Election records of the last 64 years raise an inescapable question: what happened to California? The Golden State used to be a sure-thing for the GOP, with Republicans winning California in 9 of 10 elections between 1952 and 1992.

But after ’92, Democrats swept the Golden State in seven straight elections, winning by nearly two-to-one this year. It’s not just a reflection of millions of immigrants entering the state, but of hard-working middle class families leaving it. Squeezed by high taxes, over-regulation and limited opportunity, long-time Californians departed for states like Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Texas, replaced to some extent by young, college-educated, secular progressives drawn to Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

With the middle class disappearing, California’s become increasingly a state of the struggling, immigrant poor and the upwardly mobile, highly educated rich—in other words, big government Democrats, with little room for middle class (and working class) Republicans.