Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Addresses Fears of Texas Turning Blue In the Wake of Relocating Californians

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

The collapse of the Republican stronghold on Texas is on the minds of every Texan, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott has some info that might allay Republican fears.

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Texas has been a low-tax, low-regulation state for decades, and thanks to the Republican’s approach of small government, the cost of living has never been lower and the quality of life has never been higher. Major corporations have moved to the Lone Star State in droves in order to take advantage of the business-friendly atmosphere and, as a result, many workers from blue states have followed.

This has lead to fears that Democrat voters will pollute Texas politics due to having learned nothing, leading the state to devolve into a purple or even blue state and becoming exactly what they fled.

Abbott said that the number one question he gets from Texans is about whether or not these Californians coming here for jobs will regress the state into something that looks more like the overpriced and overregulated state of  California.

“I have great news for them,” said Abbott. “These relocations are not going to change the politics in Texas, and we have mathematical proof for it.”

“Two years ago, I was on the same ballot that Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke were on the ballot,” said Abbott. “We did an exit poll asking people after they left the polls, did you vote for Ted Cruz or did you vote for Beto O’Rourke, and then we asked them ‘did you move California or are you a native-born Texan. The results of that poll showed that 58 percent of the people who moved from California voted for Ted Cruz.”

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“Interestingly, that almost identically matches a separate poll that was taken — also an exit poll from the same election — that showed that 57 percent of the people who moved from California voted for Ted Cruz and both of those polls matched a study that was done a couple of years before that that asked Californians who came to Texas ‘are you conservative or are you liberal?’ Fifty-seven percent of the people who moved from California said they were conservative, 27 percent of the people who moved from California said they were liberal,” added Abbott.

Abbott said that the reason these numbers are what they are is that leftists who like the high taxes would stay in California while the low-tax atmosphere of Texas would be more attractive to conservatives. What’s more, CEOs have told Abbott that another reason they move to Texas is the lack of policing in the states they left.

Carlson highlighted the vast cultural difference between the states as well, highlighting that Texas leans into the Christian religion while California leans more into social programming. He asked Abbott if he was concerned that this kind of prioritizing of values would be a concern.

Abbott reiterated that he’s not worried because these Californians are conservatives who believe in God and, on top of that, guns, which they’re excited to get since they couldn’t get them in California.

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Carlson made it clear that he’s still very wary of the shift and noted that if Texas goes, the country is done.

Texas has been increasing in population by leaps and bounds for years with most people relocating from heavily blue states such as New York and California. As of yet, the politics of Texas has largely remained the same making Abbott’s claims of Texas getting more conservatives than leftists seem true so far.

However, this is unlikely to allay the fears of many Texans until proof can be seen that it will remain safe in the hands of Republicans in upcoming elections. The race between Cruz and O’Rourke was a lot closer than many Texans would like, spurring on worries that Texas is indeed turning purple.

Time will tell, but hopefully Abbott’s predictions will be true.

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