Conservative Californians Seek the Republican Dream Elsewhere
By: Matt Charnock
Tags: Housing, California, Conservatives, Republican, Moving

Conservative Californians Seek the Republican Dream Elsewhere

Photo: Valentyn Semenov/EyeEm/Getty Images

By now, you’ve probably heard (in near nauseating amounts) about the alleged mass exodus from California given the widespread adoption of remote work and the fact that the pandemic and wildfires have stripped away many of our state’s amenities.

A recent poll by job-search database Hired showed some 47% of all Bay Area tech workers are poised to get out of Dodge and find more affordable lifestyles in other parts of the country. That’s a whole lot of liberals moving elsewhere. And there’s an entire industry cropping up to make money off of helping them get out.

Interestingly, though, CalMatters reports today that there’s also a big push going on to get conservative Californians — those often outside of the cities— to move to other states, taking their voting power and money with them.

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One California-born realtor's website, ExitCalifornia.org, is selling the “anti-California dream” to those keen on leaving America’s most populous state. That vision also doubles as a Republican’s wet dream. (ExitCalifornia.org also proudly notes that the website has been featured on Breitbart… which should tell you enough.)

“It’s starting to kind of take on a life of its own,” Scott Shepard, creator of ExitCalifornia.org and its like-named Facebook group, said to CalMatters. “I would be straight and say that it is primarily political. Then it really does come down to the cost and taxes.”

That meaning: He wants more red votes where they count. And he wants to make money off of them.

To use ExitCalifornia.org, yearning former-Californians start by filling out their “60-Second Relocation Assessment,” after which a representative of the company is in touch within 24 hours to discuss how to get the ball rolling.

This website is just part of the movement on social media and YouTube urging denizens of California to move out of the state. Facebook groups “Life After California” and “Conservatives Leaving California” — both of which are populated with positive reviews of ExitCalifornia.org — paint idyllic lives gained by moving to categorically Red States after “having had enough” with living in “Commiefornia,” reports CalMatters. Congested traffic, veganism, and Black Lives Matter protests are all popular dislikes shared among those in the groups.

A YouTube video titled “Fleeing California” has already amassed more than 2.1 million views since it was posted in March. The 13-ish-minute video is, frankly, an ode to the gripes middle-aged, right-leaning white men like to bring up around the dinner table. It also features Texas senator Ted Cruz welcoming Californians to the Lone Star State.

PragerU, the conservative digital media nonprofit behind the short film, has also produced such past works like “Make Men Masculine Again” and “BLM Has No Interest in Helping Black People,” to give you some insight and context.

Read the full CalMatters story here.