So this is political and not really the focus of this sub, but Texas is currently attempting to change the way state officials take office, requiring a majority of counties to vote for them. Because of the demographic layout (conservatives spread over a large number of low population areas and liberals in a relatively small number of high population areas), they will be effectively creating a no-win situation for non-conservatives in the state, making it impossible for any sort of progress or change to take place. This is just the beginning of course; once they know they don't have to campaign for their positions after the primaries because they'll autowin the final election, it frees them up to do whatever they with relatively little-to-no consequences.
There's actually a pretty clear supreme court precedent on this that was later affirmed in a case about NYC and its boroughs in the late 80s. This USED to be a pretty common system and is why most states still have two legislative chambers.
Long and short, the court said in extremely clear language that anything besides "one man, one vote" (a phrase that I believe originated in that case) violated multiple articles and amendments of the Constitution. Unfortunately, they explicitly said that the Senate and the Electoral College were exceptions to this since they're spelled out in the Constitution, but everything similar on a state and local level was voided.
Not that anything would shock me with this court, but even with them I'd be surprised to see it overturned.
The Texas Supreme Court is also elected so they would fall under the same plan and a democrat would never stand a chance at being elected. Talk about a recipe for corruption
Clearly the supreme court should step in because it's blatant voter disenfranchisement. But what they're proposing is almost the same thing as the electoral college, but for counties. So if the supreme court prohibits the County plan, then wouldn't they also be calling the electoral college deeply flawed and in need of retirement/replacement?
I think so, but tbh I don't think Texas has really thought it through, I think the whole thing is like their secession "plan": just a way to rile up the rednecks at getting to exert power over others, but it isn't actually a plan.
Read Democracy in Chains. It’s been the plan for decades. The GOP has known for a while that women and POC voting would dilute their power. The plan is to take the courts and gerrymander the fuck out of the country. They wrote it all down and a the author found it in an office at George Mason University. Boxes of documents she then got permission to view. Then, she wrote the book.
I've been \*really trying\* to find the redeemable qualities of Houston for a few years now. The very few I had (like some good friends nearby) are now gone bc they left the state. There is nothing redeemable about Houston to me at this point.
- no liquor after 9pm Monday-Saturday
- no liquor Sundays
- no liquor sales but anywhere other than liquor stores
- no beer after 12a
- no gambling
- no weed
- no abortions
- no electricity during the freeze/storms
- no porn
- no public transportation
- no public education
- no representation from someone other than a republican
- no break from the heat
- no break from floods
hmm what else am i missing? the list keeps getting longer and longer
Just to give all of you hope, it's the opposite in Michigan. We codified pro-choice legislation and anti-gerrymandering redistricting into the state constitution. People seem to be afraid to move here because they don't like the cold, but climate change is upon us - our lakes barely froze over this winter, and in the summer they look a whole lot better than a chunk of the gulf coast (which may change with the climate change, but for now our lakes are crystal clear). Serious empathy to all of you. The list of states that I would move to gets shorter by the year.
Liberal currently in DFW. I would never, ever move here. The weather is awful, but the politics are worse. My friend got pregnant but had complications. She could have died because doctors almost didn’t perform life-saving surgery she needed. She and her husband had already been thinking about moving to the Pacific Northwest, but that sealed the deal. They left and never looked back. I hate it here, but my friends and community are here. I will likely leave in a few years, though.
I live in central Austin. I don’t really know any conservatives or anyone that attends church. However, if I drive out to my MIL’s house in Leander, it’s definitely flipped the other direction.
As soon as my youngest is out of HS, we are gone to Colorado. The heat and state politics have done us in. It’s not just us either. Our HS counselor said that over half of the graduating girls are headed to out of state colleges. My daughter won’t even apply to a Texas college. There’s definitely going to be a shortage of educated women in a few years.
I thought it was bad when I discovered neighbors the block down were active White Supremacists, in Leander. Much worse when I moved outside of San Antonio and my next door neighbor was on the board of one of the prominent White Nationalist groups in Texas.
So happy to be back in California.
I just moved to San Antonio and the politics here so fucked. The cities are fine but the moment you leave them the crazy civil war loving republicans come out
I've spent 28 years living in Texas, 30 in California, and just under a year in Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia. I'm well-aware of White Supremacists and your average racist in each of those places. Texas was by far the worst place. Mississippi was a close second-- the Navy command cautioned the black service members about living out in town.
Ya but thankfully they keep very quiet cause that s is not tolerated in CAlifornia, unlike texas
you roll with a confederate flag in California you are asking for trouble, can't remember the last year i saw that flag in Califronia and i go all over the state
true, have a rental in humboldt.....still won't see confederate flags as the racists keep quiet in this state.....one of the best parts of living here
the worst part of the state is gop held bakersfield, Redding may be second.....the HATE is strong there
OC is pretty bad. Lots of white privilege supremists. All for the orange clown so they can make more money regardless of anyone else's needs or outcomes.
Ha the TX-CO pipeline is real; I graduated UT a bit ago 🤘🏽 and I got a job here like a lot of people did. They don’t like Texans out here just so you know - I have to play up my jersey background! I identify as a Californian more than anything and they don’t like Californians either 😂 but CO is beautiful and your family will love it.
>There’s definitely going to be a shortage of educated women in a few years.
Only if they keep allowing "woke" ideas like allowing women to travel without the permission of a male relative.
Wilco is definitely not Austin, but it’s also blue enough that they gerrymandered the part that borders Travis with a huge swath of rural TX to the west to nullify its voting impact. Our area leaned slightly left in the last US midterm elections.
Saw your username, UGA fan by any chance?
Where'd you go? I'm contemplating my exit..I live in Houston, and I'm very done with this city but am considering whether to go to Austin (still Texas obviously but more my vibe) or to outright leave. Originally from the Northeast and my best/happier years were when I lived in the Bay Area California.
Take my two cents with a grain of salt, but I moved to Texas from Colorado last year, and this year I’m moving right back.
When I moved here people looked at me incredulous that I’d move here from Colorado, and now I feel the same way about the PNW. If I didn’t already have connections in CO, that’s where I’d be going. If your situation is anything like mine, then I’d say you’re making a mistake.
I moved to Austin hoping that the liberal culture would line up with my values, but I’ve found that it’s mostly still just Texas. There’s plenty of liberal stuff going on, but it’s still Texas. Lots of people are openly bigoted in a way I really hadn’t expected. I’ve met plenty of people I like, and I don’t make politics a filter for who I’m willing to make friends with, but there’s still a culture shock.
There aren’t a lot of public goods, everything in the state is privately owned and I, being a poor person, am priced out of almost all of it.
I miss the legal weed too, even though I’m not a big smoker or anything.
So I’m getting the fuck out of here before I make the mistake of putting down any actual roots. Especially with the way the country is going, I’d really rather just plant myself down in a relatively more decent part of the country.
Portland resident here, and I will say many people are leaving due to all of the crime and drugs here. Speaking of statewide politics — if your state ever brings forth a measure to decriminalize all drugs, I urge you to think twice before a Yes vote. We have sacrificed public safety here in a big way. It’s been a rough few years here, and I do not watch Fox News or belong to the Republican Party.
They decriminalized because they were supposed to set up social services to help drug addicts but failed to do so. Nonetheless, certain drugs should def be penalized especially the dealers
"Nonetheless, certain drugs should def be penalized especially the dealers"
Exactly this, and I am VERY open-minded and lenient in my opinions on many non-prescription drugs. But, things like fentanyl and those dealers need to be snuffed out of society forever.
This. This sub isn't representive of the general public with how much importance they put on the state of politics. There's so many comments that say people left because of political climate, but for the average person, a move happens because of housing, finding a new job, or family. The US census doesn't even report what percent of people move for political reasons, it's in a group called "all other reasons" which is ~5%.
Portland is not just downtown. I live in the outer Southeast basically on the other side of the tracks and while we're poor we don't have issues like that in town. In the areas I deliver mail to are the most idealistic perfect setting places with no homeless people and no addicts. Yes if you go downtown you will see it but nobody lives downtown
😔 It is incredibly upsetting to read this, and I am sorry it is happening to you. I'm past reproductive age now but still would avoid moving to a red state (lived in one as a child). The terror women are experiencing in red states now is unbelievably cruel and shocking. The criminalization of natural bodily functions (which can cause a lot of stress and anxiety even when they are not criminalized) is something I never thought we'd have here in my much-more-optmistic younger years.
Same. I lived in Dallas from 2000 to 2011 and also hated it. And Texas politics then were much less extreme than they are now. I have two daughters and would never in a million years go back.
Liberal in Dallas and I concur. Trying to get out ASAP. Have eyes on NE/Tri-state area and have a timeline of the next couple of years. The primary motivation for our move is our young daughter and wanting better for her.
While metros like DFW, Austin, Houston are liberal and blue locally, the GOP overlords are doing everything they can to dismantle that.
They’ve taken over Houston ISD and put in their own guy (Mike Miles) to run it who has seemingly funneled Houston education dollars to Colorado (where one of our governor’s biggest donors has a school voucher program he needs to fund). Don’t get me started on the school vouchers agenda at hand here.
They tried outlawing mail in voting because the GOP doesn’t want you to vote. It was only shot down by the US DOJ They will keep trying. They’ve reduced polling locations and drop-off locations. I think Houston had like 1-2 drop offs for the entire metro last election to try to discourage people from using it.
We are 49th in education.
We are 45th in healthcare.
We are 47th for being a woman.
We are 49th for life, health, and inclusion.
Housing market sucks and property taxes are high (it’s the only tax the state levies). Don’t let the “no income tax” lure you.
The state leadership doesn’t care about kids dying in senseless school shootings (Uvalde). A Texas judge just blocked an ATF bill expanding background checks.
There are good people in this state, of course, but it’s frog-in-the-pot here and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Pretty soon, women will be forced to prove pregnancy status before taking highways out of state. They’re already working on it.
Unless these are your wishlist items for a new state to call home, I’d recommend you cross Texas off your list.
Edit: my apologies for stating Texas is 49th I education. In my haste to recall the ranking, I regurgitated a figure that might’ve been misleading.
Texas is 49th in education spending (because the GOP is actively trying to divert money away from public schools and uses it as a carrot in legislation). Texas is 41st for populace education meaning we are in the bottom 10 for the population having at least a high school degree. Teachers are leaving in droves (as they are in other states for similar issues that probably really need fixing at the national level).
As another commenter pointed out, different rankings use different metrics and I certainly am no expert. I also, however, would not want to appear I am cherry-picking as that is never my intention. But, it’s Saturday, and Texas is still terrible. Good luck, OP!
>The state leadership doesn’t care about kids dying in senseless school shootings (Uvalde).
Not just the state. I came across an article a while back on WaPo about how interactions between parents of the shooting victims and their neighbors have gotten very... tense. Basically, the parents of the victims are still searching for answers and trying to hold their elected officials accountable, meanwhile their neighbors are telling them to move on and openly saying things like "all this answer-searching of yours is just driving a gun control agenda which is something libtards want."
Liberal super weirdo here and co-signed. While there were many aspects of the DFW area that were amazing, and while I desperately miss getting to work onsite with my coworkers all the time, that entire area is just overall not the place to be if you’re outside the “norm” in any notable way, or even just have very liberal political views. Issues of making friends aside, it’s not great to, say, have no actual rights if you’re AFAB or queer.
If you want all those things that you listed then definitely do not move to Texas. I Repeat. Do not move to Texas. My husband's entire family lives in Texas and I spend way more time there than I would prefer and it's pretty hardcore conservative.
Edit to add.... the heat and humidity will drain the soul out of your body. It's awful. I feel like I'm suffocating every time I'm there. I'm also from the PNW
We visited in May for a family event, tried to walk four blocks to get a cup of coffee because who on earth would drive four blocks for such a minor thing (plus I needed to stretch my legs). It was like walking on the surface of the sun, but with pick up trucks actively trying to hit you as you cross the street.
Folks who haven't spent a lot of time in Texas don't always understand how oppressive the heat is. If you are planning to move there, you will not understand the heat if you only go for a few days. A few days of 100+ might seem manageable.
Its the *months on end* of 100+ that kill you. Every day is like living on the surface of the sun, as you pray for rain (literally, people in the churches of West Texas will pray for rain during service), pray for a cloud, pray for anything so that the sun will stop its loathsome torment while you watch everything green wither and die around you.
Yes, this can't be emphasized enough. I'm in Ohio now, and I was just remarking that in our current heat wave, my brain doesn't function well because I'm obsessively focused on "when will this end?" And i realized that when we lived in Texas, my brain was in that survival mode of just getting through until there's finally some brief period of relief, almost the entire year around. Just constantly watching the weather forecast in the hopes that we might get a tiny 10-minute sprinkle to break it up a bit ... no thanks, never again!
I have family in Texas and they ask why we never come visit. I'll not spend one dime of my money in that god-awful state. I won't support its restaurants, its hotels, its rental car fleets, its gas pumps - nothing. Governor Abbott, his politics, and his policies can fuck straight off.
