Recent U.S. Census data underscore a grim reality for the biggest blue states: More people are leaving states such as California, New York and Illinois than moving to them.
The exodus is real: California lost nearly 350,000 residents in 2022, while New York lost about 300,000 and Illinois saw more than 140,000 go elsewhere, per Census numbers. Other states, including New Jersey (-64,231), Massachusetts (-57,292) and Pennsylvania (-39,957), also saw large numbers of residents say goodbye.
But other states, such as Florida and Texas, saw large gains in population, with Florida adding an eye-popping 444,484 residents and Texas adding 470,708. Other population winners include North Carolina (99,796 residents added), South Carolina (+84,030), Tennessee (+81,646) and Georgia (+81,406).
Not coincidentally, all these southern states except North Carolina have Republican governors, while California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have Democratic governors.
For the second straight year, we're winterizing in South Carolina. It's crazy here. Housing is being built everywhere and the value of existing property is skyrocketing.
What we love here is the red state ethos.
In most of these states, the recipe for the exodus has three primary ingredients:
(1) Taxes. Californians’ earnings are taxed at 13.3 percent. Residents of New Jersey and New York see their earnings taxed at 10.75 percent and 8.82 percent, respectively. But if you live in Florida or Texas or Tennessee, your income is taxed at 0.0 percent.
(2) Crime: Things are so bad in progressive San Francisco that it fired its district attorney last year. New York saw a record 4,500-plus police officers resign as violent crime rose 22 percent from the year before. And Mayor Lori Lightfoot is in serious jeopardy of losing her reelection bid in Chicago, with 71 percent of voters saying that the city is headed in the wrong direction, according to one poll. Crime is the major reason why.
(3) Traffic. According to a study by U.S. News and World Report, the most congested cities in the country with the worst commutes are as follows: Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Donna, in particular, looooooooooves to claim that progressive Swamp ways are popular with people. pb'll say: With SOME people.
And, it's the people who don't love progressive ways who are voting with their feet. For a while, GOPs were worrying that blue people would move to their states and ruin what they'd built but that's not what's happening. Except for pt and po, anyway...and they moved purple, not red.
Blue areas are getting bluer. Two groups are staying in blue states. One is the poor who live off the government teat. T'other? Limousine Libs like Curt and isle. People who claim to think that, in the era of the Civil Rights movement, high schools' African American history classes really should be focusing on Black Queer Theory.
And, thankfully, red states are becoming bright crimson. Woke values are being driven from schools and LGBT grooming in public spaces is being banned. Yeeeeeeehaa!
Wait until the 2030 census.