Blue-state companies follow Davy Crockett’s example 

President Andrew Jackson took offense at something U.S. Rep. David Crockett of Tennessee had said and worked to defeat him in the 1835 congressional campaign. In response, Crockett told a Tennessee crowd, “You can go to hell. I’m going to Texas.” 

A whole lot of CEOs based in one-party Democratic states and cities have decided to follow Crockett’s example.  

California has been the biggest loser of businesses to Texas. But given New York City’s recent mayoral election, the Big Apple may push the Empire State into first place.

The number of companies relocating to Texas — many of them major corporations — is staggering. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Texas was the top state for business relocation between 2010 and 2019. The state experienced a net in-migration of 7,232 firms, from which it added an additional 103,000 jobs.  

Business Insider reports that since 2020 a total of 200 “major companies” have moved to Texas, based on data from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office. And last year, 24 more, including Space X and Chevron, announced they would be relocating. 

Of course, it’s not just blue-state progressive policies that are driving the out-migration. Blue cities are also part of the problem. 

According to the Visual Capitalist, which identified the cities gaining and losing the most corporate headquarters, between 2018 and 2024, Dallas was the fastest growing market, gaining 100 relocations, while the San Francisco Bay area lost a whopping 156 corporate headquarters. In addition, Greater Los Angeles lost 106 headquarters, New York City 27 and Chicago 15.  

Why are companies large and small spending the time and money to relocate? Because Texas, Florida and a few other red states have low tax rates, light regulation and business-welcoming environments.

Blue states and cities tend to blame many of their problems on local companies — for not paying higher wages, for not hiring enough of the “right” people (that is, the kind of diversity that progressives are obsessed with), and for greedily opposing large corporate tax increases.

Chief Executive magazine has conducted its “Best and Worst States for Business” survey of more than 600 CEOs for years. The editor once told me there are two constants every year: Texas is always the best state for business, and California is always the worst. In the 2025 survey Texas is again in first place, followed by second-place Florida, then Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia.  

It is worth pointing out that the first three states on Chief Executive’s list have no state income tax. As for the worst states, California comes in at 50, followed by New York at 49 and Illinois at 48. Massachusetts and New Jersey round out the bottom five. Those also happen to be the states that are losing companies. 

It is hard to ignore the economic and political importance of these corporate moves. When companies relocate, they take employees with them. That means less tax revenue for the abandoned states, both from individuals and corporations, and more tax revenue and higher population for the welcoming states. 

Just as important, that out-migration can reduce representation in the House of Representatives. And since the out-migration is mostly from blue states and the in-migration is mostly to red states, it will be increasingly difficult for Democrats to gain and maintain a House majority after the next U.S. Census. States can redistrict all they want, but if a state loses significant numbers of people, it will also lose representation.

After the 2020 Census, California, New York, Illinois and Michigan each lost one congressional seat, while North Carolina and Florida gained one seat. Texas gained two seats. Texas had earlier gained four additional congressional seats and Florida two seats based on the 2010 Census. 

Amazingly, blue states and cities still haven’t learned the lesson. New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, is proposing an additional 2 percent tax on personal income above $1 million and raising the state’s top corporate tax rate from 7.25 percent to 11.5 percent — a nearly 60 percent increase.

Tax Notes quotes tax expert Timothy Noonan as saying, “A 2 percentage point increase to the city tax — from 3.9 percent to 5.9 percent — alongside New York state’s second-largest marginal tax rate of 9.65 percent, could yield a nearly 16 percent personal income tax rate.” That, Noonan adds, would be the highest tax rate in the country.

Mamdani may not be able to get elected leaders in New York City and the state legislature to go along with his plans for tax increases. But the Democratic governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, was politically compelled to endorse Mamdani. She knows New York City’s young socialists are the driving force in Empire State politics, and she faces re-election next year.

It is hard to know how Mamdani will affect the city’s population, but the Hudson Valley Post writes that a new survey suggests that nearly 1 million people are considering fleeing the city.

Where will they go? Like Davy Crockett after a disappointing election, many of them will likely tell their progressive comrades, “You can go to hell. I’m going to Texas.” 

Merrill Matthews is a co-author of “On the Edge: America Faces the Entitlements Cliff.”