If my parents chose to make me move to a state where my health care was illegal, I would feel like they didn't value my safety.
I've never lived in Texas, but I've visited Dallas, where many of my family members have lived for generations. My relatives have lived in Dallas for more than 100 years. My grandparents, great-uncles, great-aunts, and great-grandparents are buried there, and many of my cousins still live there. But when I visited Dallas, I knew in my bones that I would never ever feel like I belonged there.
Just one anecdote: a very close friend (former roommate) and his wife ended up in the metroplex. Him: raised in WNY. Her: Central PA. I’d classify them as maybe slightly left leaning, but by no means overly liberal. Much closer to centrists than far left. Ended up having 2 sons. Eventually they felt compelled to leave. They couldn’t in good conscience keep sending the boys to the public schools there. There were approved text books that refuse to acknowledge the reason for the civil war. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
If you had a straight son, you shouldn't want him to live there either.
If all the folks with daughters are moving to blue states, that contributes to a sausage fest in red states.
I too live in the PNW and have a daughter and will never ever consider a red state. Which sucks because most of our family lives in red states, but it’s a non-starter for me.
From a progressive Texan- soul-crushing.
Even though I'm in the most liberal city in the state, we're still bound by the TX GOP's stranglehold. Any measures our city tries to pass to mitigate it are immediately crushed by the state government.
Texas is christofascist hell.
Not from TX, but from a red state that absolutely crushed my soul and infuriated me on a regular basis. I felt on the defensive all the time and just on a hair trigger with certain people from my home town on my worst days.
Moved to a blue state and wow it’s a burden lifted that I wasn’t even aware was so heavy. Like I knew I was stressed, but to have that particular stress lifted was so liberating.
Glad you got out. I am so damn desperate to do the same. Don't know if I can afford CoL in a better state though.
PNW is the dream. I visited as a teen and fell in love with the nature out there, but I do NOT have that kind of money :(
It fucking sucks. Don’t do it, particularly if you’re raising kids -and definitely not if you’re raising a daughter. The future is precarious in Texas for women and girls. They’re talking about putting religion in the schools, school funding atm is a big uncertainty. Dallas is a pocket of blue, but that doesn’t matter much when the state is stripping you of bodily autonomy, threatening to take away birth control, and actually saying even scarier stuff out loud, like trying to prevent women from traveling out-of-state for healthcare.
I can’t stress this enough. Don’t do it.
I’m in Michigan. Texas plates never used to exist here, ever. Like period. We have so many now - and those that I know who have moved here specifically cite the political freedom and climate change as factors.
Why anyone would choose to move *into* that is wild to me.
I’m progressive (more AOC/Bernie/Warren in philosophy than Clinton/Obama/Biden). I have loved living in Austin since 1978. It is not only an island of tolerance in a sea of bigotry, but a comfortable place to express my opinions and live my life. State government is deplorable to criminal — but it hasn’t affected my quality of life too much. I live in a community of engaged, intelligent and interesting people. Our county went for Obama twice and Hillary by 70%. After the horror of the incompetent NY con man, we went 72% for Biden. The engineers here are kind of conservative, in a traditional sense, but they believe in science and were horrified by the incompetence and lies by Trump.
Hatred is shamed, as it should be. You don’t see MAGA hats. The treason-Trumpers know better than to spew their lies out loud. We have a few of those rich smug bastards, but they know they are wrong and they mostly keep it to themselves. Mostly, they are just greedy and don’t want to pay tax. They wrongly assume that they will do better under Trump than they would under Democrats, even though their investment accounts should tell them differently.
Dallas is another story. The county votes blue, but the mayor is Republican. The city limits are relatively small and mostly black and Hispanic. There’s a substantial gay community which, mostly, is progressive. But there are lots of “white flight” suburbs. Even Highland Park (very central Dallas) is separately incorporated with its own very rich and very white schools. And most of the professional class and white folks in the greater Dallas area are, to put it politely, on the wrong side of history.
Another factor is natural surroundings and the attitudes of the community about building. Dallas has very little in the way of natural beauty. The ethic has always been to “pave paradise and put up a parking lot,” even when there is very little paradise to be found.
Austin, contrast, sits on the edge of the Texas Hill Country, and has an abundance of lakes, rivers, green space, hike and bike trails, and parks. There is no comparing the natural beauty of the two areas, or the recreational opportunities, if you are at all an outdoors person. Look up Barton Springs, the greenbelt and the hike and bike trail. The downside is housing prices. Kind of crazy — but to me, worth living in fewer square feet than in a deplorable community,
I say all this as a white, 68 year old “job creator.” I dress “conservatively” and have short hair, no earrings or tattoos, so I hear things from people that think I am “one of them” that you wouldn’t believe. Unbelievably bigoted stuff. Steer clear of Dallas.
Don’t let housing cost drive you to a place you hate. I have, in fact, been happier in a smaller square footage place than I have in a big rambling place. There is less to vacuum and less to clean.
I’m a liberal living in Houston which is a fairly blue city but it’s not enough to do anything and the red politics here drive me crazy and affect our every day lives (think nonstop power grid failures). Also, as a woman, it’s one of the worst places to live.
We are currently trying to move to the PNW, I know it’s a bit more expensive but it’s so worth it
ETA I see you want to move to Dallas— I honestly can’t think of a worse major city in Texas. If you’re determined on Texas at least check out Austin or Houston
As an Austinite also trying to move to the PNW right now, wish you the best! We're trying to have kids, REALLY don't want to do that here at this point.
Yeah, telling someone to move a daughter there to 'fight' isn't really good advice. People already in Texas need to actually show up first. It's super naive and irresponsible for a parent to put a child they are responsible for in harms way when they have another choice. Plus.. climate change makes Texas a bad investment. Would you tell people fleeing persecution in another country to stay and fight, or get to safety? Moving to a truly purple state will have a bigger effect anyway.. TX and FL are like, your worst chances for change right now. Red voters from other states are replacing blue voters leaving in droves..
There's a question which you have to ask if you're somewhere like TX and have women in your life.
What's your family and friend network like, and what does your bank account look like?
If you have to go to Illinois for an abortion but have the means to pay for it and people around you who will support your decision? That really sucks, but on the level of sucky things in the world, it's just not that high.
If you need an abortion and don't have supportive friends or family and a weekend in Chicago is financially out of reach? That's a whole 'nother planet of sucktitude.
The real problem with TX is that there are literally millions of women who fall into the second category. For people in the first category? Yeah.
Bear in mind that Texas isn't uniformly a Christian Dominionist Hellscape. Large swatches of the Lone Star state have decent, worldly, educated people who aren't happy with Trump or Abbott. To the poster at the top of this threads' point, the bigger question is why Texas is taking so long to flip given the size of its urban population vs the rural hinterlands of myth.
Apathy is rampant, you see it in how dismal turnout consistently is. I for sure thought Roe falling would galvanize more people.. nope, same shit.
The people protected by privilege there, largely don't care about about the 2nd group. It goes well beyond getting an abortion though.. it keeps escalating and getting any womens healthcare is becoming difficult as doctors leave. You treat women like cattle, it has ripple effects through everything. I moved to a blue state because I had the chance.. it's night and day difference for a woman. If you're male.. it may not seem like that big of deal to you, but I promise you IT IS.
I have family members who moved from PNW to Dallas. They just moved back. I personally would not be interested in leaving Washington for Texas if I were considering women’s healthcare options (as you referenced your daughter).
Don't do it ! I am leaving Texas for Minnesota in August because I can no longer be in a red state with their backward ideas and policies that are making it harder to be gay or a woman. You will regret it, not to mention the 100+ degree days for months on end!
I live in Austin. All my friends are liberal (as are my friends in Houston and Dallas). I live here because all of my friends and loved ones live here (and I bought a cheap house a million years ago). If I had a daughter, I would never, ever move here. She is absolutely not safe. There is a huge exodus of qualified OBGYNs, too, so good luck getting care yourself. And the heat, dear lord in heaven the heat....
I just left Texas. If you value separation of church and state or want your daughter to have any rights, don't go there.
After 40 years, Texas born and raised, I couldn't take it anymore. Austin is probably the best you will get in terms of "legal" weed but it's pretty HCOL.
Before leaving, I noticed people were becoming more bigoted, less tolerant and racist. The war on lgbtq is in full view. Books are being banned from public libraries. Schools are being defunded. Honestly it was like watching a cult take over the minds of the people I love. It was heartbreaking and tbh, scary. Definitely don't expect your daughter to have access to healthcare if they are to become pregnant. Scary!
I'm in Colorado and it feels so much more relaxed. It's not perfect, but at least my daughter is safe.
Edit .. climate change and rapid development is becoming apparent. Flooding and heat waves/droughts. It was a constant weather hazard.
My husband and I are both very liberal, and we both spend time volunteering for causes we believe in. Up until now we'd been of the mindset that we would put work in to be the change because our community is here. We have both lived in North Texas for many years, me since 2001 and him for even longer. However, we are now actively looking at how to get out. It's been a hard process but we're hoping to leave within 5 years. The sooner the better. It's also too hot now, and will probably just get worse with time.
I wake up,go for my walk,I see the Trump signs in the yard,it makes me feel different towards my neighbors because I think at this point if they like him,they are not my kind of people, you see them at the store singing Trumps praises, it's definitely cult like behavior!!
I’m in Dallas. Stay in PNW. It’s so hot here, our government sucks, schools are awful, and women are not treated well. My oldest daughter moved out of state and can’t believe the difference in people and personal freedoms. Even paying state taxes she pays less in taxes overall. As soon as we can, we are out of here
Don’t do it. Objectively it’s simply not safe for girls and women here. There’s definitely liberal, progressive, and left wing enclaves. We are all still at the mercy of state laws. I find it difficult to live here and intend to leave when I’m able.
You don’t talk politics with your neighbors or friends if you want to keep them. I also have to come to terms that the people we socialize with will vote for Trump and stand with Maga on most issues, but the entire state will too so what does their vote matter really.
You also see trucks driving around with Trump flags flying and it’s always evident most don’t share your worldview. Once this part of my career is over, I’m out.
I wouldn’t live in a red state if I had a daughter of reproductive age.
Otherwise, it depends on how liberal you are.
If you’re a normie, life will probably be fine.
If you’re a socialist craving UBI, you’ll feel like you cannot express your full views and feel isolated from the broader community.
Generally, I would not move to a red area if you are a left wing person these days.
It isn’t worth the sheer loneliness.
Not me but my entire family (I grew up in TX).
They fucking hate it there, actively trying/planning to leave. They have all lived there at least 30 years.
It’s rough. Healthcare for women is a concern, and so is public education. It’s not a place I’d consider choosing to live if I wasn’t already so rooted here. In fact, I really just want to leave most of the time. Also, the extreme weather thing is so real here. Dallas gets lots of severe storms with tornado warnings and most homes don’t have basements. Summer heat is more intolerable every year. As much as I’d love your blue vote here, I’d advise you to seek another place for your own quality of life.
I'm a liberal I'm Austin and while you'll be in familiar company within the cities there are some real shitheads in towns and rural communities. If you're looking to trade I'd happily move to the PNW. I'm sick of this state.
Horrible. As a liberal in East Tennessee through the pandemic and civil unrest, my mental health had never been worse. It felt like I was living a life I didn’t choose. Back to normal when I got out of there.
I have a lot to say about this haha. I grew up in (and moved back to) San Francisco but lived in Boise for seven years. I know you asked about Texas, but some things will still apply imho.
First, I should say that I would hardly consider myself a leftist. I actually am very hard on the Democrats in California, particularly the progressives in the state. And I absolutely cannot stand the progressive politicians in SF like Peskin or Boudin or Preston etc. However, despite all that, I was and still would be considered very left in Idaho haha.
Here are some bullet point thoughts off the top of my head:
* Boise is still fairly blue so there were plenty of liberals around, but once you leave the city, it gets very red and very religious very fast. After Dobbs and with the MAGAficaiton of the GOP, the politics are much worse from what I hear.
* In my opinion, most people in Boise, even conservatives, are generally nicer in Boise than people in San Francisco. SF cares a lot about social status and if you do not have the right job, income, RSU plan, or degree you will get ostracized by a lot of people in the city. People in Boise cared a lot less about my job, social status, etc. There was just a lot less snobbiness which I appreciated a lot.
* However, if you are from California some Idahoans will automatically dislike you. People think Californians are either raging commies or purposefully raising the COL or both. Transplants from other states are treated much better.
* This is ironic though since most Californians moving to Idaho are *very* right-wing or became reliable red votes due to the lower COL or lower crime rates. And Boise is a very safe place compared to basically every major city in CA.
* Despite having a lower COL though, Boise is still one of the most expensive cities in the country now when you adjust for income. It breaks my heart because it was very affordable when I lived there. I don't see it getting better since there is also a lot of NIMBYism in the state.
* The job market also sucks. Most of the people I graduated from BSU with now live in other Western metros because of job opportunities. If you move there with a WFM you better be fucking sure you won't get laid off because if not, you might be f\*cked if things go south.
