The Great Migration: Where Americans Are Moving

CLAY: We are number one in 11 markets and growing, and that is certainly helping so many of us. And, Buck, let’s see if I can get ’em all. Thank you, particularly in Sacramento, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Birmingham, Raleigh, and Milwaukee, where we are right now, number one radio station in the country. We need more of you to step up.

But we love the 11 cities where we are in many different states number one in the country right now, and a lot of people are moving. And maybe you’re soon gonna be moving to a place where you can hear us, if you can’t hear us now. And, Buck, that is what you call a perfect radio transition to what you have in front of you right now. I have not seen this list. But explain to the people what you have in front of yourself right now.

BUCK: Yes, thank you for the alley-oop, Mr. Clay.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: So here we go. There is more data now up on the Daily Mail on the flight from major cities. Now, understand these cities all have one thing in common, other than population size — they’re all big cities — and that is that they have absolute, ironclad Democrat control at the city level and also at the state level, which I think is noteworthy, too, right?

Because if you… For the people who live in Dallas, let’s say. Dallas, which is not on either of these lists, that’s a Democrat majority city, but it’s in the state of Texas and so you still have some sanity at the state level because the city has to abide by state laws and has to exist within that ecosystem, although Austin definitely pushes… I love Austin. It’s a fun place to visit. Man, there is some wacky left-wing stuff going on in that town.

CLAY: Early preview, by the way: Austin, we are going to be in September on the weekend of the 10th, the University of Alabama, Buck’s favorite football team, is traveling to play against the University of Texas in Austin. We are planning to be there as a show, potentially having a fun taillight-related event potentially, surrounding that game.

BUCK: Yeah, I need to know which one has a larger fan base that listens to our show so then I know who I’m rooting for. So we have to do a little bit of data crunching on that one.

CLAY: That’s a good… I don’t begrudge you because the state of Texas is massive. Now, they have not been in a national championship game in about 15 years, since Colt McCoy got hurt in the Rose Bowl game against Alabama. Sorry to bring it up. They’ve been through several different coaches for the Longhorns. Let me guess six cities, Buck. I don’t know these cities. Let me see how many of them I can get.

BUCK: Yes. Go for it.

CLAY: These are the cities that people are fleeing the most, according to the most recent data.

BUCK: Can I just add before you get to them?

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: We also have the six that they’re moving to the most which we’ll get to in a moment. Go ahead.

CLAY: Yes. I would guess L.A., San Francisco, New York City, Chicago. I would bet that all four of those are on the list. The additional two cities that I would think that people are moving from is more challenging, because I’m confident in those. Let me just stick with those four. Did I hit all four of those?

BUCK: Chicago is not even on the list, I will say.

CLAY: I can’t believe that. It’s a flawed list.

BUCK: (laughing) He demands a recount! San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York all clearly on the list.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: And what’s amazing here is that, according to this data that I’m seeing, San Francisco, when you add it all up, may actually… I’m trying to see if it’s by percentage or by aggregate numbers. San Francisco has been decimated by people leaving.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: I think it might even be almost… You know, “decimation” comes from the ancient Roman punishment of the legions, decimatus, where they would actually beat to death one out of 10, and that’s where we get the term decimation.

CLAY: Oh wow. I had no idea. How did they pick the one out of 10?

BUCK: I think they drew lot by stone, essentially. But if you were a cowardly legion or if there was a portion of a legion that was cowardly, they would be engage in the process of decimatus, the killing of one out of 10, as an example to the other to never be cowardly again, hence the term decimation.

CLAY: Probably worked!

BUCK: Yes, I would think so, and I think the other members of the legion actually did the beating. So, yeah, it definitely left an impression. Ancient Rome, amazing in many ways, really messed up in ways, too. Like, there’s a whole lot conversation there we could have. Okay. Let’s but bring it back to the decimation of San Francisco, meaning the population flight. They’re number one. Los Angeles and New York are right behind it. Washington, D.C., interestingly enough, was on this list.

CLAY: It has to be per capita because there’s only like 600,000 people who live in D.C.

BUCK: Their covid lockdowns?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: D.C. was pretty much as bad as New York from what I understand. They were wacko over a lot of the lockdown policy and then the other two cities are Seattle, Washington, and Boston, which Seattle… We love our Seattle listeners, and we’re hoping to send you not really a ray of hope because it’s audio.

