COLUMBUS, Ohio – California Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling out Ohio for its high homicide rate as part of his effort to highlight what he describes as hypocrisy from the Trump administration on crime.
“Ohio’s homicide rate is 160% higher than California’s, but you wouldn’t know that by watching FOX NEWS,” Newsom’s team shared on his official press office account, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Are Newsom’s Claims About Ohio’s Homicide Rate Accurate?
While Newsom is right that Ohio’s homicide rate is higher than California’s based on 2023 data — the latest available — he miscalculates the percentages, inflating the number. He has made similar errors when citing other states.
CDC data shows that in 2023, California recorded a homicide rate of 5.1 per 100,000 residents, while Ohio’s rate was 8 per 100,000 residents. This means Ohio’s homicide rate is about 56% higher than California’s, not 160%.
The Debate Over Crime
Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has spent the past several days highlighting homicide rates in Republican-led states in reaction to President Donald Trump deploying the National Guard in Washington, D.C., to address crime. Trump has also suggested sending troops to other Democratic-led cities in blue states, including Chicago and Baltimore.
“If the president is sincere about the issue of crime and violence, there’s no question in my mind that he will likely be sending the troops into Louisiana and Mississippi to address the unconscionable wave of violence that continues to plague those states,” Newsom said at a Thursday news conference.
In response, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) criticized Newsom, saying he seeks attention instead of focusing on governing his state.
“We have crime in cities all across America, and we’re against that everywhere,” Johnson said in an interview on Fox News. “We’ve got to address it everywhere that it rears its ugly head. I think every major city in the country, the residents of those cities, are open to that.”
Newsom Criticizes Trump Over Crime, Calls It Expression of Authoritarianism
Newsom accused Trump of ignoring crime and violence, framing his approach as an “expression of authoritarianism.”
“Alabama is top three,” Newsom said. “Where’s the President of the United States? I thought he cared. These are his states that voted for him.”
On Thursday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized cities led by Democrats.
“This is President Trump’s message to Americans in Democrat-run cities nationwide: Decline is a choice,” she said. “You don’t have to live in constant fear of being robbed, raped, or murdered. Your leaders are lying to you, and they have been failing you for decades.”
Leavitt highlighted Chicago as having the most murders of any U.S. city. A study from the Rochester Institute of Technology reported that in 2024, Chicago recorded 21.7 homicides per 100,000 people. Despite having the third-largest population in the country, its homicide rate ranked 8th highest nationwide.
According to the study, St. Louis, New Orleans, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Indianapolis, and Richmond, Virginia, all recorded higher homicide rates than Chicago.
“The Trump approach of upholding law and order and allowing our brave men and women in blue to actually do their jobs to aggressively stomp out crime works,” Leavitt said.
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