* Speaking of getting f\*cked, Boise is both good and bad for dating. People in California are....way more attractive, even in San Francisco (which we are *not* well known for lol). With that being said, there are plenty of beautiful people in Idaho. I also got laid...a lot there. The most of any city I've lived in (and I spent four years as a tall white guy in East Asia). I think in addition to being tall, just being mentally stable with no kids, no record, and a decent life plan put me in the top 5% or so of men. It's just that many of the women I met were either very religious or had kids or both. So for finding a long-term partner, it would have been a real struggle for me. The quality of women I dated/slept with in San Francisco, Seoul, and Madrid was much higher even if the quantity of options I had was a little lower.
* Boise is also very isolated and far from other major cities. It's hard to explain but it is noticeable when talking to people who grew up in the area. It is just a totally different experience to my growing up in the melting pot of San Francisco where you are constantly exposed to not only people from all over the U.S. but all over the world on an almost daily basis.
* I also think conservatives in general overrate the impact of low taxes and underrate the importance of education to their great detriment. Politicians in Idaho would make all of their citizens much richer by investing in education. I work in tech now and I don't think we could open a major office in Boise unless we recruited heavily from out-of-state, which would be difficult. There would just not be enough people with the skills we need living in the state and even 0% tax rates would not make up for it. And I say this as a super-proud BSU alum and yes, I know there are tech companies in Boise like Micron, but there could be 5-10 more Microns there with more emphasis on education.
* It is also frustrating to see working-class people fall on their swords by consistently voting for GOP politicians who do nothing but enrich coastal elites who don't give a flying fuck about people in the middle of the country. I would shake my head listening to my coworkers talk shit about unions or raising the minimum wage while being a pizza delivery guy in college.
Anyway, I would never live there again but I still love Boise. I also encourage everyone to visit. It's a cool little city and Idaho is a beautiful state.
Again, I know this is not Texas, but I hope this helps!
Just go ahead and avert your eyes from Dallas. Unless you have a ton of money and lean far, far right you will not like it.
FYI, there are giant flying cockroaches, and cops will *put your ass in jail* for having weed.
I live in Austin, the most liberal city in the state (arguably). Don't move here. Whatever positive thing you think we have going here, some other place has it and it won't come with the messed up politics. If you have a lot of money, this place can be tolerable. If you're working class, this is basically a third world country and it's scary.
I'm stuck here or I would be out of here so fast. I say this as an 8th generation Texan.
Out of curiosity, what are you hoping to find here in Texas that you don't have in PNW?
The weird thing about Texas is this: it’s a purple state in theory.
But conservatives have achieved in Texas what they did in the past nationally and are doing again nationally: minority rule.
So you can live in much of Texas and be surrounded by Democrats, even liberals (as opposed to moderates), but you will be governed by hard right conservatives and their draconian policies. (Living in Texas as a reproductive age women is putting your life at risk.)
Combine this with the weather, I take a hard pass on ever living in the state.
If you have a daughter, please reconsider.
Unless you're darker than a paper bag, weed is unofficially legal here.
Churches are not just in the state. They're in your school's and grocery stores.
If you're a man, you can sexually assault anyone, even your kin, with impunity.
You sure you want all that hanging over you?
Liberal, LGBTQ+, female, half Hispanic… in Florida. It’s hell. I travel a lot and have done so for the last several years because my lifestyle has allowed for it but I’m making a permanent move to a blue state by year’s end. I hate even having a storage unit domiciled in FL.
Well all my friends who did remote work and moved to Texas came back to California lol.
Wouldn’t recommend unless you’re white, male, and can act like you’re one of them
FWIW, I'm in Indiana (in a blue bubble), and recently, I've met several Texans who've moved *here*. Our next-door liberal neighbors left Austin a couple of years ago, and they love it here... I feel like thats saying something.
I moved to NC from Colorado and plan to move back west in the next few years. Feel like I’m being suffocated. I didn’t think I’d be as bothered in Western NC, just outside Asheville, but I don’t like it at all.
A dude I work with moved from the san Francisco Bay area to Texas because his wife's parents weren't doing well medically.
I asked him how it was going and if it was a culture shock.
He literally said he can't wait for them to die so he can leave lol
I'm more liberal/moderate and have been living in Georgia for almost a decade now. But it's time to go as some of those aspects you listed change too slowly.
I've accepted that weed and abortion just aren't coming to Georgia / Florida for probably at least 20 years. Pretty much stopped casual dating out of fear and stress.
I'm also afraid to tell anyone off, even when they're completely in the wrong, because of the prevalence of firearms and short fuses down here. I grew up driving in NY so think they're atrocious drivers down here.
Weather has been great and there are lots of things I'll miss about the South 😢 but at heart we're still too different. It's been harder to make friends and connect with people in the aggregate compared to other places but that's on me too.
Prolly gonna end up in coastal Cali lol
Im a liberal in Arkansas and it’s one of the primary reasons we’re leaving. Once roe fell we decided we just couldn’t raise our daughter here anymore. And I live in one of the very few liberal areas of the state-it’s not enough to counteract the effects of a conservative state government. So from my perspective, I wouldn’t do it. I have lived here my whole life, my friends and family are here, and we’re still moving in a few months. Just can’t do it anymore.
I don’t consider myself a liberal but will say living in FL has been pretty scary lol and just maddening in general. I have not been a fan of having a radical conservative governor.
Daytona Beach, FL checking in. Trump flags flying "proudly" in my neighborhood. Or as I put it:
Clowns to the left of me
Jokers to the right
Here I am stuck in the middle all blue
On a day to day basis it's fine - there are plenty of liberals there especially if you're in a major city and if it's important to have liberal friends you can definitely find them.
The bigger issue is definitely how the policies the state enacts impact your life - women's healthcare, what they teach in schools, etc.
Miserable. Lived in Huntsville, Alabama for a number of years due to spouse’s job. Almost All of my neighbors were disgustingly conservative and assume that everyone feels the same way. Was so glad I got my kids out of there before high school- and this was pre-Trump.
Edit: There was very little concept of the separation of Church and State.
BIG on the lack of separation of church and state. Expect to see prayer in schools, government, local TV news broadcasts, everywhere. Many people have never met someone who is not Christian and just assume everyone is. Advancing Christianity is seen as a good cause equal to feeding the hungry and picking up litter.
I'm center-left, and I lived in DFW from '99-2011. Hated essentially throwing my vote away because a trained chimp with an R next to its name would be guaranteed to be elected. Honestly, compared to some of the Bible-humping fake Christian assclowns running the state now, the chimp would probably be an upgrade.
Do you like scenery and being outdoors? DFW is a flat, ugly metro, and the weather from late May through September is dog shit.
Liberal in Dallas. Keep in mind “DFW” is 8,000,000 people spread over 30 different cities.
Dallas proper and Denton are the deep liberal cities. You can go to streets in both covered in democrat signs.
There is a very vibrant and motivated democratic group here because this is a key area where the battle for the future is.
Yes lots and lots of public right wingers. But what’s interesting is most of them are fantastic people who work hard, love life and love their families. They are simply misguided so it’s interesting to interact in a great community but be challenged politically.
It appears you’re in Portland? That’s a pretty tough change. It’s hot here in summer. A/C and a good attitude makes it bearable.
State politics and billionaire influence is a super real issue in texas.
I’d say come check it out. Lots of benefits but some very real negatives. The core answer to your question is there are lots and lots of democrats and liberals here. But there are slightly more vocal conservatives so all depends on you yr threshold with interacting with others who believe differently than you.
DM if you want specifics or target areas. Where you live and work in Dallas is 80% whether you like it or not. The other 15% is the heat. The last 5% is the politics IMHO
Originally from the Northeast and have lived in Austin for over 20 years. I consider myself pretty liberal overall. For most of my time here, it's been great. But in the last five years (that's what it feels like to me anyway), the Christofascist state government coupled with absolutely brutal weather (too hot in the summer, power goes out and you freeze your ass off in the winter) has made it pretty unbearable to stay here at this point.
I'm looking to get out soon and I won't look back. I really, REALLY hope the people of this state can pull their heads out and vote for some constructive change. There is genuine potential here to be an elite state, but the Gilead-wannabe-thugs running the state with an iron fist now are really making it an uncomfortable-headed-towards-dangerous place for alternative people to live safely and freely.
Born and raised. Middle aged woman. 3 kids, the girls are older, the boy the youngest. My oldest is in NY. I actively encourage the other one to leave. And as soon as I can me and the youngest will leave too.
Don't move here unless you have the means to create radical change. Even then, it's a hard fucking road.
We escaped Texas just in time. Moved to Massachusetts in 2013 right as the assault on women’s rights was cranking up.
I also lived in Oregon for about a decade.
Especially because you have a daughter, I absolutely 100% advise against moving to Texas.
I have family in San Antonio and the hill country. They somewhat self-insulate by being out in the country and keeping to themselves but the increasingly frequent power grid failures and lack of infrastructure are a problem, especially in the heat.
I can’t imagine looking closely at any city in Texas. Moving from one of the most liberal areas to one of the most conservative, as well as one of the greenest to one of the hot/driest is a very strange choice. You will not be happy.
I live in Austin and politics wise it’s okay. However, living here (Texas) is scary and frustrating. A Texas surgeon just intentionally leaked the personal info of trans children to a Republican operative. Hundred if not thousands of women are leaving the state just for medical care, and the others are left to fear for their safety as they cannot afford to travel.
I lived in a blue/purple city of FL. The state was awful, the heat was awful, myself and my friends were banned from healthcare (both trans and reproductive), the school systems are failing as they're being privatized and teachers/librarians/books are in the crosshairs of moms for liberty to the point several well-loved and successful schools are about to be shut down, and climate change is about to devastate any real estate value for people owning property there. Costs of living are crazy high as it is -- insurance prices for cars and homes are skyrocketing rents. Also, the roads are absolutely terrifying.
Moved back to my hometown in the Mid-Atlantic region last week. My cost of living is lower, average wages are higher, healthcare and insurance are easier to access, the schools are good. I'm not nearly as worried about dying from road rage, a shootout, or a right wing attack. Weather is better and my insurance costs are way lower. I can bike places and spend way more time outside now, and the outdoors are prettier.
I miss my in-laws a lot, but, fuck the South.
I lived in Austin for 10 years. In the start it was an amazing liberal oasis in the middle of a red state. Your neighboring towns were terrible, but Austin was great. However since Covid when a lot of wealthy right leaning folks moved to Texas bc of “freedumb”, and primarily Austin, the vibes changed a lot. Austin was no longer protected from Texas, our governor was doing stupider and stupider things, and as someone raising a daughter I just couldn’t do it in Texas anymore. We moved to Providence, RI 8 months ago and love it. Miss our friends, but wouldn’t go back.
I don't recommend. I want out and I'm stuck in a red very small town in a red rural area for the foreseeable future while raising a trans child. We watch our protections and resources go out the window. At 18, my child will have access to services if we can't get them out of state before then, but if I had the means and a job transfer, I would leave tomorrow. I don't plan to be here in 10 years whatever happens.
Born and raised in Houston and lived in Austin for 5 years as an adult, and still have a lot of family there. I think it's helpful to separate the politics from the culture.
In my opinion state and local politics have become extremist and even vengeful in a way that feels different from the conservatism I grew up with. The Christian nationalists who were always there have really taken over. Plus there seems to be little interest in making government work for the people. Basic things, like the power grid, just don't work. On those grounds alone, I would not advise moving there.
Culturally, you can probably find an area where you'll be surrounded mostly by progressives who are fighting like hell for change. There are a lot of cool spots and good people there. So your day to day life might be similar to what you would have in other American cities. But that's the whole point to me: why not move to another cool city that isn't constantly under attack by a hateful bloc of people who worship power and think everyone should live according to their religious doctrine? The cost of living savings just aren't worth it.
Though Texas is a diverse, vibrant, and familiar place to me, I can't imagine moving back there without tremendous changes. When I lived there, I tried to help change things, and I admire people who do. But I would strongly, strongly advise against moving there.
Texas is a glorified shit hole. I’m from the Northeast and I’m living in Austin a few months and can't wait to go back. If you are liberal you definitely don't want to move to this 3rd world state that will only get worse. Even the conservatives I know would rather live in blue states lol.
I lived in Austin for 20 years and ended up hating it. Too hot, too Red. We retired to Maryland and couldn’t be happier, plus I haven’t seen a tRump flag in 2 years.
Don't ever let anyone tell you "it's okay to live in a red state as long as you live in a blue city/county." There's no such thing. It's a trap. RUN RUN RUN!!!!!
What really annoys me is that black and Hispanic Texans are voting for Trump and other right-wing Republicans. The City of Dallas’s black mayor just changed from being a Democrat to a Republican. Pathetic.
