Conservatives are flocking from blue states to one Republican stronghold in particular: South Carolina.
Between 2017 and 2021, about a third of newcomers to South Carolina came from blue states. while a quarter came from red states and the rest came from states divided or outside the United States, according to U.S. Census data analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.
And the majority of those newcomers — about 57 percent — are Republicans, the Journal reported, citing data from a nonpartisan voter file provider called L2.
In 2022, the top 10 states from which people moved to South Carolina were North Carolina, Georgia, New York, California, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Jersey, and Maryland, according to U.S. Census data reviewed by The State.
Conservator Move, a real estate company with about 500 agents across the country, helps conservatives find housing near like-minded people — and South Carolina is becoming a major draw.
The group’s founder, Paul Chabot, told Business Insider that while Texas and Florida are still the top places its conservative clients choose to locate, South Carolina is the fastest growing. Over the past two years, he said he’s seen a big increase in Americans looking to move specifically to South Carolina. Currently, he said, about 5,000 of his clients are planning to move to the state soon.
Many of his customers come from places like California, Washington and Oregon, he said.
Chabot said the people his company helps move are tired of living in Democratic-controlled states, where liberal policies make daily life less affordable — policies like, he said, the new law on the $20 minimum wage for fast food workers in California.
Conservatives’ sense of security is another major factor in their decision to move away from liberal enclaves, Chabot said.
“They want to live in neighborhoods where they know that they are going to feel safe, that there will be a police response, that the police are respected,” Chabot added.
Brad Liles, a South Carolina real estate agent based in Spartanburg, told the New York Times that he and his colleagues have begun referring to the flood of Republican buyers into the state as “the great migration.”
A typical home in South Carolina sold for about $281,000, according to Zillow median home price data in February. For comparison, Zillow reported that California’s median home sales price was about $673,000, while Washington state’s was about $526,000. South Carolina even has an advantage over Texas and Florida, where the median sales price of a home for the same period was about $316,000 and $363,000, respectively, according to Zillow.
It’s not just a question of affordability. It’s also about being surrounded by like-minded conservatives, some South Carolina transplants told the Times.
“When I walked around banks or stores or schools, there was always Christian music playing in the background,” Lina Brock, a conservative who recently moved from California to Greenville, South Carolina, told the Times , about his new city. “I felt good, I felt welcomed. I felt like I was in the United States.”
But the arrival of new residents in Greenville, in particular, has driven up real estate prices, eliminating many longtime black residents, the Times reported. Since 1990, Greenville’s black population has declined by 22 percent, according to a 2023 Furman University study. By comparison, the city’s total population grew 21 percent during the same period, the Times reported.
Chabot said blue states need to take a cue from red states’ playbook.
“Right now, states are really competing with each other for population,” Chabot said. “And so, if these blue states want to improve, then they need to look at what red states are doing to retain their populations and their businesses.”
Some blue states are experiencing a loss of residents — in 2022, for example, California saw a net loss of more than 300,000 residents, Forbes reported, citing census data, while Washington state saw a loss net population of about 15,000, The Columbian also reported. based on census figures.
Red states like Texas, on the other hand, recorded a net gain of nearly 175,000 inhabitants in 2022. And Florida wins the prize for population growth, with an increase of 1.9% between 2021 and 2022, according to the US Census Desk.
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