The 2020 Census is bad news for progressive policy

The longer-term trends should worry Democrats more. Since 1960, states in the Midwest or Northeast have lost 66 House seats. Forty-seven of those seats came from states Biden carried while 19 came from Trump states. States, mainly in the South or West, that received the lion’s share of these people tend to have much lower taxes and less business regulation than do the states they left. Thirty-seven of those 66 seats went to states without an income tax, while another 12 went to states whose combined state and local tax burdens ranked among the 10 lowest. Even outlier states that have gained seats, such as California, Colorado and Oregon, stand out as cautionary tales. Oregon has no state sales tax, and Colorado is ranked 34th among the 50 states and D.C. in its tax burden. Biden carried Colorado by 13.5 points in 2020, but those same people also voted to cut the state’s flat income tax in a ballot measure. California, meanwhile, lost a congressional seat this census for the first time since it joined the Union in 1850. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are leaving the state each year, mainly from the high-cost regions of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area, to move to other states. Even those who stay don’t always vote for progressive policies, as evidenced by the defeat last year of a ballot initiative that would have raised property taxes on business. People have been voting with their feet for 60 years, and the verdict is clear: People prefer economic policies that generate growth and jobs without increasing taxes.