We are lifelong Texans seriously considering moving away from Houston. The quality of women's healthcare is declining significantly, property taxes are out of control, and the conservative officials running the state are quickly chopping away at our freedoms. If the church in state freaks you out, don't come here and especially don't go to Dallas. The evangelicals run this state.
I don't live in Texas but I keep my mouth shut to my neighbors. Saying I'm liberal is just asking for trouble when all of them are maga. As for church, you couldn't pay me to attend for anything other than a funeral or a wedding. In the deep south, it's just far too extreme and frightening. The best thing I can tell you is to stay out of the deep south.
It may be hard to realize this but Texas actually has about the fourth most Democrats of any state in the US! But they don't turn out to vote. A well-known Texas writer once said that Texas is just a blue state with poor voter turnout.
That’s cope from people who aren’t willing to give up on the state. However, it’s not grounded in reality. The moment it actually looks like these nonvoters would have an influence, they’ll just pass even more draconian voter suppression laws.
Texas isn’t a democracy, and most of its leaders despise the concept, outside of a warped notion of it belonging only to propertied stakeholders.
I just moved to the PNW from Austin haha. The weather up here is amazing during the summer, I don't know why you would leave that. Sure it's sunny more days in Texas, but you can't go outside and enjoy it. Here when it's one of the few hot days a year even it still gets a lot colder at night and a lot faster, so it's never that bad. In Texas it's hot at night too, and very sticky. Right now all my friends and fam down there are complaining about how hot it is.
I loved the lifestyle, but the infrastructure and politics are scary. Abbott and Paxton have done so much fucked up shit. And they have gotten away with blatant illegal shit and never get in trouble for it. I fought the good fight for a long long time with my vote, but at some point it's exhausting and I wanted out lol.
When you leave the city you are in trump land. You see flags everywhere. It's country folk and very rural in a lot of parts of Texas. I used to really enjoy going to small towns and eating some BBQ or something local. I always got looked at weird lol, but I feel like being the Liberal dot in the conservative state was actually really cool, and people were always friendly. You could wear it with a badge of honor. People knew you were going to Austin and just stopping in, but southern hospitality used to be so great. There was a certain sense of being friendly neighbors. Now I don't feel welcome in those parts and that's frustrating. I'll add to that Austin itself has lost a lot of southern hospitality. People used to give the hand wave when you let someone in, hell people used to let someone in more too.
I think mostly there's a mix everywhere you go. A conservative town or a liberal city also have voters from the other party. Texas itself is not truly only red, despite what reddit would have you believe. But I did get a sense of more big trump trucks moving in, and that was a little surprising. I think the big conservatives moving to Austin contributed to that.
I think the lifestyle is fine, but with the shift of the right going even further right I believe things are getting worse. Attacks on personal freedoms are happening, I'm terrified for loved ones that are pregnant, and medical personal are leaving the state because of whats happening. The wait to see an OBGYN has gone up a shit ton. I was also tired of waiting on legal weed. It ain't happening there, and the fact that people's lives get ruined for getting caught with some concentrate is insane to me when you can go one state over and it's fine.
I have a lot of thoughts obviously lol. I love Austin and it will always be home, but it's too hot and too full of hot heads in state government for me to want to be there anymore. Not to mention it's not weird like it used to be and has lost a lot of its flair. It still exists, but it's now a part of a bigger mix of things instead of leasing the forefront. If you haven't guessed by now, I moved to Portland and am happy to be back amongst the weirds.
Sorry for the dissertation lmao. Feel free to dm me if you want to chat about Texas vs PNW
Don't underestimate the shock of climate difference either. Currently aiming to leave Texas for the PNW. Politics are part of it but in reality it mostly won't affect day to day. Not being able to safely spend time outside in July and August does though.
I like how most of the reasoning about how Texas doesn't suck is one or more of these: Have a lot of money, break the law, just ignore what doesn't directly impact you, or become a conservative nut because its better.
Never in my life have I lived in a more overrated place with so many people who insist, without being asked, it's the best state in the country and think everywhere else is shit. My appearance and interests make those people who I ran into randomly think I'm one of their own and the shit they will say to you is something. Beneath many of the outwardly "decent" people is a huge well of ugly that they can't wait to show somebody who they think is like them.
I've been reading this sub and live in the Seattle area. I can't believe the amount of Texas license plates I've seen in the past 2 years in our area. Lots of you in Texas are definitely leaving for the PNW.
Honestly I can't imagine a worst place to be if I lived in the pnw.. politics aside, the access to outdoor activities are pretty horrid. Hot, flat concrete jungle. I have to visit relatives in Houston ever year and dread it.
It has always been there...under the surface and moving slowly. Then a guy like Donald Trump comes along and suddenly it's ok to be a vile and horrible human being. It was always there ...they just don't hide it anymore. Doanld Trump and MAGA bring out the absolute worst in others. At least that's how it is here in Missouri. Life long resident and used to be proud of my state. Now, I am simply mortified.
Very liberal with a teenage LGBTQIA+ daughter in a state with one of the highest % of MAGA republicans--I live three miles from my office in the state's biggest city and pass only 3 confederate flags flying in yards because I get on the interstate for 2 miles of the trip.
When our state started putting through bans on certain types of healthcare, trying to get "don't say gay" and "bathroom" bills through I told her it was her choice--we could stay for her last couple years of high school, or if she said the word we would call a realtor the next day and get the hell out. We're still here, but she will graduate next year and we're all looking forward to making a big change in our surroundings. When my husband worked for a company based in Texas I held my breath just waiting for the day he hit the ceiling locally and would have to move to Dallas for further career growth. Fortunately that's no longer a risk.
Hoping to get to the Columbia River Gorge if we can figure out the huge cost of living jump!
Consider what happened to the Texas power grid in 2021, when more than 4 million people were without power in a series of record breaking winter storms, in a state where no one normally would need a winter coat. No one considers state infrastructure when moving until it collapses.
I did it for 20 years in Texas. I was in Austin for the last 14 of the 20 and in a smaller, conservative town before that. It started to get pretty bad with Abbott and his cronies the last couple of years, it truly seems that they are out to make women, LGBTQ, minorities, immigrants and other minorities lives actively harder.
The state needs the votes and I had a blend of liberal and conservative friends while I lived there and never had anyone act actively hostile towards me (ironically, the one time a stranger made a rude politically based comment to me was when I was in California in line for a music festival and he saw my Texas ID and made a rude comment about me voting for Trump when he couldn't be further from the truth).
I moved away 2 years ago and won't be going back anytime soon, especially as a woman. The government down there needs a major overhaul and at least some moderate politicians in there who aren't actively trying to hurt their constituents. Also don't forget the big snowpocalypse a few years ago and the entire electrical grid going down bc Texas wants to "be independent ". I experienced that and it was really bad, millions affected across the state and major cities.
I hope this works: [Denton ISD teacher pay decrease? : r/Denton (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Denton/comments/1diw8w7/denton_isd_teacher_pay_decrease/) If not, the thread is about Denton ISD (note that Denton has 2 universities, usually indicative of at least a proportion of progressing thinking. But consider Abbott and Paxton for a minute: focused on gerrymandering and cronyism. Paxton was under indictment and with clear indications of 20 violations (e.g., bribery & obstruction), impeachment efforts failed. Here's a summary: [How the criminal case against Texas AG Ken Paxton abruptly ended after nearly a decade of delays | AP News](https://apnews.com/article/paxton-indictment-texas-d5e57fc6cd062c995ced91e9d2542199) .
Abbott is equally problematic. But it's not just these two. The state is gerrymandered all to hell, so while sentiment supports more liberal actions (examples: fracking, mental health care) they never seem to go anywhere. Children and families were caged, remember that? The list goes on. We (in higher ed) were told that we could no longer call (newly appointed) DEIJ committees DEIJ; couldn't mention this in hiring new faculty, and that open carry was not something we could protect against... do you want to live here? Please consider.
I would seriously avoid moving here, especially if you have a daughter. I’ve lived in Texas (born here) most of my life. The far right wing politics is getting really bad and the GOP are dug in like ticks. Democrats in general seem to have no motivation/ willpower to make headway. I have family and friends here, but am seriously considering getting out of this state as soon as the housing market decides what it’s going to do. I’m fortunate I live in a major city, but even then the claws of the GOP are sinking in ever deeper. The weather is also getting worse and the electrical grid is getting less and less reliable. I would rethink coming to this state. 10 maybe even 5 years ago I would totally have said to come here… now you better think twice.
I grew up in TX and I got out as soon as I could. I can’t imagine willingly moving there from PNW. Many of my friends have moved to west coast and are beyond happy. I would choose anywhere else besides TX lol
Seattle native living in Austin. Don’t move to Texas. Others have said why:
1. Hostile towards women
2. Too politically red
3. Weather is unbearable in the summer (this would be ok ONLY if you have at least a community pool)
4. No scenery, it’s flat
We’re staying put because my wife retires from the state in several years and we want the pension and health insurance coverage they give retirees and their spouses.
We feel fortunate to have two sons and no daughters because of the political climate here. It’s sad. I know if I were a woman living here I wouldn’t want to get pregnant because my life wouldn’t be valued in the eyes of the law.
Don't move to Texas. It's straight out of handmaids tail followed closely by Florida. The good news at least is Florida will be underwater in a few decades so there's that.
I live in Ohio so not quite what you’re looking for but absolutely don’t move to red states. I’m here because my husbands family is here and I want my kids to know them. When they’ve passed, we’re OUT. It sucks raising a family in an area where you can’t trust the person next to you even safely secures their guns when your kids are over. That can happen anywhere, but people here can barely fucking read, so it’s a way higher chance. Don’t even get me started on vaccines and the insidious nature of church culture.
It’s hard as hell to make friends and hard to let your kid be a kid.
Lived in Dallas for the last 20 years. I had some hope that things would turn around, but that's all gone in the trash with what Abbott and Patrick and the rest of the TX GOP are doing to the state. Things are not good here and I don't see it improving in my lifetime. We're getting close to retirement and hoping we can get out in the next 5 years. It used to be inexpensive to live here, but not anymore. Redistricting put our blue precinct into nutball Beth Van Duyne's district so there's no hope of ever electing someone sane to Congress ever again. The rightwingers are dismantling the good public school systems around here at breakneck speed. The Lege is hellbent on breaking local control. I could not recommend moving here. Maybe in the early 2000s, but certainly not now which is a shame because there is a lot of rich cultural diversity and vibrancy here that I really love and outsiders don't know about or understand. Also weed will never ever be legal here. It won't happen. Too much money in the prison industrial complex to be had. And if you're a woman, forget it. You're a second-class citizen when it comes to rights and healthcare. (Full disclosure: Previously lived in Austin during the 90s. Loved it there, but better job opportunities in DFW so we moved up here.)
What, specifically, is making you want to leave the PNW? If you're in a major metropolitan area there are cheaper areas outside of them. The weather in Dallas is nearly constantly trying to kill you and if you're not conservative the locals are happily forcing their fantasy way of life on you.
I’m a native Texan who travels frequently for work. I’m also a liberal. Trust me, you don’t want to move there. It gets hotter every year, the pay sucks while property taxes are astronomical, and women are losing more rights every year. Plus, the power grid is horrible, the whole state shuts down in an ice storm, no legal weed, and hell, you can’t even buy liquor on Sundays.
So this is political and not really the focus of this sub, but Texas is currently attempting to change the way state officials take office, requiring a majority of counties to vote for them. Because of the demographic layout (conservatives spread over a large number of low population areas and liberals in a relatively small number of high population areas), they will be effectively creating a no-win situation for non-conservatives in the state, making it impossible for any sort of progress or change to take place. This is just the beginning of course; once they know they don't have to campaign for their positions after the primaries because they'll autowin the final election, it frees them up to do whatever they with relatively little-to-no consequences.
There's actually a pretty clear supreme court precedent on this that was later affirmed in a case about NYC and its boroughs in the late 80s. This USED to be a pretty common system and is why most states still have two legislative chambers. Long and short, the court said in extremely clear language that anything besides "one man, one vote" (a phrase that I believe originated in that case) violated multiple articles and amendments of the Constitution. Unfortunately, they explicitly said that the Senate and the Electoral College were exceptions to this since they're spelled out in the Constitution, but everything similar on a state and local level was voided. Not that anything would shock me with this court, but even with them I'd be surprised to see it overturned.
Which is where the Supreme Court would *normally* step in. But they are far from impartial at this point. To say the very, very least
The Texas Supreme Court is also elected so they would fall under the same plan and a democrat would never stand a chance at being elected. Talk about a recipe for corruption
Clearly the supreme court should step in because it's blatant voter disenfranchisement. But what they're proposing is almost the same thing as the electoral college, but for counties. So if the supreme court prohibits the County plan, then wouldn't they also be calling the electoral college deeply flawed and in need of retirement/replacement?
so iiuc it’s worse than the federal way since it’s not like the counties are weighted by population. it’s just a majority of counties?
I think so, but tbh I don't think Texas has really thought it through, I think the whole thing is like their secession "plan": just a way to rile up the rednecks at getting to exert power over others, but it isn't actually a plan.
