Enough of the state, Mayor of Northern California says he’s moving across the United States

Bret Daniels of Citrus Heights, which is around 15 miles northeast of Sacramento, told CBS Sacramento (KOVR) that state regulations are placing an undue burden on local governments.

“We’re witnessing a decline in local authority and our capacity to steer our own course,” he stated to the publication in an article that was released on Tuesday.

He wants to raise his 7-year-old daughter in a “more conservative, Christian environment that he just does not see in California,” according to CBS Sacramento. For this reason, when his term ends at the end of this year, he is relocating her, his wife, and their kid to Corbin, Kentucky.

He told the TV station, “We just think we need an environment that’s a little more towards what our beliefs are.”

But Kentucky is not exempt from passing state laws that contradict local codes. Just last year, state legislators blocked local authorities from implementing federal weapons rules. In April, the state Legislature approved a measure prohibiting local towns from enacting tenant rights that forbid housing discrimination.

Daniels expressed his disapproval of the state’s housing situation and expressed specific concern about California’s school system to CBS Sacramento.

He informed the newspaper, “[They are] taking away what I will call parental rights and being able to raise your child in a certain way.”

Nevertheless, he thanked the citizens of Citrus Heights, an 86,000-person city where he was a member of the city council from 1999 to 2005 and again since 2016.

It has nothing to do with politics. It’s a culture of wickedness, in my opinion,” he said to CBS Sacramento. “I believe it’s time for someone else to try and improve Citrus Heights; I’ve done my part and hopefully done so in the process.”

Daniels is just the most recent Californian to leave the state in what has come to be known as “the California exodus.” This phenomenon gained attention in 2021 when California lost a congressional district for the first time in its 171-year history due to the state’s declining population.

California’s population fell by approximately 400,000 between 2020 and 2023, according to data from the state Department of Finance. A report released in May by Consumer Affairs indicates that the state is expected to have the highest percentage of left-leaning voters in the nation this year, with almost 18,000 indicating their intention to leave.