Derek Thompson, a staff writer at The Atlantic, said Tuesday that the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated U.S. migration trends that could benefit Democrats “in the long run.”
Thompson explained how the move to remote work during the pandemic has sped up the already existing pattern of Americans moving away from more expensive cities in traditionally blue states to cities in other parts of the country.
He cited data showing that between 2010 and 2018, the eight cities that gained the most transplants included Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta and San Antonio, along with Austin, Texas, Tampa Bay, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C.
Thompson noted that while Democrats have strong support in some of those urban areas, all of those cities are in states that voted for former President Trump in 2016.
“So what we’re seeing is a migratory pattern in the U.S., where a lot of people are leaving some of the larger cities on the coasts and some of the larger states on the coast, which tend to be blue, and moving into states that are a light shade of red or even purple,” he said.
“So I do think it is defensible to say that on top of all the other demographic and political trends that might be nudging a state like Georgia from the light red column to the light blue column, you also have this migratory shift that has been accelerated by the pandemic that I think will be beneficial to Democrats in the long run,” he added.
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