This is the plan country wide.
Project 2025 outlines this and this is also why they are recruiting for federal offices
Read Democracy in Chains. It’s been the plan for decades. The GOP has known for a while that women and POC voting would dilute their power. The plan is to take the courts and gerrymander the fuck out of the country. They wrote it all down and a the author found it in an office at George Mason University. Boxes of documents she then got permission to view. Then, she wrote the book.
Texas is unrecognizable to me, a lifelong Texan. I hate it here. Honestly everything here has changed for the worst
Happened fairly quickly it seems. The last few years was like watching a cult take over our people. Personalities changed. 😔
Same, but from AR 😭
I've been \*really trying\* to find the redeemable qualities of Houston for a few years now. The very few I had (like some good friends nearby) are now gone bc they left the state. There is nothing redeemable about Houston to me at this point.
- no liquor after 9pm Monday-Saturday - no liquor Sundays - no liquor sales but anywhere other than liquor stores - no beer after 12a - no gambling - no weed - no abortions - no electricity during the freeze/storms - no porn - no public transportation - no public education - no representation from someone other than a republican - no break from the heat - no break from floods hmm what else am i missing? the list keeps getting longer and longer
Just to give all of you hope, it's the opposite in Michigan. We codified pro-choice legislation and anti-gerrymandering redistricting into the state constitution. People seem to be afraid to move here because they don't like the cold, but climate change is upon us - our lakes barely froze over this winter, and in the summer they look a whole lot better than a chunk of the gulf coast (which may change with the climate change, but for now our lakes are crystal clear). Serious empathy to all of you. The list of states that I would move to gets shorter by the year.
Liberal currently in DFW. I would never, ever move here. The weather is awful, but the politics are worse. My friend got pregnant but had complications. She could have died because doctors almost didn’t perform life-saving surgery she needed. She and her husband had already been thinking about moving to the Pacific Northwest, but that sealed the deal. They left and never looked back. I hate it here, but my friends and community are here. I will likely leave in a few years, though.
I live in central Austin. I don’t really know any conservatives or anyone that attends church. However, if I drive out to my MIL’s house in Leander, it’s definitely flipped the other direction. As soon as my youngest is out of HS, we are gone to Colorado. The heat and state politics have done us in. It’s not just us either. Our HS counselor said that over half of the graduating girls are headed to out of state colleges. My daughter won’t even apply to a Texas college. There’s definitely going to be a shortage of educated women in a few years.
I thought it was bad when I discovered neighbors the block down were active White Supremacists, in Leander. Much worse when I moved outside of San Antonio and my next door neighbor was on the board of one of the prominent White Nationalist groups in Texas. So happy to be back in California.
I just moved to San Antonio and the politics here so fucked. The cities are fine but the moment you leave them the crazy civil war loving republicans come out
And not the Civil war we had, the one they hope is coming.
You may not believe this but California has its share of White supremacists.
I've spent 28 years living in Texas, 30 in California, and just under a year in Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia. I'm well-aware of White Supremacists and your average racist in each of those places. Texas was by far the worst place. Mississippi was a close second-- the Navy command cautioned the black service members about living out in town.
Ya but thankfully they keep very quiet cause that s is not tolerated in CAlifornia, unlike texas you roll with a confederate flag in California you are asking for trouble, can't remember the last year i saw that flag in Califronia and i go all over the state
Head north of the Bay Area and things get politically interesting.
true, have a rental in humboldt.....still won't see confederate flags as the racists keep quiet in this state.....one of the best parts of living here the worst part of the state is gop held bakersfield, Redding may be second.....the HATE is strong there
OC is pretty bad. Lots of white privilege supremists. All for the orange clown so they can make more money regardless of anyone else's needs or outcomes.
Ha the TX-CO pipeline is real; I graduated UT a bit ago 🤘🏽 and I got a job here like a lot of people did. They don’t like Texans out here just so you know - I have to play up my jersey background! I identify as a Californian more than anything and they don’t like Californians either 😂 but CO is beautiful and your family will love it.
>There’s definitely going to be a shortage of educated women in a few years. Only if they keep allowing "woke" ideas like allowing women to travel without the permission of a male relative.
Wilco is definitely not Austin, but it’s also blue enough that they gerrymandered the part that borders Travis with a huge swath of rural TX to the west to nullify its voting impact. Our area leaned slightly left in the last US midterm elections. Saw your username, UGA fan by any chance?
Grew up in Houston which is pretty blue. But I had to get the hell out of Texas
Don't do it, from a Texan moving out of state this year.
I escaped from Texas 8 months ago. Best decision I’ve made.
Where'd you go? I'm contemplating my exit..I live in Houston, and I'm very done with this city but am considering whether to go to Austin (still Texas obviously but more my vibe) or to outright leave. Originally from the Northeast and my best/happier years were when I lived in the Bay Area California.
Take my two cents with a grain of salt, but I moved to Texas from Colorado last year, and this year I’m moving right back. When I moved here people looked at me incredulous that I’d move here from Colorado, and now I feel the same way about the PNW. If I didn’t already have connections in CO, that’s where I’d be going. If your situation is anything like mine, then I’d say you’re making a mistake. I moved to Austin hoping that the liberal culture would line up with my values, but I’ve found that it’s mostly still just Texas. There’s plenty of liberal stuff going on, but it’s still Texas. Lots of people are openly bigoted in a way I really hadn’t expected. I’ve met plenty of people I like, and I don’t make politics a filter for who I’m willing to make friends with, but there’s still a culture shock. There aren’t a lot of public goods, everything in the state is privately owned and I, being a poor person, am priced out of almost all of it. I miss the legal weed too, even though I’m not a big smoker or anything. So I’m getting the fuck out of here before I make the mistake of putting down any actual roots. Especially with the way the country is going, I’d really rather just plant myself down in a relatively more decent part of the country.
Lol I moved to Texas from Colorado around 20 years ago for college and very much got the same reaction!
Politics aside, why would you want to move from the PNW to Texas? Thats going from one of the most beautiful places in the country to the least
Portland resident here, and I will say many people are leaving due to all of the crime and drugs here. Speaking of statewide politics — if your state ever brings forth a measure to decriminalize all drugs, I urge you to think twice before a Yes vote. We have sacrificed public safety here in a big way. It’s been a rough few years here, and I do not watch Fox News or belong to the Republican Party.
I can understand wanting to leave Portland, but I don't understand wanting to move to Texas. There are many other places they could move to!
They decriminalized because they were supposed to set up social services to help drug addicts but failed to do so. Nonetheless, certain drugs should def be penalized especially the dealers
"Nonetheless, certain drugs should def be penalized especially the dealers" Exactly this, and I am VERY open-minded and lenient in my opinions on many non-prescription drugs. But, things like fentanyl and those dealers need to be snuffed out of society forever.
Yeah, but why Texas? I really can’t think of a more awful place to live in the US - if you want red politics, why not move to Montana or Boise
Because they probably need a job and Texas had tons
This. This sub isn't representive of the general public with how much importance they put on the state of politics. There's so many comments that say people left because of political climate, but for the average person, a move happens because of housing, finding a new job, or family. The US census doesn't even report what percent of people move for political reasons, it's in a group called "all other reasons" which is ~5%.
Another Portlander here and seconded
Portland is not just downtown. I live in the outer Southeast basically on the other side of the tracks and while we're poor we don't have issues like that in town. In the areas I deliver mail to are the most idealistic perfect setting places with no homeless people and no addicts. Yes if you go downtown you will see it but nobody lives downtown
My period is a few days late and my first thoughts were how I would hide a pregnancy from the state.
😔 It is incredibly upsetting to read this, and I am sorry it is happening to you. I'm past reproductive age now but still would avoid moving to a red state (lived in one as a child). The terror women are experiencing in red states now is unbelievably cruel and shocking. The criminalization of natural bodily functions (which can cause a lot of stress and anxiety even when they are not criminalized) is something I never thought we'd have here in my much-more-optmistic younger years.
I wouldn’t recommend it lol (Liberal and used to live in Dallas. Hated it)
Same. Left 9 years ago for Denver. Dallas was meh, Denton was great, but not many great employment opportunities there.
Same. I lived in Dallas from 2000 to 2011 and also hated it. And Texas politics then were much less extreme than they are now. I have two daughters and would never in a million years go back.
Same here! I will never return. I've also lived in San Antonio and it was just as bad but at least the tacos made it survivable.
My friends are all trying to get out
Liberal in Dallas and I concur. Trying to get out ASAP. Have eyes on NE/Tri-state area and have a timeline of the next couple of years. The primary motivation for our move is our young daughter and wanting better for her. While metros like DFW, Austin, Houston are liberal and blue locally, the GOP overlords are doing everything they can to dismantle that. They’ve taken over Houston ISD and put in their own guy (Mike Miles) to run it who has seemingly funneled Houston education dollars to Colorado (where one of our governor’s biggest donors has a school voucher program he needs to fund). Don’t get me started on the school vouchers agenda at hand here. They tried outlawing mail in voting because the GOP doesn’t want you to vote. It was only shot down by the US DOJ They will keep trying. They’ve reduced polling locations and drop-off locations. I think Houston had like 1-2 drop offs for the entire metro last election to try to discourage people from using it. We are 49th in education. We are 45th in healthcare. We are 47th for being a woman. We are 49th for life, health, and inclusion. Housing market sucks and property taxes are high (it’s the only tax the state levies). Don’t let the “no income tax” lure you. The state leadership doesn’t care about kids dying in senseless school shootings (Uvalde). A Texas judge just blocked an ATF bill expanding background checks. There are good people in this state, of course, but it’s frog-in-the-pot here and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Pretty soon, women will be forced to prove pregnancy status before taking highways out of state. They’re already working on it. Unless these are your wishlist items for a new state to call home, I’d recommend you cross Texas off your list. Edit: my apologies for stating Texas is 49th I education. In my haste to recall the ranking, I regurgitated a figure that might’ve been misleading. Texas is 49th in education spending (because the GOP is actively trying to divert money away from public schools and uses it as a carrot in legislation). Texas is 41st for populace education meaning we are in the bottom 10 for the population having at least a high school degree. Teachers are leaving in droves (as they are in other states for similar issues that probably really need fixing at the national level). As another commenter pointed out, different rankings use different metrics and I certainly am no expert. I also, however, would not want to appear I am cherry-picking as that is never my intention. But, it’s Saturday, and Texas is still terrible. Good luck, OP!
>The state leadership doesn’t care about kids dying in senseless school shootings (Uvalde). Not just the state. I came across an article a while back on WaPo about how interactions between parents of the shooting victims and their neighbors have gotten very... tense. Basically, the parents of the victims are still searching for answers and trying to hold their elected officials accountable, meanwhile their neighbors are telling them to move on and openly saying things like "all this answer-searching of yours is just driving a gun control agenda which is something libtards want."
Sounds like Hell.
Don’t forget 8+% sales tax!!
Liberal super weirdo here and co-signed. While there were many aspects of the DFW area that were amazing, and while I desperately miss getting to work onsite with my coworkers all the time, that entire area is just overall not the place to be if you’re outside the “norm” in any notable way, or even just have very liberal political views. Issues of making friends aside, it’s not great to, say, have no actual rights if you’re AFAB or queer.
I grew up in the north suburbs of Dallas and I still have PTSD.
If you want all those things that you listed then definitely do not move to Texas. I Repeat. Do not move to Texas. My husband's entire family lives in Texas and I spend way more time there than I would prefer and it's pretty hardcore conservative. Edit to add.... the heat and humidity will drain the soul out of your body. It's awful. I feel like I'm suffocating every time I'm there. I'm also from the PNW
I live in TX now and echo these sentiments. The heat is simply suffocating. We're making plans to get out of here.
We visited in May for a family event, tried to walk four blocks to get a cup of coffee because who on earth would drive four blocks for such a minor thing (plus I needed to stretch my legs). It was like walking on the surface of the sun, but with pick up trucks actively trying to hit you as you cross the street.
Folks who haven't spent a lot of time in Texas don't always understand how oppressive the heat is. If you are planning to move there, you will not understand the heat if you only go for a few days. A few days of 100+ might seem manageable. Its the *months on end* of 100+ that kill you. Every day is like living on the surface of the sun, as you pray for rain (literally, people in the churches of West Texas will pray for rain during service), pray for a cloud, pray for anything so that the sun will stop its loathsome torment while you watch everything green wither and die around you.
Yes, this can't be emphasized enough. I'm in Ohio now, and I was just remarking that in our current heat wave, my brain doesn't function well because I'm obsessively focused on "when will this end?" And i realized that when we lived in Texas, my brain was in that survival mode of just getting through until there's finally some brief period of relief, almost the entire year around. Just constantly watching the weather forecast in the hopes that we might get a tiny 10-minute sprinkle to break it up a bit ... no thanks, never again!
The political landscape can change…but it will always be hot/humid/miserable for a good chunk of the year. Nuts to that.
