Free Republic

You may vote red or blue, but would you rather live in a blue state or a red state? Regardless of what people do at the ballot box, newly released data from the Census Bureau overwhelmingly show people voting with their feet, leaving blue states for red states. And this is nothing new.From July 2024 to July 2025 (the latest numbers available), blue states like California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts hemorrhaged their most valuable resource—people—at an alarming rate.These were the five worst states for net domestic migration, meaning more people left those states than moved in, for...

The Democratic Party has come a long way from 1996, when President Bill Clinton’s reelection campaign declared that America “cannot tolerate illegal immigration” and added, “We continue to firmly oppose welfare benefits for illegal immigrants.” When we seek explanations for why today’s Democrats refuse to call those here without permission “illegal,” oppose lawful deportations, and seek government benefits for those who’ve snuck into the country, we probably need to look no further than the population woes of Democratic states. At a time when states are governed increasingly by one party or another, the latest migration trends, released last week, show...

You’ve seen the video. Nick Shirley, a citizen journalist (aka a journalist), traveled around Minnesota looking for fraud at state-funded daycare centers largely run by Somali immigrants. He found obvious evidence of malfeasance — and a worldwide audience on X. Shirley’s 42-minute video has now been viewed 115 million times, even forcing a huffy response from Governor Tim Walz (last seen exaggerating his military service). Shirley deserves the attention. But when it comes to waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs, nothing holds a candle to health-care spending. Especially in blue states. And especially since the Affordable Care Act and...

WASHINGTON — Just eight states are on track to allow their residents to cash in fully on popular tax cuts from President Trump’s marquee legislation in 2026, experts told The Post, with several blue states unwilling to give workers an additional break. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act exempted federal taxes on tipped wages and overtime pay, but hard-working residents will still have to pay state taxes on that income — unless local elected leaders step up. Democratic strongholds like New York, Illinois and California have so far declined to extend state-level tax breaks, Reuters first reported, citing billions of...

The National Popular Vote (NPV) plan is the latest in a long line of schemes designed to replace the Electoral College. Imbued with the ideals of this nation’s Founders, the Electoral College has proved itself both effective in providing orderly elections for President and resilient in allowing a stable transfer of power of the leadership of the world’s greatest democracy. Therefore, while it would be a mistake to replace the Electoral College, replacing this system with the NPV would be a disaster. The NPV would devalue the minority interests that the Founders sought to protect, create electoral administrative problems, encourage...

Hispanic voters — crucial to Trump’s 2024 victory — are abandoning him in significant numbers. Sure, the Hispanic flight from the Trump camp is slower among Cuban Americans and Venezuelan Americans in Florida, but the cracks are already visible. In New Jersey, Trump won 46% of the Latino vote in 2024. But this time, Trump-backed Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli got only 31% of the Hispanic vote in the Nov. 4 election, CNN exit polls show. The Democratic winner, Mikie Sherrill, won by a landslide, thanks in part to the Latino vote. In heavily Hispanic Passaic County, where Trump won...

On paper, Lexington County, S.C., and Placer County, Calif., have a lot in common. They’re both big, wealthy, suburban counties with white supermajorities that border on their respective state’s capital cities…But when it comes to how long their residents can count on living, the parallels fall apart. Placer has a Scandinavia-like life expectancy of 82.3 years. In Lexington, the figure is 77.7, a little worse than China’s. Step back and look at a map of life expectancy across the country and the geographic patterns are as dramatic as they are obvious. If you live pretty much anywhere in the contiguous...

Thread on the ( mostly all) Blue State Elections

U.S. District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy has issued an injunction preventing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from redirecting $233 million in Homeland Security Grant Program funds, following a lawsuit by a coalition of Democratic-led states. The decision comes amid concerns that the reallocations have curtailed vital counterterrorism and emergency preparedness resources. Additional states are considering joining the litigation, citing potential impacts on national security funding, as the case progresses. McElroy said, “This sort of last-minute changing of the way the funding happens, and especially when it happens right in the wake...

All this talk about redrawing congressional districts overlooks the big picture. In other words, the census will end up doing in 2030 what some GOP state legislatures are trying to do before 2026. This is from Tom Rogers:Much has been written about the various attempts to create more Republican House districts through extreme gerrymandering. This column recently discussed a pending Supreme Court case that could strike down the Voting Rights Act’s remedy of creating majority-minority districts and result in the creation of even more Republican House seats.However, none of these actions affect presidential elections, which are decided in the Electoral...

