Ben Shapiro Announces He's Leaving California and Taking Jobs with Him: 'Terrible Governance Has Consequences'
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and the news and commentary website he co-founded, The Daily Wire, are packing up and leaving Los Angeles for Tennessee.
Shapiro, who has grown into one of social media’s most powerful voices in recent years, announced the news Tuesday on Twitter.
“I’ve lived my entire life in California. Within weeks, we’ll be taking our 75 jobs and leaving,” he wrote.
In a parting shot at sunny Southern California, Shapiro added: “We’re not the first. And we certainly won’t be the last. Terrible governance has consequences.”
I’ve lived my entire life in California. Within weeks, we’ll be taking our 75 jobs and leaving. We’re not the first. And we certainly won’t be the last. Terrible governance has consequences.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 16, 2020
The company will relocate to Nashville, and fellow-co-founder Jeremy Boreing told Deadline he expects around 80 percent of The Daily Wire’s 75 staff members to follow.
The Daily Wire was founded in 2015 by Shapiro, Boreing and Caleb Robinson.
Boreing told Deadline that the quality of life, the taxes and politics of Los Angeles are why the company will relocate.
“The dream of California and the weather were enough to draw us all here and keep us here, even when it was hard,” he said.
“But it’s hubris to think you can keep making it worse and worse for people and that somehow the idea of temperate winters will be enough to make them stay forever,” Boreing added.
“LA benefits from the fact that, while it leans left, it draws individualists out to find their fame and seek their fortunes. They’re an ornery bunch. But they aren’t so ornery that this out of control government can’t break them.”
Boreing added that Texas was considered as a potential new home, but The Daily Wire will end up in Nashville because it “offers the creative talent we need to keep growing the business.”
News that Shapiro and The Daily Wire are leaving California comes just weeks after another high-profile media figure also said he was leaving Hollywood behind.
Popular podcaster Joe Rogan announced last month the move from California to Texas.
Rogan had previously complained about traffic in Los Angeles, but California’s coronavirus lockdowns apparently pushed him over the edge.
In a June podcast with comedian Bill Burr, Rogan unloaded on California’s leadership, Newsweek reported.
“Lock down old people and sick people. Let regular people do whatever the f— they want. You can’t just lock people’s freedom down for something that killed a small fraction of what you thought it was going to kill.”
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