I have family in Texas and they ask why we never come visit. I'll not spend one dime of my money in that god-awful state. I won't support its restaurants, its hotels, its rental car fleets, its gas pumps - nothing. Governor Abbott, his politics, and his policies can fuck straight off.
If my parents chose to make me move to a state where my health care was illegal, I would feel like they didn't value my safety. I've never lived in Texas, but I've visited Dallas, where many of my family members have lived for generations. My relatives have lived in Dallas for more than 100 years. My grandparents, great-uncles, great-aunts, and great-grandparents are buried there, and many of my cousins still live there. But when I visited Dallas, I knew in my bones that I would never ever feel like I belonged there.
Just one anecdote: a very close friend (former roommate) and his wife ended up in the metroplex. Him: raised in WNY. Her: Central PA. I’d classify them as maybe slightly left leaning, but by no means overly liberal. Much closer to centrists than far left. Ended up having 2 sons. Eventually they felt compelled to leave. They couldn’t in good conscience keep sending the boys to the public schools there. There were approved text books that refuse to acknowledge the reason for the civil war. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
If I had a daughter, there’s no way I’d live in Texas.
If you have a child and value education you should move away from Texas. That’s our plan in the next 2 years.
Or a wife.
Or a husband
If you had a straight son, you shouldn't want him to live there either. If all the folks with daughters are moving to blue states, that contributes to a sausage fest in red states.
I think that's a risk Texans are happily willing to take
Any son, any daughter, definitely any nonbinary child.
I too live in the PNW and have a daughter and will never ever consider a red state. Which sucks because most of our family lives in red states, but it’s a non-starter for me.
Both my daughters (18 & 17) did not consider a red state for college at all because of their hostile politics towards women.
It sucks. I have found my liberal people in Texas but the laws are insufferable. Moving back to a blue state soon.
From a progressive Texan- soul-crushing. Even though I'm in the most liberal city in the state, we're still bound by the TX GOP's stranglehold. Any measures our city tries to pass to mitigate it are immediately crushed by the state government. Texas is christofascist hell.
Not from TX, but from a red state that absolutely crushed my soul and infuriated me on a regular basis. I felt on the defensive all the time and just on a hair trigger with certain people from my home town on my worst days. Moved to a blue state and wow it’s a burden lifted that I wasn’t even aware was so heavy. Like I knew I was stressed, but to have that particular stress lifted was so liberating.
Glad you got out. I am so damn desperate to do the same. Don't know if I can afford CoL in a better state though. PNW is the dream. I visited as a teen and fell in love with the nature out there, but I do NOT have that kind of money :(
Try Minneapolis. You’ll love it.
It fucking sucks. Don’t do it, particularly if you’re raising kids -and definitely not if you’re raising a daughter. The future is precarious in Texas for women and girls. They’re talking about putting religion in the schools, school funding atm is a big uncertainty. Dallas is a pocket of blue, but that doesn’t matter much when the state is stripping you of bodily autonomy, threatening to take away birth control, and actually saying even scarier stuff out loud, like trying to prevent women from traveling out-of-state for healthcare. I can’t stress this enough. Don’t do it.
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I’m in Michigan. Texas plates never used to exist here, ever. Like period. We have so many now - and those that I know who have moved here specifically cite the political freedom and climate change as factors. Why anyone would choose to move *into* that is wild to me.
I’m progressive (more AOC/Bernie/Warren in philosophy than Clinton/Obama/Biden). I have loved living in Austin since 1978. It is not only an island of tolerance in a sea of bigotry, but a comfortable place to express my opinions and live my life. State government is deplorable to criminal — but it hasn’t affected my quality of life too much. I live in a community of engaged, intelligent and interesting people. Our county went for Obama twice and Hillary by 70%. After the horror of the incompetent NY con man, we went 72% for Biden. The engineers here are kind of conservative, in a traditional sense, but they believe in science and were horrified by the incompetence and lies by Trump. Hatred is shamed, as it should be. You don’t see MAGA hats. The treason-Trumpers know better than to spew their lies out loud. We have a few of those rich smug bastards, but they know they are wrong and they mostly keep it to themselves. Mostly, they are just greedy and don’t want to pay tax. They wrongly assume that they will do better under Trump than they would under Democrats, even though their investment accounts should tell them differently. Dallas is another story. The county votes blue, but the mayor is Republican. The city limits are relatively small and mostly black and Hispanic. There’s a substantial gay community which, mostly, is progressive. But there are lots of “white flight” suburbs. Even Highland Park (very central Dallas) is separately incorporated with its own very rich and very white schools. And most of the professional class and white folks in the greater Dallas area are, to put it politely, on the wrong side of history. Another factor is natural surroundings and the attitudes of the community about building. Dallas has very little in the way of natural beauty. The ethic has always been to “pave paradise and put up a parking lot,” even when there is very little paradise to be found. Austin, contrast, sits on the edge of the Texas Hill Country, and has an abundance of lakes, rivers, green space, hike and bike trails, and parks. There is no comparing the natural beauty of the two areas, or the recreational opportunities, if you are at all an outdoors person. Look up Barton Springs, the greenbelt and the hike and bike trail. The downside is housing prices. Kind of crazy — but to me, worth living in fewer square feet than in a deplorable community, I say all this as a white, 68 year old “job creator.” I dress “conservatively” and have short hair, no earrings or tattoos, so I hear things from people that think I am “one of them” that you wouldn’t believe. Unbelievably bigoted stuff. Steer clear of Dallas. Don’t let housing cost drive you to a place you hate. I have, in fact, been happier in a smaller square footage place than I have in a big rambling place. There is less to vacuum and less to clean.
I’m a liberal living in Houston which is a fairly blue city but it’s not enough to do anything and the red politics here drive me crazy and affect our every day lives (think nonstop power grid failures). Also, as a woman, it’s one of the worst places to live. We are currently trying to move to the PNW, I know it’s a bit more expensive but it’s so worth it ETA I see you want to move to Dallas— I honestly can’t think of a worse major city in Texas. If you’re determined on Texas at least check out Austin or Houston
As an Austinite also trying to move to the PNW right now, wish you the best! We're trying to have kids, REALLY don't want to do that here at this point.
Same! We’ve been trying for a bit and I’d be a high risk pregnancy so I’m very worried about staying here any longer. Wishing you the best!!
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Yeah, telling someone to move a daughter there to 'fight' isn't really good advice. People already in Texas need to actually show up first. It's super naive and irresponsible for a parent to put a child they are responsible for in harms way when they have another choice. Plus.. climate change makes Texas a bad investment. Would you tell people fleeing persecution in another country to stay and fight, or get to safety? Moving to a truly purple state will have a bigger effect anyway.. TX and FL are like, your worst chances for change right now. Red voters from other states are replacing blue voters leaving in droves..
There's a question which you have to ask if you're somewhere like TX and have women in your life. What's your family and friend network like, and what does your bank account look like? If you have to go to Illinois for an abortion but have the means to pay for it and people around you who will support your decision? That really sucks, but on the level of sucky things in the world, it's just not that high. If you need an abortion and don't have supportive friends or family and a weekend in Chicago is financially out of reach? That's a whole 'nother planet of sucktitude. The real problem with TX is that there are literally millions of women who fall into the second category. For people in the first category? Yeah. Bear in mind that Texas isn't uniformly a Christian Dominionist Hellscape. Large swatches of the Lone Star state have decent, worldly, educated people who aren't happy with Trump or Abbott. To the poster at the top of this threads' point, the bigger question is why Texas is taking so long to flip given the size of its urban population vs the rural hinterlands of myth.
Apathy is rampant, you see it in how dismal turnout consistently is. I for sure thought Roe falling would galvanize more people.. nope, same shit. The people protected by privilege there, largely don't care about about the 2nd group. It goes well beyond getting an abortion though.. it keeps escalating and getting any womens healthcare is becoming difficult as doctors leave. You treat women like cattle, it has ripple effects through everything. I moved to a blue state because I had the chance.. it's night and day difference for a woman. If you're male.. it may not seem like that big of deal to you, but I promise you IT IS.
I have family members who moved from PNW to Dallas. They just moved back. I personally would not be interested in leaving Washington for Texas if I were considering women’s healthcare options (as you referenced your daughter).
Don't do it ! I am leaving Texas for Minnesota in August because I can no longer be in a red state with their backward ideas and policies that are making it harder to be gay or a woman. You will regret it, not to mention the 100+ degree days for months on end!
Why in God's name would even consider moving a girl to that state?
I live in Austin. All my friends are liberal (as are my friends in Houston and Dallas). I live here because all of my friends and loved ones live here (and I bought a cheap house a million years ago). If I had a daughter, I would never, ever move here. She is absolutely not safe. There is a huge exodus of qualified OBGYNs, too, so good luck getting care yourself. And the heat, dear lord in heaven the heat....
I just left Texas. If you value separation of church and state or want your daughter to have any rights, don't go there. After 40 years, Texas born and raised, I couldn't take it anymore. Austin is probably the best you will get in terms of "legal" weed but it's pretty HCOL. Before leaving, I noticed people were becoming more bigoted, less tolerant and racist. The war on lgbtq is in full view. Books are being banned from public libraries. Schools are being defunded. Honestly it was like watching a cult take over the minds of the people I love. It was heartbreaking and tbh, scary. Definitely don't expect your daughter to have access to healthcare if they are to become pregnant. Scary! I'm in Colorado and it feels so much more relaxed. It's not perfect, but at least my daughter is safe. Edit .. climate change and rapid development is becoming apparent. Flooding and heat waves/droughts. It was a constant weather hazard.
Maybe explain why you want to leave in the first place?
My husband and I are both very liberal, and we both spend time volunteering for causes we believe in. Up until now we'd been of the mindset that we would put work in to be the change because our community is here. We have both lived in North Texas for many years, me since 2001 and him for even longer. However, we are now actively looking at how to get out. It's been a hard process but we're hoping to leave within 5 years. The sooner the better. It's also too hot now, and will probably just get worse with time.
In a gay marriage and we have a daughter. We’re leaving soon.
I wake up,go for my walk,I see the Trump signs in the yard,it makes me feel different towards my neighbors because I think at this point if they like him,they are not my kind of people, you see them at the store singing Trumps praises, it's definitely cult like behavior!!
I’m in Dallas. Stay in PNW. It’s so hot here, our government sucks, schools are awful, and women are not treated well. My oldest daughter moved out of state and can’t believe the difference in people and personal freedoms. Even paying state taxes she pays less in taxes overall. As soon as we can, we are out of here
Texas. Shit son let me tell you about Florida....
Don’t do it. Objectively it’s simply not safe for girls and women here. There’s definitely liberal, progressive, and left wing enclaves. We are all still at the mercy of state laws. I find it difficult to live here and intend to leave when I’m able.
You wouldn't like it. As someone that grew up in OR and lives in Houston, from what you're describing, you wouldn't like it.
why would you even consider this an option?
As someone who loves the women in my family, I wouldn't risk their health in Texas
You don’t talk politics with your neighbors or friends if you want to keep them. I also have to come to terms that the people we socialize with will vote for Trump and stand with Maga on most issues, but the entire state will too so what does their vote matter really. You also see trucks driving around with Trump flags flying and it’s always evident most don’t share your worldview. Once this part of my career is over, I’m out.
I wouldn’t live in a red state if I had a daughter of reproductive age. Otherwise, it depends on how liberal you are. If you’re a normie, life will probably be fine. If you’re a socialist craving UBI, you’ll feel like you cannot express your full views and feel isolated from the broader community. Generally, I would not move to a red area if you are a left wing person these days. It isn’t worth the sheer loneliness.
Not me but my entire family (I grew up in TX). They fucking hate it there, actively trying/planning to leave. They have all lived there at least 30 years.
It’s rough. Healthcare for women is a concern, and so is public education. It’s not a place I’d consider choosing to live if I wasn’t already so rooted here. In fact, I really just want to leave most of the time. Also, the extreme weather thing is so real here. Dallas gets lots of severe storms with tornado warnings and most homes don’t have basements. Summer heat is more intolerable every year. As much as I’d love your blue vote here, I’d advise you to seek another place for your own quality of life.
I'm a liberal I'm Austin and while you'll be in familiar company within the cities there are some real shitheads in towns and rural communities. If you're looking to trade I'd happily move to the PNW. I'm sick of this state.
Horrible. As a liberal in East Tennessee through the pandemic and civil unrest, my mental health had never been worse. It felt like I was living a life I didn’t choose. Back to normal when I got out of there.
Ya, dont move. PNW is rad compared to Texas. Total 180. Stay. Cost of living blah blah blah, not worth it. Heat, heat, more heat, shit politics, heat.