But — I don’t know — a note of hope through your ears in the Seattle region listening to us, and we’re right there with you. I’m in New York; so I know what it’s like to be surrounded by the crazies. All right, Travis. The six cities people are moving to in America in the biggest numbers — and here’s a fun fact. These are overwhelmingly in red states.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: Oh, gosh! They’re Democrat cities. Fine. But they’re in red states. What do we got?

CLAY: I’m gonna give you a bunch. So I think people would be moving — again, I think it’s per capita. So I’m gonna toss out a bunch. Houston, Dallas, Austin, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Nashville, Tampa, Miami, and Atlanta and Charlotte, Raleigh.

BUCK: Okay. So you got a few, but there were a lot that were… “Samsonite, you were way off.”

CLAY: Yeah, that’s not good.

BUCK: There were some that you had… I don’t know if anyone’s gonna catch that movie reference, by the way, that’s a particular one but if you haven’t seen Dumb & Dumber recently I think it does hold up. It’s not a very high-end comedy in Dumb & Dumber. Anyway, Miami, Phoenix, Tampa, you nailed those. Obviously, we’ve got great audiences. Huh! Three cities where we’ve got fantastic audiences of people who understand what’s going on.

CLAY: Yes, not a surprise.

BUCK: The other three that were on here, one is surprising, and I think it’s gonna be getting bigger and bigger, and that is Cape Coral, Florida, has a lot of people moving to it. Again, I’m just going based on the numbers.

CLAY: Yeah, Cape Coral. I don’t even know where Cape Coral is, do you?

BUCK: I think it’s up in the north, kind of near where they used to fire the rocket ships.

CLAY: Cape Canaveral? Near Cape Canaveral?

BUCK: Am I wrong? By the way, Florida people may be completely laughing at me right now.

CLAY: Well, Cape Coral is a small enough place. That’s a tough one to get, right? It’s not like there’s millions of people there.

BUCK: Oh, man, I was way off. (laughing) I’m way off. I’m sorry. It’s next to Fort Myers. It’s next to Fort Myers. How is that…?

CLAY: Where we had our awesome event. We love you, Fort Myers. I’ve always been a great Cape Coral guy.

BUCK: It’s the home of the Fighting Cape Corals. It’s great!

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: The team there they have, the AAA league, I don’t know. I don’t know anything. Okay, and then there’s Las Vegas —

CLAY: Vegas I should have gotten.

BUCK: — which, obviously Nevada has shall we say it, Clay, Nevada has zero state income tax, right? So that’s a lot of —

CLAY: I think that’s right, yeah.

BUCK: A lot of California flight. And then Sacramento which I —

CLAY: Interesting.

BUCK: That one, I don’t understand necessarily. I’d be fascinated to hear what our audience in Sacramento would offer up on that one. Why are so many people moving to…? Maybe they’re just gonna be like, “Hey, we got a great downtown, great quality of life.”

CLAY: I think it’s probably affordable housing.

BUCK: That’s like San Antonio. When you ask why do people move to San Antonio, they’re like, “‘Cause it’s a great city. It’s safe, it’s nice, it’s got good food, it’s got good weather, you know, it’s in Texas.” So could be.

CLAY: I would bet it’s people who want to stay in California, but they want more affordable lifestyle and they want a little bit more sanity, because as you move north in California, outside of San Francisco you end up with more sane people, right? The stat that I love, here’s a great stat for everybody to share as you’re gathering with your Easter, Passover crews.

More people voted for Donald Trump in 2020 in California than in Texas. That’s true, and everybody’s mind is blown. More people voted for Donald Trump in California than in Texas in the 2020 election. Now, population is why. But people think of California as deep blue and Texas as, by and large, deep red, and there are actually more Trump supporters in California than in Texas.

BUCK: See? These things matter, my friends. These things matter. The demographics have an effect on all of us. But, anyway, I just think it’s interesting because we talk about the data in terms of the polling and perception and the economy. People voting with their feet is something that is real. It’s a big deal to get up, especially move your family, change your job, change all this stuff.

And there’s a singular narrative here of people are leaving Democrat hell (laughing), Democrat-controlled hellish conditions — and I can speak from experience living in Midtown Manhattan — and going to places with lower taxes, more individual freedom, and less collectivist insanity. So it’s good stuff.

CLAY: And I can speak to that because that’s where I live.

BUCK: Yeah. There you go. Look at that. Clay brings news of the free state of Tennessee.