California is not a poor state.

Judge as of November 2022, treating 'not poor' as a claim about California's overall economic standing among US states. True: standard state-level measures for 2021–2022 put California above the US average or median on both GDP per capita and median household income (for example BEA and Census ACS data); being the largest state economy by total GDP supports this. Mostly true: California is above average on most aggregate income and output measures but below the national median on one secondary measure. Mixed: aggregate measures are high, but California is among the worst states on poverty-based measures such as the Census Supplemental Poverty Measure, and the claim's context is clearly about poverty rates rather than aggregate wealth. Mostly false: California is at or below the national median on most income measures, with only total GDP high. False: California ranks in the bottom tier of states on per-capita income and output measures.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Rich get richer: Income inequality grows in California, US Orange County Register (Southern California News Group), column by Jonathan Lansner · 17 October 2022

   “California has the sixth-highest median household income in 2021 at $84,907. That was topped only by Maryland at $90,203, then DC at $90,088, Massachusetts at $89,645, New Jersey at $89,296 and New Hampshire at $88,465.”

2. E2 [PDF] Fast Facts on the California Economy California State Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy · 26 July 2022

   “California had a $3.3 trillion economy in 2021, representing 14.5% of US GDP.”

3. E3 [PDF] Fast Facts on the California Economy California State Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy · 26 July 2022

   “Using the federal Supplemental Poverty Measure, which accounts for the cost of living using a range of family needs and resources, 15.4% of Californians (11.2% for US) had income insufficient to meet their basic housing needs in 2020.”

4. E4 Household Income: 2021 - Census.gov U.S. Census Bureau (American Community Survey Brief ACSBR-011, by Gloria Guzman) · October 2022

   “The U.S. median household income from the 2021 ACS was $69,717 (Table 1).”

California's 2021 median household income was $84,907, sixth-highest in a ranking of states and DC (E1). That is well above the US median of $69,717 from the Census Bureau's 2021 ACS (E4). California's $3.3 trillion economy made up 14.5% of US GDP in 2021 (E2), which supports strong aggregate output, but none of the evidence gives a GDP-per-capita figure, so the second test for "true" is not directly met. California's Supplemental Poverty Measure rate was worse than the national rate (15.4% vs 11.2%, E3), but nothing shows the claim was about poverty rates, so on the measures available the claim is mostly true.