Some Californians who moved to Texas to escape the cost of living and Democratic politics back home are now considering leaving again, after Democrats scored major wins in the state’s midterm elections.
Families are looking at Oklahoma, Florida, Tennessee and the Carolinas as alternative destinations, while others say they are even open to returning to California, according to the Los Angeles Times. The reconsideration follows a wave of Democratic victories in Texas, including wins by Democrats James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa in the Senate and gubernatorial races.
Marie Bailey, a 44-year-old originally from El Segundo, California, runs a large Facebook group for Californians interested in relocating to Texas. She told the LA Times she is now thinking about leaving her Dallas-Fort Worth-area home for Oklahoma or Florida.
“I’m actually thinking of moving to Oklahoma because of this,” Bailey said. “Or Florida.”
Members of her Facebook group expressed similar frustration. “If I have to tolerate blue I might as well have good weather so maybe back to CA? Or give FL a try?” one member wrote. Another, who said they were in the process of buying a Texas home, wrote: “I am literally closing on a house in Texas next week! I am so pissed.”
‘I Fear Texas Will Never Flip Back’
Breana Janel, a baseball mom and former Californian who once supported Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco in his bid for governor, said she was “heartbroken” over the Democratic wins in Texas.
“I don’t know that I can justify moving from one blue state to another…And I fear that Texas will never flip back,” Janel wrote. “Now that they have control, I don’t think they’ll let go. That’s a lateral move. And for what? For it to look even more like California in four years?”
Janel said she is now considering Tennessee, the Carolinas or Georgia instead — though Democrats also notched notable wins this cycle in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, alongside flipping both chambers of Congress in Washington.
Researcher Says Transplants Aren’t Driving the Shift
Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, told the LA Times it’s unlikely the state’s political shift was driven by an influx of liberal Californians. He said people moving to Texas from California
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