I do a lot of speaking to GOP, Tea Party and Conservative groups around the Metro Area. And when I drive out to a place like Mound, or Maple Grove, or Lakeville, I often start my remarks with something like “It’s so nice to be here – with that smell of competence, prosperity and success all around”.
It’s at least in part a dig at Saint Paul – a beautiful city with a failed one-party government.
But census data also shows it’s absolutely true; Red states are leading whatever economic “recovery” that’s going on:
The new Census data on where we live and where we moved to in 2014 shows that the top seven states with the biggest percentage increase in in-migration from other states are in order: North Dakota, Nevada, South Carolina, Colorado, Florida, Arizona, and Texas. All of these states are red, except Colorado, which is purple.
Meanwhile the leading exodus states of the continental states in percentage terms were: Alaska, New York, Illinois, Connecticut, New Mexico, New Jersey, and Kansas. All of these states are blue, except Alaska and Kansas.
There’s a reason the left’s noise machine focuses as much “energy” as it does on Kansas; it’s neither a failing Democrat hellhole like New York, nor a booming Conservative success story like North Dakota, Florida or Texas.
I have always liked commodity reports that show underlying strength or weakness in an economy. Years ago, the Wall Street Journal used to publish a semi-weekly report on a particular grade of cardboard purchases to determine future economic activity of household durable goods manufacturers.
With regard to population moves, I like the U-Haul Index. It is a quick check on the price to rent a truck from (for example) New York to Texas (high demand-high price) versus Texas to New York (low demand-low price).
This is an older article explaining how it works;
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/09/people-voting-with-their-one-way-u-haul.html
Iowahawk does a semi-regular check and the ratios have been holding true.