42 NEWSWEEK.COM AUGUST 14, 2020
Chapel Hill) or the massive banking industry in Charlotte. As Brook-
ings’ Frey says, “Big cities are magnets. You can still get your latte
and New York Times.” Together the two streams of migrants create
jobs that attract more domestic migrants, like those who work in
industries like construction and services, including many Hispanics.
For those hoping to keep North Carolina red, that growing
Hispanic population may be the most worrying trend. Accord-
ing to the Carolina Population Center, between 2010 and 2018,
the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that North Carolina’s Hispanic
population grew by 197,000 new residents. Today many Hispanic
migrants either lack citizenship or are too young to vote, but both
of those could change. “The electorate lags demographics. It takes
time for changes to show up in the voting,” says Tippett.
Lag or no lag, the change is here in North Carolina: In addition
to migration and the growing Hispanic population, there’s also
generational change. Tippett has prepared a forecast of North
Carolina demographics through 2035. Her analysis says that mil-
lennials already outnumber boomers in the state, and by 2035
there will be three times as many millennials and Gen Xers as
boomers. Even the Gen Z cohort will be larger than boomers.
Unless there’s a seismic shift in how migrants, minorities and
young people vote, North Carolina is going blue.by reverse migration, descendants of African Americans who
moved north looking for opportunities and fleeing persecu-
tion during the Great Migration of the 20th Century. Sabrina
Pendergrass, assistant professor of African American Studies
at the University of Virginia, says Atlanta has more African
American newcomers than any other city. Political scientists
believe the combination of millennials, African Americans
and Hispanics is a toxic mix for Republicans.
Conservative author Tate has her fingers crossed that the
young blue millennials moving to red states may grow out of
voting for Democrats as they buy homes and get property tax
bills. Bitzer laughs, “I haven’t seen a shred of research that
says millennials are changing their politics as they get older.”“BIG CITIES ARE magnets.
YOU CAN STILL GET YOUR
LATTE AND NEW YORK TIMES.”Meanwhile...in Texas
migration is also having an impact in other battleground
states like Texas and Georgia.
In Texas, it’s conservatives from the Mountain and Plains
states versus Democratic-voting Hispanics and migrants from
the Northeast and Midwest. According to projections by the
state of Texas, within the next few years Hispanics will be-
come the largest single ethnic group. That’s fueled by migra-
tion. Non-Hispanic whites will drop from 45 percent of the
population to 28 percent by 2050. In Georgia, according to
the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, non-Hispanic
whites will be less than half of the population in a decade
(although they will still be a plurality). Some of that is caused