Barack Obama was fond of saying that “elections have consequences.”
That’s true. But it’s more accurate to say that how local leaders govern will drastically impact the economy and standard of living in your community.
Now, a bombshell report proves Democrats’ failed policies have hundreds of thousands voting with their feet.
According to data published by the census bureau, there has been a massive blue city exodus.
Manhattan and San Francisco led the nation with the highest percentages of population decline from April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2021.
New York City saw almost 328,000 residents leave within the span of a year, even though the overall metro area gained new residents from abroad and births outpaced deaths.
Metropolitan Los Angeles lost almost 176,000 residents, the San Francisco area saw a loss of more than 116,000 residents, and the greater Chicago area lost more than 91,000 people from 2020 to 2021 – all large blue cities.
While COVID no doubt played a role in the shifting of population away from large cities, the pandemic also intensified the already existing population trends of migration to the south and west.
Anthony Giusti told Breitbart News that he returned to San Francisco after a college football career but felt like his hometown was passing him by, as the high cost of living driven by a constantly evolving tech industry meant that he would never save enough money to buy a house – even with two jobs.
This led him to look for greener pastures and he settled on Houston last year.
Giusti said, “In Houston, I can be a blue-collar entrepreneur. With the Houston housing market, it made sense to come here. Texas has a thing about it, a romantic thing, with cowboys, and that’s the idea here of the Lone Star State.”
He wasn’t alone as the U.S. Census Bureau says that droves of residents left some of the nation’s biggest, most crime-infested, densely-populated and costly metropolitan areas behind in favor of locations in the Sunbelt during the first full year of the pandemic, from mid-2020 to mid-2021.
On the flip side, the vast majority of the population growth has been in states that have in recent years been dominated by Republicans.
Five of the top 10 largest-gaining counties in 2021, were in Texas as Collin, Fort Bend, Williamson, Denton and Montgomery counties gained a combined 145,663 residents.
The Dallas area grew by more than 97,000 residents, Phoenix jumped by more 78,000 people and greater Houston added 69,000 residents.
All this adds up to show that a business-friendly climate, tax rates that aren’t confiscatory and sensible administration of law and order all attract, rather than repel, families and everyday Americans.
New York and California should take note.
Stay tuned to Blue State Blues for any updates to this ongoing story.