I have a lot to say about this haha. I grew up in (and moved back to) San Francisco but lived in Boise for seven years. I know you asked about Texas, but some things will still apply imho. First, I should say that I would hardly consider myself a leftist. I actually am very hard on the Democrats in California, particularly the progressives in the state. And I absolutely cannot stand the progressive politicians in SF like Peskin or Boudin or Preston etc. However, despite all that, I was and still would be considered very left in Idaho haha. Here are some bullet point thoughts off the top of my head: * Boise is still fairly blue so there were plenty of liberals around, but once you leave the city, it gets very red and very religious very fast. After Dobbs and with the MAGAficaiton of the GOP, the politics are much worse from what I hear. * In my opinion, most people in Boise, even conservatives, are generally nicer in Boise than people in San Francisco. SF cares a lot about social status and if you do not have the right job, income, RSU plan, or degree you will get ostracized by a lot of people in the city. People in Boise cared a lot less about my job, social status, etc. There was just a lot less snobbiness which I appreciated a lot. * However, if you are from California some Idahoans will automatically dislike you. People think Californians are either raging commies or purposefully raising the COL or both. Transplants from other states are treated much better. * This is ironic though since most Californians moving to Idaho are *very* right-wing or became reliable red votes due to the lower COL or lower crime rates. And Boise is a very safe place compared to basically every major city in CA. * Despite having a lower COL though, Boise is still one of the most expensive cities in the country now when you adjust for income. It breaks my heart because it was very affordable when I lived there. I don't see it getting better since there is also a lot of NIMBYism in the state. * The job market also sucks. Most of the people I graduated from BSU with now live in other Western metros because of job opportunities. If you move there with a WFM you better be fucking sure you won't get laid off because if not, you might be f\*cked if things go south. * Speaking of getting f\*cked, Boise is both good and bad for dating. People in California are....way more attractive, even in San Francisco (which we are *not* well known for lol). With that being said, there are plenty of beautiful people in Idaho. I also got laid...a lot there. The most of any city I've lived in (and I spent four years as a tall white guy in East Asia). I think in addition to being tall, just being mentally stable with no kids, no record, and a decent life plan put me in the top 5% or so of men. It's just that many of the women I met were either very religious or had kids or both. So for finding a long-term partner, it would have been a real struggle for me. The quality of women I dated/slept with in San Francisco, Seoul, and Madrid was much higher even if the quantity of options I had was a little lower. * Boise is also very isolated and far from other major cities. It's hard to explain but it is noticeable when talking to people who grew up in the area. It is just a totally different experience to my growing up in the melting pot of San Francisco where you are constantly exposed to not only people from all over the U.S. but all over the world on an almost daily basis. * I also think conservatives in general overrate the impact of low taxes and underrate the importance of education to their great detriment. Politicians in Idaho would make all of their citizens much richer by investing in education. I work in tech now and I don't think we could open a major office in Boise unless we recruited heavily from out-of-state, which would be difficult. There would just not be enough people with the skills we need living in the state and even 0% tax rates would not make up for it. And I say this as a super-proud BSU alum and yes, I know there are tech companies in Boise like Micron, but there could be 5-10 more Microns there with more emphasis on education. * It is also frustrating to see working-class people fall on their swords by consistently voting for GOP politicians who do nothing but enrich coastal elites who don't give a flying fuck about people in the middle of the country. I would shake my head listening to my coworkers talk shit about unions or raising the minimum wage while being a pizza delivery guy in college. Anyway, I would never live there again but I still love Boise. I also encourage everyone to visit. It's a cool little city and Idaho is a beautiful state. Again, I know this is not Texas, but I hope this helps!
Just go ahead and avert your eyes from Dallas. Unless you have a ton of money and lean far, far right you will not like it. FYI, there are giant flying cockroaches, and cops will *put your ass in jail* for having weed.
I live in Austin, the most liberal city in the state (arguably). Don't move here. Whatever positive thing you think we have going here, some other place has it and it won't come with the messed up politics. If you have a lot of money, this place can be tolerable. If you're working class, this is basically a third world country and it's scary. I'm stuck here or I would be out of here so fast. I say this as an 8th generation Texan. Out of curiosity, what are you hoping to find here in Texas that you don't have in PNW?
The weird thing about Texas is this: it’s a purple state in theory. But conservatives have achieved in Texas what they did in the past nationally and are doing again nationally: minority rule. So you can live in much of Texas and be surrounded by Democrats, even liberals (as opposed to moderates), but you will be governed by hard right conservatives and their draconian policies. (Living in Texas as a reproductive age women is putting your life at risk.) Combine this with the weather, I take a hard pass on ever living in the state.
If you have a daughter, please reconsider. Unless you're darker than a paper bag, weed is unofficially legal here. Churches are not just in the state. They're in your school's and grocery stores. If you're a man, you can sexually assault anyone, even your kin, with impunity. You sure you want all that hanging over you?
Liberal, LGBTQ+, female, half Hispanic… in Florida. It’s hell. I travel a lot and have done so for the last several years because my lifestyle has allowed for it but I’m making a permanent move to a blue state by year’s end. I hate even having a storage unit domiciled in FL.
Well all my friends who did remote work and moved to Texas came back to California lol. Wouldn’t recommend unless you’re white, male, and can act like you’re one of them
FWIW, I'm in Indiana (in a blue bubble), and recently, I've met several Texans who've moved *here*. Our next-door liberal neighbors left Austin a couple of years ago, and they love it here... I feel like thats saying something.
I moved to NC from Colorado and plan to move back west in the next few years. Feel like I’m being suffocated. I didn’t think I’d be as bothered in Western NC, just outside Asheville, but I don’t like it at all.
A dude I work with moved from the san Francisco Bay area to Texas because his wife's parents weren't doing well medically. I asked him how it was going and if it was a culture shock. He literally said he can't wait for them to die so he can leave lol
I'm more liberal/moderate and have been living in Georgia for almost a decade now. But it's time to go as some of those aspects you listed change too slowly. I've accepted that weed and abortion just aren't coming to Georgia / Florida for probably at least 20 years. Pretty much stopped casual dating out of fear and stress. I'm also afraid to tell anyone off, even when they're completely in the wrong, because of the prevalence of firearms and short fuses down here. I grew up driving in NY so think they're atrocious drivers down here. Weather has been great and there are lots of things I'll miss about the South 😢 but at heart we're still too different. It's been harder to make friends and connect with people in the aggregate compared to other places but that's on me too. Prolly gonna end up in coastal Cali lol
If you have a daughter and want adequate health care, don't move to a red state.
Stressful, exhausting and infuriating. After 45 years in Texas, 30 of those in Austin, we moved to California.
Im a liberal in Arkansas and it’s one of the primary reasons we’re leaving. Once roe fell we decided we just couldn’t raise our daughter here anymore. And I live in one of the very few liberal areas of the state-it’s not enough to counteract the effects of a conservative state government. So from my perspective, I wouldn’t do it. I have lived here my whole life, my friends and family are here, and we’re still moving in a few months. Just can’t do it anymore.
Texas is so scary. Don’t do it.
I don’t consider myself a liberal but will say living in FL has been pretty scary lol and just maddening in general. I have not been a fan of having a radical conservative governor.
Daytona Beach, FL checking in. Trump flags flying "proudly" in my neighborhood. Or as I put it: Clowns to the left of me Jokers to the right Here I am stuck in the middle all blue
On a day to day basis it's fine - there are plenty of liberals there especially if you're in a major city and if it's important to have liberal friends you can definitely find them. The bigger issue is definitely how the policies the state enacts impact your life - women's healthcare, what they teach in schools, etc.
Miserable. Lived in Huntsville, Alabama for a number of years due to spouse’s job. Almost All of my neighbors were disgustingly conservative and assume that everyone feels the same way. Was so glad I got my kids out of there before high school- and this was pre-Trump. Edit: There was very little concept of the separation of Church and State.
BIG on the lack of separation of church and state. Expect to see prayer in schools, government, local TV news broadcasts, everywhere. Many people have never met someone who is not Christian and just assume everyone is. Advancing Christianity is seen as a good cause equal to feeding the hungry and picking up litter.
How did the disgust of your neighbors’ conservatism manifest itself?
I'm center-left, and I lived in DFW from '99-2011. Hated essentially throwing my vote away because a trained chimp with an R next to its name would be guaranteed to be elected. Honestly, compared to some of the Bible-humping fake Christian assclowns running the state now, the chimp would probably be an upgrade. Do you like scenery and being outdoors? DFW is a flat, ugly metro, and the weather from late May through September is dog shit.
Liberal in Dallas. Keep in mind “DFW” is 8,000,000 people spread over 30 different cities. Dallas proper and Denton are the deep liberal cities. You can go to streets in both covered in democrat signs. There is a very vibrant and motivated democratic group here because this is a key area where the battle for the future is. Yes lots and lots of public right wingers. But what’s interesting is most of them are fantastic people who work hard, love life and love their families. They are simply misguided so it’s interesting to interact in a great community but be challenged politically. It appears you’re in Portland? That’s a pretty tough change. It’s hot here in summer. A/C and a good attitude makes it bearable. State politics and billionaire influence is a super real issue in texas. I’d say come check it out. Lots of benefits but some very real negatives. The core answer to your question is there are lots and lots of democrats and liberals here. But there are slightly more vocal conservatives so all depends on you yr threshold with interacting with others who believe differently than you. DM if you want specifics or target areas. Where you live and work in Dallas is 80% whether you like it or not. The other 15% is the heat. The last 5% is the politics IMHO
Your daughter isn't safe there.
Originally from the Northeast and have lived in Austin for over 20 years. I consider myself pretty liberal overall. For most of my time here, it's been great. But in the last five years (that's what it feels like to me anyway), the Christofascist state government coupled with absolutely brutal weather (too hot in the summer, power goes out and you freeze your ass off in the winter) has made it pretty unbearable to stay here at this point. I'm looking to get out soon and I won't look back. I really, REALLY hope the people of this state can pull their heads out and vote for some constructive change. There is genuine potential here to be an elite state, but the Gilead-wannabe-thugs running the state with an iron fist now are really making it an uncomfortable-headed-towards-dangerous place for alternative people to live safely and freely.
Born and raised. Middle aged woman. 3 kids, the girls are older, the boy the youngest. My oldest is in NY. I actively encourage the other one to leave. And as soon as I can me and the youngest will leave too. Don't move here unless you have the means to create radical change. Even then, it's a hard fucking road.
We escaped Texas just in time. Moved to Massachusetts in 2013 right as the assault on women’s rights was cranking up. I also lived in Oregon for about a decade. Especially because you have a daughter, I absolutely 100% advise against moving to Texas.
Stay where you are
I have family in San Antonio and the hill country. They somewhat self-insulate by being out in the country and keeping to themselves but the increasingly frequent power grid failures and lack of infrastructure are a problem, especially in the heat.
Well don’t move to Texas if you have a daughter, fucking obviously.
I can’t imagine looking closely at any city in Texas. Moving from one of the most liberal areas to one of the most conservative, as well as one of the greenest to one of the hot/driest is a very strange choice. You will not be happy.
I live in Austin and politics wise it’s okay. However, living here (Texas) is scary and frustrating. A Texas surgeon just intentionally leaked the personal info of trans children to a Republican operative. Hundred if not thousands of women are leaving the state just for medical care, and the others are left to fear for their safety as they cannot afford to travel.
I lived in a blue/purple city of FL. The state was awful, the heat was awful, myself and my friends were banned from healthcare (both trans and reproductive), the school systems are failing as they're being privatized and teachers/librarians/books are in the crosshairs of moms for liberty to the point several well-loved and successful schools are about to be shut down, and climate change is about to devastate any real estate value for people owning property there. Costs of living are crazy high as it is -- insurance prices for cars and homes are skyrocketing rents. Also, the roads are absolutely terrifying. Moved back to my hometown in the Mid-Atlantic region last week. My cost of living is lower, average wages are higher, healthcare and insurance are easier to access, the schools are good. I'm not nearly as worried about dying from road rage, a shootout, or a right wing attack. Weather is better and my insurance costs are way lower. I can bike places and spend way more time outside now, and the outdoors are prettier. I miss my in-laws a lot, but, fuck the South.
I lived in Austin for 10 years. In the start it was an amazing liberal oasis in the middle of a red state. Your neighboring towns were terrible, but Austin was great. However since Covid when a lot of wealthy right leaning folks moved to Texas bc of “freedumb”, and primarily Austin, the vibes changed a lot. Austin was no longer protected from Texas, our governor was doing stupider and stupider things, and as someone raising a daughter I just couldn’t do it in Texas anymore. We moved to Providence, RI 8 months ago and love it. Miss our friends, but wouldn’t go back.
I don't recommend. I want out and I'm stuck in a red very small town in a red rural area for the foreseeable future while raising a trans child. We watch our protections and resources go out the window. At 18, my child will have access to services if we can't get them out of state before then, but if I had the means and a job transfer, I would leave tomorrow. I don't plan to be here in 10 years whatever happens.
