The Great Sorting is still underway, with major corporations decamping from Democrat-controlled states for more business-friendly Republican states. That’s anything but surprising, at least, to anyone with enough brains to pound sand, which apparently excludes most Democrats, at least where economic policy is concerned.
Now we see signs that this all may go back further than we might think. It turns out personal incomes in red states are fast outstripping any gains in blue states – and that’s been going on since 2000. And the difference isn’t insignificant.
Defenders of blue state economics argue that incomes are higher in blue states like California and New Jersey than red states like Arkansas and Oklahoma. True, but the gap is rapidly narrowing every day and if trends continue soon, blue states will be poorer.
Unleash Prosperity Senior Fellow Richard Vedder and UP researcher Nicholas Jadwisienczak have examined reasons why there are wide variations in the rate of economic growth in the 50 states since the beginning of this century, and have found the single best explanation: differences in political orientation.
Here’s the chart:
— Ward Clark (@TheGreatLander) June 4, 2026
That’s kind of a big deal. And the underlying numbers probably favor Republican states even more than a first glance might indicate.
These income growth numbers are pretax, so if we measured AFTER-tax incomes the red states gained income at nearly 50% faster so far in the 21st century. This is because income tax rates are nearly twice as high in the blue states.
As we’ve explained dozens of times (visit our website VoteWithYourFeet.net) families and businesses are fleeing states with high taxes, draconian environmental and forced union policies associated with Democratic governmental control. Blue states like California, New York, and Illinois have had massive out-migration in recent years.
Incentives matter. That’s something that Democrats just don’t seem to understand.
Read More: America’s New Red State Corporate Renaissance
Interstate Tax War: West Virginia Now Going After Virginia Jobs
And incentives, for many years now, have favored the movement of businesses and people away from Democrat-controlled states and into Republican-controlled states. The Democrats running blue states – I’m looking at you, Governor Newsom – seem utterly incapable of understanding what’s going on. You hear all kinds of lunatic schemes hatched, including a “one-time wealth tax on billionaires” that would inevitably morph into an “every-year wealth tax on billionaires,” resulting in an even greater capital flight.
The only real stumper in all this is that it hasn’t happened faster.
California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, you name it; the blue states are losing businesses and productive residents. Florida, Texas, Tennessee, you name it; red states are gaining what the blue states are losing. These are facts; just look at the 2020 census results. For young people looking for prosperity, for a greater reward for their efforts, the cry has gone from “Go West, young man!” to “Go red state, young man!” (Go RedState, too, of course.)
The Great Sorting is continuing, and as long as Democrats keep on being Democrats, and as long as those blue states keep electing these terminally clueless pols, we can only expect this to continue. For jobs, for business, for opportunity, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and the other red states are where it’s at, and there’s no sign of that changing any time soon.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and bold policies, America’s economy is back on track.
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