Red Staters Should Want Blue Staters to Move In

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s taking this whole culture war thing a little too literally. She’s recently mused about a national divorce, to protect red states from the dangers of “woke” policies practiced in blue states. Another idea she’s offered is a ban on blue staters from being allowed to vote for five years after moving to a red state. Ridiculous, unworkable, unconstitutional stuff, for sure. But also familiar territory.

Greene is merely updating the long-held myth that conservatives would be better off on their own—without the heavy hand of the federal government and without blue-staters bringing in new ideas that challenge their customs and culture.

Life in a bubble may sound good, but it’s a mirage in a country with a rapidly changing economy and demographics that favor cities.

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The reality is red staters should want blue staters to move to their states. They’ll help improve the economy and they’ll attract information workers with college degrees and greater earning potential.

“In general, blue-state people are better educated. better equipped for the information age, and better at generating more jobs that raise the tax base and raise the boat for everyone,” says Don Kettl, author of The Divided States of America and former dean in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. “But they inevitably increase the tension around red states’ cultural policies. What is the price they’re willing to pay for a faster growing economy? How much tension are they willing to put up with for the kind of jobs that blue state people would bring?”

When I spoke to Kettl, he was in Austin looking out his window at nine different building cranes constructing an 80-story tower that will be filled by information techs who have migrated to Texas, mainly from California. Texas is a “blue state magnet,” he says, pulling people from Democratic-run states and creating jobs and tax revenue. “It’s also creating friction because these people are not red-state leaning,” and they bolster the liberal community around the University of Texas at Austin.

Greene says national divorce, but red states are, economically, takers compared to blue states. On average, low-tax red states receive $1.14 in federal spending for every tax dollar they send to Washington, one of the reasons the federal government has a budget deficit.

According to a 2015 Rockefeller Institute of Government study, Mississippi received $2.13 for every tax dollar sent to Washington, D.C., while West Virginia received $2.07, Kentucky got $1.90, and South Carolina got $1.71.

On the blue side of the ledger, New Jersey received 74 cents in federal spending for every tax dollar sent to Washington, New York got 81 cents, Connecticut 82 cents, and Massachusetts 83 cents.

And yet, many blue staters are moving to blue cities in red states. Why is this happening? The pandemic made people rethink their lives and their priorities, and the ability to work remotely opened up options for young families to seek a calmer life where living is a lot less expensive—as is the case in many red states.

But blue staters tend to favor certain rights—like abortion access—that many red staters don't want. So how do you convince red staters that incoming blue staters are a good thing?

It’s an economic argument, and it involves a trade-off. Getting ahead in today’s world means adapting to a new information economy, and it’s not risk-free. Red staters might be uncomfortable with the idea of blue staters bringing their own values to the state, and thus changing the culture—but it’s not like radical change could happen overnight.

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Sometimes, you’d end up with something like Greene’s home state of Georgia—which voted for Joe Biden and has two Democratic senators, but which is still very purple overall. What part of Georgia would secede into red country? What would Greene like to do with Atlanta in a national divorce? Are red and blue states even real things?

As the country changes demographically, red states have an opportunity to end their dependency on the federal government and become more productive on their own.

Jake Grumbach, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Washington and a specialist in state politics, says that red states are conflicted about the new economy. “They’re creating hubs to attract young tech workers, and at the same time they’re talking trash about the blue states.”

A political realignment sparked by blue staters moving into red states may not be imminent, but strategists in both parties are taking notice of the college/non-college education divide.

It was never a real voting divide until recently, says Jim Kessler, a co-founder of Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. “Now, you can make predictions about how a state will trend based on the relative size of its college-educated population and how rapidly it is adding new college degree holders to the state. And roughly nine percent of the country moves to another state every year.”

The percentage of college degree holders in Georgia is 36.1 percent, which is slightly higher than the national average of 35.7 percent. Florida’s population is booming, but its college educated percentage is slipping in the other direction, with only 32.1 percent of the state college educated—plus the population is older than average. Nevada (26.9 percent) and Arizona (31.9 percent) are the only states Biden won that had college educated populations less than Florida.

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The rising number of college graduates in Georgia is one data point both sides of the red/blue divide should cheer. And it’s worth reminding ourselves that for all the easy categorization of red versus blue states, “There is huge polarization within the states. Even the reddest of states have 40 percent Democrats,” says Professor Grumbach, whose new book, Laboratories Against Democracy: How National Parties Transformed State Politics, describes how states went from the laboratories of democracy to working against it.

Blue staters moving to red states can be beneficial for both sides of the divide. The economic dividends are obvious. And blue state reinforcements can be welcomed to challenge the entrenched mainly male politicians in GOP-dominated state legislatures. Their extreme restrictions on reproductive health care and gender issues are as out of touch with many red-state voters, just as they are with the Democrats in their state.

Conservatives say they believe in state control, and in a democracy that means thrashing things out at the local level. E pluribus unum is the nation’s motto. It’s a fairer playing field for everyone when you have different points of view represented, and each side is being heard—even when they don’t win.

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