CNN senior national correspondent Kyung Lah said Wednesday that California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s poor stewardship of his state will haunt him if he runs for president in the future.

Lah interviewed local Los Angeles business owner Tom Sopit, whose restaurant survived the COVID lockdowns but is now closing due to crushing regulations, labor laws, and high costs.

Sopit called it a “death by a thousand cuts.”

“The cost of goods, the cost of labor is much higher than everyone else in the country,” he noted. “Insurance is a big part of it, with the wildfires controlling the premiums and increases, all the carriers leaving the state, and that’s why it went up so quickly.”

He also outlined how Hollywood has failed to retain its foothold in California, as existing studios have fled to more affordable states and new rival startups have broken the state’s entertainment monopoly, hurting small businesses in the process.

Sopit, who voted for Newsom, is now a registered independent and has become disillusioned, adding that the next governor should “focus on the real challenges.”

“Drive up and down the street. Get your hands dirty,” he continued. “I think you can’t just keep taxing businesses and people. How are we just keep paying more taxes, but somehow the state just keeps going downhill? That doesn’t make sense.”

🧵Ahead of tonight’s CNN’s California Governor’s debate, CNN highlighted the economic challenges in California and the “shrinking of Hollywood” and seemed to place some blame on policies in the Democrat-led state.

Investigative reporter Kyung Lah highlighted the closure of a… pic.twitter.com/lon5RceyuC

— Nick (@nspin310) September 30, 2026

Lah was later interviewed by CNN’s Dana Bash about her sit-down with Sopit ahead of the California gubernatorial debate between Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra.

Bash asked her what issues are most important to voters like Sopit, to which Lah replied, “affordability.”

“We’re talking about structural things, like being able to pay for your insurance,” she continued. “Then the fees for businesses, the regulations that restrict you from being able to build stuff. All of it is just crushing. And we’re not talking about Sopit trying to be rich.”

“He was trying to break even for a solid year and could not do it,” Lah added. “So he has to pull the eject button… These Democrats today are looking at generations where they can’t have what their parents have. Sopit’s parents, who were immigrants to this country, had a business in Los Angeles, a restaurant, and their son could not do the same thing. And that is going to chase these candidates, and, frankly, it’s going to chase Gov. Newsom as he seeks higher office.”

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.