels the moderate Republicans and independents they hope to woo. More to the point, Newsom’s California represents everything that Democrat policies create — onerous regulations, sky-high costs, hostile environments for business, massive crime and homelessness, and a focus on wokeness over the core needs of all citizens. Newsom pretends that California is a model, when in reality it’s a cautionary tale, and red-state Democrats know it.

So why is Newsom touring red states? He claims he wants to champion democracy and fight authoritarians and has nothing to do with the 2024 presidential campaign, but Politico ain’t buying it:

Newsom and his people swear he’s not going to challenge President Joe Biden in 2024. But the PAC play reads like a classic bid to win friends and allies ahead of a future run.

“I think that he’s planning a campaign in the event that President Biden plans not to run for reelection,” Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said in an interview, and “if he’s out there helping Democrats, he’s building a reserve of goodwill that would come in handy in 2028.”

Weeeellllll, Crist and O’Rourke got plenty of West Coast money and support. How did that play in Florida and Texas? That “reserve of goodwill” and $5 can buy you a caffe latte outside the capitols in Tallahassee and Austin, but you won’t drink it in the governors’ offices. And it didn’t buy enough “goodwill” then or now to prevent leading Democrats in both states from going on the record to tell Newsom to p*** off, either.