Do you have a source on that? Texas is behind by like a trillion dollars. That's not a gap that gets closed in a "not too distant future". I'm totally open to see the data though.

Actually 1.3 trillion. Texas: 2.6 California: 3.9

California's population of 40 million exceeds the population of Texas by 10 MILLION people. Sure, there has been a relatively small transfer of the population, but Texas has a population of 30 million. So that gives you a sense of scale.

CA population over time: https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/states/california/population

That shows that during the years of, and following, the pandemic, CA lost around 550,000 people of around 40 million. That's noteworthy, but the graph shows that trend slowing. Nobody likes paying high prices, but they do to live in CA. I'm in CA and I'm surrounded by work colleagues from around the country and world. People move here. Unfortunately those who can't afford it move out. I think a lot of conservatives moved out based on political ideology as well, but time will tell.

And I'm not trying to pick on Texas. It may not be what Texans want to hear, but they are 10 million people behind and 1.3 trillion dollars behind. They may have their sights on first place, but they are objectively, by the numbers, a long way away from that title. Best of luck to them though. Any state in the united states doing well is great for us all.