Blue states lose congressional seats as population flees to red states
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In the famous 20th-century novel “The Sun Also Rises,” Ernest Hemingway’s character, Mike Campbell, is asked by a friend what his financial collapse was like. Campbell answered the question simply: “Two ways. Gradually and then suddenly.”
A cursory look at today’s headlines and you can see that this “gradually and then suddenly” idea is having an impact on the fiscal health of many blue states. California, the poster child for a state headed for financial ruin, is expected to lose four congressional seats in the 2030 census due to population loss.
Moreover, major companies such as Wells Fargo and Quantum, and others following them, are moving their headquarters from the Golden State to Florida. In fact, Miami was recently labeled the “new Silicon Valley” by a national publication.
Two of the largest immigration states in the country? Illinois and New York. Multibillionaire Ken Griffin, who runs America’s largest and most successful hedge fund, Citadel Hedge Fund, left Chicago in 2022 and moved his headquarters to Florida. Meanwhile, both Illinois and New York are expected to lose two to four congressional seats in 2030 due to population loss.
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Blue state residents are fleeing places like California to red states. (Fox News)
So what’s going on here? In short, individuals and companies have endured blue state taxes, rampant spending, stifling regulations, and draconian environmental policies that stifle innovation and entrepreneurship. They are moving to red states like Florida and Texas, which value capital, markets, free exchange and opportunity. Meanwhile, Florida and Texas are expected to gain four congressional seats in 2030.
By any measure—GDP growth, job creation, capital investment, employment rates, or the all-knowing U-Haul inflow and outflow index—red states fill the top 10 places to move, with the occasional purple state of Arizona or Nevada entering the mix.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned California, Illinois, New York and many other blue states are at the bottom. Americans are left with bloated governments and nanny states that want to control every aspect of a person’s money and life. And these Americans are voting with their feet.
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The left likes to say that citizens move to red states because of the warm weather and beaches, but it denies that fact. Last time I checked, Utah, Idaho, and Montana had neither warm weather nor beaches, but these states routinely rank in the top 10 on these indexes.
What does all this tell us? We’ve been seeing this coming for a while now. California hasn’t won a congressional seat since 2000. Illinois and New York? Last century. Blue states have since seen their economies weaken and their populations slowly decline, but politicians in those states refuse to acknowledge the reasons.
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Now reality is setting in, and with the loss of electoral votes comes the loss of political influence in Washington, D.C., let alone financial ruin.
Mike Campbell probably knew little about election politics, but he knew a thing or two about bankruptcy, and his admission that it happens “gradually and then suddenly” is a cautionary tale for America. Blue states should pay attention.
