NEWSWEEK.COM 37
POLITICSfrom blue states are colonizing the red ones.
For those states that are getting bluer, a major factor is
people moving into those states, specifically Arizona, Colora-
do and coastal Southern states like North Carolina and even
Georgia. Irwin Morris, the William T. Kretzer Distinguished
Professor of Humanities at North Carolina State University,
says significant moves are mostly by young people and are
usually about economics. People are moving to Southern
states to find jobs. For example: Uber will bring some 3000
jobs to Dallas when it opens new facilities there. There’s a good
chance some of those employees will come from blue states.
For these migrants, good weather is a bonus. They’re taking
over the places that have plenty of sunshine and (usually) great
beaches: Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and
Georgia. It’s a swarm to warm.
Those five states have added almost six million domestic mi-
grants since 2000. That sounds like a lot. But Kenneth Johnson
of the University of New Hampshire says those net migration“IT TOOK A LONG TIME TO GO FROM BEING
SOLID BLUE TO SOLID RED, AND ONCE IT GOES BLUE,
IT ’S GOING take a long time TO GO BACK.”