BloodySox t1_j1xqceq wrote on December 28, 2022 at 4:16 AM

Reply to comment by TreePointOhhhhh in Newcomers to New Hampshire and Maine continue to drive population growth: More people are dying than being born, so population growth depends on people moving in from elsewhere by TurretLauncher

> They vote for stupid politicians and stupid policies, then come here to escape the mess they made

I feel like I'm always seeing this here and it really bears no resemblance to reality. Most people who move to New Hampshire from Southern New England are conservatives who see New Hampshire as a safe haven for their political ideals.

The Free State Project is an obvious example of this but you have other data points. NH's most influential conservative governors in modern history (John Sununu and Meldrim Thomson) were conservatives who moved to NH from elsewhere. I've analyzed enough NH elections to tell you that newcomers are not disproportionately more liberal than the native born New Hampshire population. This is a myth that New Hampshire Republicans spread, it is simply not true.

Rare_Message_7204 t1_j1yq2u6 wrote on December 28, 2022 at 11:28 AM

You may be wrong here.. Democrats have been moving to Southern NH and the NH seacoast area in droves. I personally know many transplants that want similar social systems in NH that they had in MA. I constantly have conversations reminding them that those systems would make NH more expensive and negate the reasons they moved here.

lendluke t1_j1z0a19 wrote on December 28, 2022 at 1:24 PM

I somewhat agree. I remember hearing for example the average Californian moving to Texas was actually more conservative than the average Texan.

I will say though that it is different when the barriers to entry are smaller. There are millions of jobs in MA within commuting distance of NH. Stealing the structure of an old joke: "take a conservative from MA and move them to NH and you'll make both states more liberal."

I have met quite a few MA transplants in the liberty community but that is only relevant if there aren't a ton of people on the more authoritarian also moving. Election success is not always a good gauge for movers average political stances as the parties have shifted (I'd be voting Democrat if the Democratic candidates held the same views they did 10-15 years ago (except the against gay marriage part)).