The Department of Justice filed lawsuits Thursday against Hawaii and Michigan over planned climate-based litigation against fossil fuel companies. The DOJ also filed separate lawsuits against New York and Vermont over those states’ “climate superfund” laws, that levy fines against fossil fuel companies for producing legal products that consumers willingly and needfully purchase. Citing President Donald Trump’s “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach” executive order, Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement that these laws and lawsuits “threaten American energy independence and our country’s economic and national security.” States, cities and anti-fossil fuel nonprofits like Our Children’s Trust have...

As Tax Day approaches on April 15, a new WalletHub report ranks New Mexico dead last in the nation for taxpayer return on investment (ROI), raising serious questions about how effectively state government uses public funds. The annual study from WalletHub evaluated all 50 states using 29 metrics across five key categories: education, health, safety, economy, and infrastructure & pollution. New Mexico ranked 50th overall despite having one of the highest tax burdens in the country. The state placed near the bottom in nearly every category: 49th in education 42nd in health 50th in safety 45th in economy 34th in...

Millions of residents in blue states have migrated to red states within the past 30 years, according to federal data. A policy group that analyzed the data says it's a clear sign that many Americans find Democratic policies unlivable. From 1990 to 2021, a total of 13 million people left California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts and migrated to Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, Tennessee, Nevada, and South Carolina over the same period. American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Edward J. Pinto attributes this “blue state exodus” to progressive policies, with high crime, unaffordable housing, high taxes, and rising...

During the early days of Donald J. Trump’s first presidency, lawyers at the attorney general’s office in Washington State would gather to strategize about what they saw as troubling directives being handed down by the White House.There were orders barring travelers from Muslim-majority countries, rolling back environmental rules and ending protections for young immigrants. Lawyers in Washington and other states controlled by Democrats believed the actions were endangering rights and lives.But there was one thing working to their advantage: Many of the administration’s orders were written in such a sloppy fashion, said Bob Ferguson, Washington State’s attorney general, that he...

They’re donning MAGA hats in cafes, celebrating on social media and flying Trump flags: Supporters of President-elect Trump in deep blue cities and states are no longer keeping it to themselves. Why it matters: Trump improved on his 2016 and 2020 margins in almost every state, including in most big, blue cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Many Trump voters in those cities saw his victory as validation, and are acting accordingly. Some residents of liberal enclaves tell Axios they've seen more Trump yard signs go up after the election than before it. And many supporters of Vice...

We've been talking a lot about the momentum shifting toward former President Donald Trump as the election draws near. A likely part of it was just the polls properly adjusting, the RFK Jr endorsement, the JD Vance and Tim Walz debate, and, finally, people seeing more of Walz and Kamala Harris. The more they see of Harris, the more they don't want her.. That was true in 2020, and I think it's true now. Add in a knucklehead, and that doesn't help. The other part is that when you compare them Trump is just the demonstrably more knowledgeable and accomplished...

We've spoken before about how Vice President Kamala Harris doesn't seem to have the same labor union support that President Joe Biden enjoyed. We've seen this play out in a variety of ways, with unions like the Teamsters and the International Association of Firefighters choosing not to endorse Harris when they usually endorse Democratic candidates. The data on the Teamsters polling showed that every state went for Trump over Harris, including every swing state and even blue states. This is a big problem for Harris, particularly in the Rust Belt states that she desperately needs. Now, there are more reports...

Five secretaries of state plan to send an open letter to billionaire Elon Musk on Monday, urging him to “immediately implement changes” to X’s AI chatbot Grok, after it shared with millions of users false information suggesting that Kamala Harris was not eligible to appear on the 2024 presidential ballot. The letter, spearheaded by Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and signed by his counterparts Al Schmidt of Pennsylvania, Steve Hobbs of Washington, Jocelyn Benson of Michigan and Maggie Toulouse Oliver of New Mexico, urges Musk to “immediately implement changes to X’s AI search assistant, Grok, to ensure voters have...

Donald Trump's 2024 reelection campaign continues to open up the map and is moving further into what the Biden campaign probably considers safe territory. That's an old strategy in any kind of conflict: Make your opponent react to you instead of reacting to them; always keep the initiative and, wherever possible, take the fight to them on their ground. The Biden campaign's home ground in question includes the states of Virginia and Minnesota, where the Trump people are opening up new campaign offices. The Trump campaign is expanding its ground game in Minnesota and Virginia as it puts President Biden's...

I asked this question about Joe Biden's visit to New Hampshire on Tuesday: why is Biden going there right in the middle of the campaign when New Hampshire should be a state that he shouldn't even be worrying about? It hasn't gone red since Al Gore ran in 2000. But as I noted, recent polling from the NH Journal/Praecones Analytica Poll had them basically even with Trump slightly up 36.6 to 36.5. Robert F. Kennedy Jr is at 14. 6 percent and undecided is at 12.4 percent. Prior polling from January had Biden up by 6.5 in the RCP average....