February 10, 2023

A recent New York Post article declared that, in a “staggering exodus,” in 2022, more residents of New York moved to Florida “than any other year in history.”  The article reveals,

A staggering 64,577 Empire Staters exchanged their driver’s licenses for the Sunshine State version last year, according to figures from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

“They come in every day,” a staffer at a Jacksonville DMV office told The Post this week with a weary laugh. “I hear all the complaints. I feel like a therapist sometimes.”

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The transfer of a driver’s license from one state to another is considered a reliable metric for relocation, since such a decision suggests the move is a lasting one.  The 2022 exodus from New York to Florida is a 39% increase from 2019 — the last pre-pandemic year — and an astounding 46% increase from 2017.  New York is far from alone in the exodus that is plaguing America’s blue states.

CBS News also recently reported on “the states Americans are moving to — and the states they are ditching.”  According to the article,

[t]he states that attracted the most new residents in 2022 are Florida, Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina, followed by other states in the South and West…

Florida was the biggest net gainer last year, with about 319,000 people migrating into the state, the NAR analysis found. California lost the most residents, with 343,000 leaving the state for other regions.

The map below, using data from the National Association of Realtors, shows the “net migration by population change” for each of the 50 U.S. states.  As indicated on the scale at the top of the map, blue indicates a net increase, while red indicates a net decrease.  The bluer states gained the most residents through state-to-state migration, while the redder states lost the most residents.  (Unlike the image below, the map on the CBS News link above is interactive, so that placing your cursor over each state shows the exact number for that state.)

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As the map clearly shows, and quite unsurprising to those paying attention, liberal states — those run by Democrats — dominate the states with a net loss in population migration, while conservative states — those run by Republicans — dominate the states with a net increase in population migration.

In what is almost certainly an effort to cover for Democrats, CBS News practically ignores the politics of the Blue State Exodus and benignly points to “more affordable housing and plentiful jobs” in red states as the main reasons for citizens fleeing Democrat-dominated states.  CBS News brushes off the idea that higher taxes in blue states are contributing to this mass exodus, and it fails to mention at all crime, COVID-lockdown policies, and the like as reasons for the growing number of “leftugees.”

Much, and likely the vast majority, of the population loss in blue states is due to those fleeing even higher-taxed and more crime-ridden large U.S. cities.  If you live in a blue state but reside in a rural area governed locally by those who are at least somewhat conservative, then you can be shielded a bit from the consequences of leftist politics and policies.  However, if you reside in a large city within a blue state, then almost certainly you are suffering under rampant leftism.

There’s little doubt that higher taxes are indeed playing a major role in the Blue State Exodus; however, crime is certainly contributing factor as well.  As reported recently in The Tennessee Star, 11 U.S. cities were listed among the world’s 50 most dangerous cities.  All 11 U.S. cities are run by Democrats.  Baltimore, Memphis, and Detroit are ranked in the top 20.

Crime-infested municipalities run by Democrats are far from a new phenomenon.  In the past decade alone, I’ve written numerous columns detailing the crime and violence that plague the parts of America where the politics of Democrats reigns supreme and virtually unchallenged.  As Fox News reported just last month, in 2020, 73% of all murders in America took place in just 5% of U.S. counties.

The ten counties with the most murders were

  • Cook County, Illinois, 775 murders
  • Los Angeles County, 691 murders
  • Harris County, Texas, 537 murders
  • Philadelphia County, 495 murders
  • New York City’s five counties, a combined 465 murders
  • Wayne County, Michigan, 379 murders
  • Shelby County, Tennessee, 311 murders
  • Maricopa County, Arizona, 299 murders
  • Baltimore City County, 291 murders
  • Dallas County, 281 murders