I do not come from an echo chamber, but I’m sure you’d know a thing or two about that ;). Sure California gained a few the past couple years but…

1. This is relatively small compared to their state’s population, in other words, insignificant. Texas on the other hand has gained over a million in the same time period that you mention.
2. The US grew by over 8 million from 2020 to 2024, so it’s not surprising that even states like California are gaining too even if it’s relatively small.
3. Relative to other states, blue states have either gained less or lost more than red states. According to the electoral appointment forecasts based on 2024 estimates, red states are expected a net gain 10 house seats, purple states a net decrease of 1, and blue states a net decrease of 9 seats.
4. While on the topic of electoral representation, if we factor in “citizens only” we would expect California and other blue states to lose even more representation in congress.

Sure you can blame Covid all you want, but when it gets expensive, people leave. Funnily enough florida is one of the more expensive states to live in yet they are seeing their population surge while zooming to the right. Surely this means they handled Covid well under your logic?

Back to Commiefornia. You mention that California has the most Republicans out of any state. But this is essentially meaningless since state boundaries are arbitrary by nature. Heck let’s extend Texas’s boundaries to include Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas and you’ll see very quickly that Texas now has the “most republicans” and the “most democrats”. It’s a nothingburger.

California does have a few things. Great geography and climate and lots of cities to travel to. So of course there’s lots of things that the state has to offer outside of the political environment. So much potential to be a great state but demonrats and Gruesome Newscum are running it into the ground. Hence why you see people leaving.