Some of the biggest swings away from the Democratic Party and toward President-elect Donald Trump in the November election were not in battleground states. They were in deep blue states where voters most affected by Democratic mismanagement and failure to deliver jobs and public safety took revenge on the blue party by turning to Trump.
New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that many people vote not just on Election Day but vote with their feet each and every day by moving out of Democrat-controlled blue states to Republican-controlled red states.
According to Vintage 2024 population estimates out last week, 22 states on net lost more residents due to domestic migration than gained new residents from other states. The top five population losers were all Democrat controlled, including the biggest loser, California, followed by New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.
The biggest winners of domestic migration, by contrast, were all red states, including Texas, followed by North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee.
This census data showing people moving from blue to red states mirror National Association of Realtors data earlier this year showing the biggest job gains were in Republican states such as Texas, South Carolina, and Tennessee, while the weakest job growth was mostly in Democrat-run states, again led by anemic California.
The failure of the Democratic Party’s model of government cannot be plausibly denied. California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Office was forced to admit last month that the state’s “economy has been in an extended slowdown for the better part of two years, characterized by a soft labor market and weak consumer spending.” The report went on to note that “outside of government and health care, the state has added no jobs in a year and a half.”
California’s inability to create private sector jobs is not surprising considering the state’s preoccupation with climate change and faddish equity efforts over economic growth. California has the nation’s most stringent regulations on fossil fuel production and its use. As a result, it has the nation’s highest gasoline and electricity prices. Expensive electricity makes profitable manufacturing almost impossible, and high gas prices drive up the cost of everything else because distribution requires transportation by truck. Meanwhile, California’s persecution of the fast food industry, particularly with a minimum wage law, has killed at least 6,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a fact denied, presumably disingenuously, by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
If not for immigration from foreign countries, all five top losers of domestic migration would have a shrinking population overall, as net migration out of state outpaced natural population growth. Red states are also attracting new foreign residents. Florida (411,000) outgained California (361,000) in foreign arrivals.
But California lost 240,000 residents to other states while adding just 110,000 through natural births and deaths. If not for foreign immigration, California would be losing population.
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It is good that millions of people from around the world still consider California a better place to live than their home countries. For all the problems the Democratic Party has caused in the Golden State, it is still a better place to live than Venezuela, Haiti, and South Sudan. But “better than South Sudan” is not the standard Americans should lower their expectations to. If Vice President Kamala Harris had won the election in November, she would have inflicted many of the same terrible policies on the rest of the nation that Democrats inflict on California, particularly on energy.
What the new census data should highlight for everyone is that we still live in a country where residents can flee from the horrible policies of the Democratic Party to free Republican states.