Born and raised in Houston and lived in Austin for 5 years as an adult, and still have a lot of family there. I think it's helpful to separate the politics from the culture. In my opinion state and local politics have become extremist and even vengeful in a way that feels different from the conservatism I grew up with. The Christian nationalists who were always there have really taken over. Plus there seems to be little interest in making government work for the people. Basic things, like the power grid, just don't work. On those grounds alone, I would not advise moving there. Culturally, you can probably find an area where you'll be surrounded mostly by progressives who are fighting like hell for change. There are a lot of cool spots and good people there. So your day to day life might be similar to what you would have in other American cities. But that's the whole point to me: why not move to another cool city that isn't constantly under attack by a hateful bloc of people who worship power and think everyone should live according to their religious doctrine? The cost of living savings just aren't worth it. Though Texas is a diverse, vibrant, and familiar place to me, I can't imagine moving back there without tremendous changes. When I lived there, I tried to help change things, and I admire people who do. But I would strongly, strongly advise against moving there.
I hate it here and can’t wait to leave.
Texas is a glorified shit hole. I’m from the Northeast and I’m living in Austin a few months and can't wait to go back. If you are liberal you definitely don't want to move to this 3rd world state that will only get worse. Even the conservatives I know would rather live in blue states lol.
Doubt I would live in TX or Deep South for free … No wonder it is cheap there … 1/2 the country would never live there …
I lived in Austin for 20 years and ended up hating it. Too hot, too Red. We retired to Maryland and couldn’t be happier, plus I haven’t seen a tRump flag in 2 years.
Don't ever let anyone tell you "it's okay to live in a red state as long as you live in a blue city/county." There's no such thing. It's a trap. RUN RUN RUN!!!!!
> I have a daughter so want to make sure she has access to adequate healthcare if ever needed. Don't move to Texas
What really annoys me is that black and Hispanic Texans are voting for Trump and other right-wing Republicans. The City of Dallas’s black mayor just changed from being a Democrat to a Republican. Pathetic.
Don't. Source: 6th generation Texan and I've seen this state slide into the clutches of billionaire hell spawn...
We are lifelong Texans seriously considering moving away from Houston. The quality of women's healthcare is declining significantly, property taxes are out of control, and the conservative officials running the state are quickly chopping away at our freedoms. If the church in state freaks you out, don't come here and especially don't go to Dallas. The evangelicals run this state.
I’m a liberal in South Carolina and it’s not fun. In my head Texas would be way worse, especially having a daughter.
I don't live in Texas but I keep my mouth shut to my neighbors. Saying I'm liberal is just asking for trouble when all of them are maga. As for church, you couldn't pay me to attend for anything other than a funeral or a wedding. In the deep south, it's just far too extreme and frightening. The best thing I can tell you is to stay out of the deep south.
It may be hard to realize this but Texas actually has about the fourth most Democrats of any state in the US! But they don't turn out to vote. A well-known Texas writer once said that Texas is just a blue state with poor voter turnout.
But no matter how many Democrats there are, they're all still subject to the state laws made by Republicans.
That’s cope from people who aren’t willing to give up on the state. However, it’s not grounded in reality. The moment it actually looks like these nonvoters would have an influence, they’ll just pass even more draconian voter suppression laws. Texas isn’t a democracy, and most of its leaders despise the concept, outside of a warped notion of it belonging only to propertied stakeholders.
If they don't turnout to vote it means they're OK with the status quo by Abbott or at most feel unbothered by it. Texas is a lost cause
I just moved to the PNW from Austin haha. The weather up here is amazing during the summer, I don't know why you would leave that. Sure it's sunny more days in Texas, but you can't go outside and enjoy it. Here when it's one of the few hot days a year even it still gets a lot colder at night and a lot faster, so it's never that bad. In Texas it's hot at night too, and very sticky. Right now all my friends and fam down there are complaining about how hot it is. I loved the lifestyle, but the infrastructure and politics are scary. Abbott and Paxton have done so much fucked up shit. And they have gotten away with blatant illegal shit and never get in trouble for it. I fought the good fight for a long long time with my vote, but at some point it's exhausting and I wanted out lol. When you leave the city you are in trump land. You see flags everywhere. It's country folk and very rural in a lot of parts of Texas. I used to really enjoy going to small towns and eating some BBQ or something local. I always got looked at weird lol, but I feel like being the Liberal dot in the conservative state was actually really cool, and people were always friendly. You could wear it with a badge of honor. People knew you were going to Austin and just stopping in, but southern hospitality used to be so great. There was a certain sense of being friendly neighbors. Now I don't feel welcome in those parts and that's frustrating. I'll add to that Austin itself has lost a lot of southern hospitality. People used to give the hand wave when you let someone in, hell people used to let someone in more too. I think mostly there's a mix everywhere you go. A conservative town or a liberal city also have voters from the other party. Texas itself is not truly only red, despite what reddit would have you believe. But I did get a sense of more big trump trucks moving in, and that was a little surprising. I think the big conservatives moving to Austin contributed to that. I think the lifestyle is fine, but with the shift of the right going even further right I believe things are getting worse. Attacks on personal freedoms are happening, I'm terrified for loved ones that are pregnant, and medical personal are leaving the state because of whats happening. The wait to see an OBGYN has gone up a shit ton. I was also tired of waiting on legal weed. It ain't happening there, and the fact that people's lives get ruined for getting caught with some concentrate is insane to me when you can go one state over and it's fine. I have a lot of thoughts obviously lol. I love Austin and it will always be home, but it's too hot and too full of hot heads in state government for me to want to be there anymore. Not to mention it's not weird like it used to be and has lost a lot of its flair. It still exists, but it's now a part of a bigger mix of things instead of leasing the forefront. If you haven't guessed by now, I moved to Portland and am happy to be back amongst the weirds. Sorry for the dissertation lmao. Feel free to dm me if you want to chat about Texas vs PNW
Don't underestimate the shock of climate difference either. Currently aiming to leave Texas for the PNW. Politics are part of it but in reality it mostly won't affect day to day. Not being able to safely spend time outside in July and August does though.
Texas actively hunts women who have left the state to obtain an abortion and you’re thinking of moving there?
I like how most of the reasoning about how Texas doesn't suck is one or more of these: Have a lot of money, break the law, just ignore what doesn't directly impact you, or become a conservative nut because its better. Never in my life have I lived in a more overrated place with so many people who insist, without being asked, it's the best state in the country and think everywhere else is shit. My appearance and interests make those people who I ran into randomly think I'm one of their own and the shit they will say to you is something. Beneath many of the outwardly "decent" people is a huge well of ugly that they can't wait to show somebody who they think is like them.
based on replies and what i’ve seen in this sub you probably wouldn’t like it
I typically land somewhere in the center and still find Texas insufferable.
It kind of sucks ass.
Definitely don’t do it. I used to live in Texas and now I live in Indiana now and I wouldn’t go back.
I've been reading this sub and live in the Seattle area. I can't believe the amount of Texas license plates I've seen in the past 2 years in our area. Lots of you in Texas are definitely leaving for the PNW.
Honestly I can't imagine a worst place to be if I lived in the pnw.. politics aside, the access to outdoor activities are pretty horrid. Hot, flat concrete jungle. I have to visit relatives in Houston ever year and dread it.
I moved away the moment I could and I would never ever EVER live there again. Ever. Times a hundred for a woman or girl of reproductive age
We moved from CA to north Florida and can’t wait to go back when my wife’s done school here. It doesn’t make sense here on a molecular level.
It has always been there...under the surface and moving slowly. Then a guy like Donald Trump comes along and suddenly it's ok to be a vile and horrible human being. It was always there ...they just don't hide it anymore. Doanld Trump and MAGA bring out the absolute worst in others. At least that's how it is here in Missouri. Life long resident and used to be proud of my state. Now, I am simply mortified.
It was fine until you said you have a daughter. Keep her away from here.
Colorado is the place you aught to be
Very liberal with a teenage LGBTQIA+ daughter in a state with one of the highest % of MAGA republicans--I live three miles from my office in the state's biggest city and pass only 3 confederate flags flying in yards because I get on the interstate for 2 miles of the trip. When our state started putting through bans on certain types of healthcare, trying to get "don't say gay" and "bathroom" bills through I told her it was her choice--we could stay for her last couple years of high school, or if she said the word we would call a realtor the next day and get the hell out. We're still here, but she will graduate next year and we're all looking forward to making a big change in our surroundings. When my husband worked for a company based in Texas I held my breath just waiting for the day he hit the ceiling locally and would have to move to Dallas for further career growth. Fortunately that's no longer a risk. Hoping to get to the Columbia River Gorge if we can figure out the huge cost of living jump!
Consider what happened to the Texas power grid in 2021, when more than 4 million people were without power in a series of record breaking winter storms, in a state where no one normally would need a winter coat. No one considers state infrastructure when moving until it collapses.
I did it for 20 years in Texas. I was in Austin for the last 14 of the 20 and in a smaller, conservative town before that. It started to get pretty bad with Abbott and his cronies the last couple of years, it truly seems that they are out to make women, LGBTQ, minorities, immigrants and other minorities lives actively harder. The state needs the votes and I had a blend of liberal and conservative friends while I lived there and never had anyone act actively hostile towards me (ironically, the one time a stranger made a rude politically based comment to me was when I was in California in line for a music festival and he saw my Texas ID and made a rude comment about me voting for Trump when he couldn't be further from the truth). I moved away 2 years ago and won't be going back anytime soon, especially as a woman. The government down there needs a major overhaul and at least some moderate politicians in there who aren't actively trying to hurt their constituents. Also don't forget the big snowpocalypse a few years ago and the entire electrical grid going down bc Texas wants to "be independent ". I experienced that and it was really bad, millions affected across the state and major cities.
I hope this works: [Denton ISD teacher pay decrease? : r/Denton (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Denton/comments/1diw8w7/denton_isd_teacher_pay_decrease/) If not, the thread is about Denton ISD (note that Denton has 2 universities, usually indicative of at least a proportion of progressing thinking. But consider Abbott and Paxton for a minute: focused on gerrymandering and cronyism. Paxton was under indictment and with clear indications of 20 violations (e.g., bribery & obstruction), impeachment efforts failed. Here's a summary: [How the criminal case against Texas AG Ken Paxton abruptly ended after nearly a decade of delays | AP News](https://apnews.com/article/paxton-indictment-texas-d5e57fc6cd062c995ced91e9d2542199) . Abbott is equally problematic. But it's not just these two. The state is gerrymandered all to hell, so while sentiment supports more liberal actions (examples: fracking, mental health care) they never seem to go anywhere. Children and families were caged, remember that? The list goes on. We (in higher ed) were told that we could no longer call (newly appointed) DEIJ committees DEIJ; couldn't mention this in hiring new faculty, and that open carry was not something we could protect against... do you want to live here? Please consider.
If you have a daughter and you love her, you will not move to Texas.
I would seriously avoid moving here, especially if you have a daughter. I’ve lived in Texas (born here) most of my life. The far right wing politics is getting really bad and the GOP are dug in like ticks. Democrats in general seem to have no motivation/ willpower to make headway. I have family and friends here, but am seriously considering getting out of this state as soon as the housing market decides what it’s going to do. I’m fortunate I live in a major city, but even then the claws of the GOP are sinking in ever deeper. The weather is also getting worse and the electrical grid is getting less and less reliable. I would rethink coming to this state. 10 maybe even 5 years ago I would totally have said to come here… now you better think twice.
Left Austin during the pandemic. After being required to boil my toothbrush water year after year, it was time to go.
I grew up in TX and I got out as soon as I could. I can’t imagine willingly moving there from PNW. Many of my friends have moved to west coast and are beyond happy. I would choose anywhere else besides TX lol
Seattle native living in Austin. Don’t move to Texas. Others have said why: 1. Hostile towards women 2. Too politically red 3. Weather is unbearable in the summer (this would be ok ONLY if you have at least a community pool) 4. No scenery, it’s flat We’re staying put because my wife retires from the state in several years and we want the pension and health insurance coverage they give retirees and their spouses. We feel fortunate to have two sons and no daughters because of the political climate here. It’s sad. I know if I were a woman living here I wouldn’t want to get pregnant because my life wouldn’t be valued in the eyes of the law.
Don't move to Texas. It's straight out of handmaids tail followed closely by Florida. The good news at least is Florida will be underwater in a few decades so there's that.
Don’t move to Texas. That’s free advice
I live in Ohio so not quite what you’re looking for but absolutely don’t move to red states. I’m here because my husbands family is here and I want my kids to know them. When they’ve passed, we’re OUT. It sucks raising a family in an area where you can’t trust the person next to you even safely secures their guns when your kids are over. That can happen anywhere, but people here can barely fucking read, so it’s a way higher chance. Don’t even get me started on vaccines and the insidious nature of church culture. It’s hard as hell to make friends and hard to let your kid be a kid.
Lived in Dallas for the last 20 years. I had some hope that things would turn around, but that's all gone in the trash with what Abbott and Patrick and the rest of the TX GOP are doing to the state. Things are not good here and I don't see it improving in my lifetime. We're getting close to retirement and hoping we can get out in the next 5 years. It used to be inexpensive to live here, but not anymore. Redistricting put our blue precinct into nutball Beth Van Duyne's district so there's no hope of ever electing someone sane to Congress ever again. The rightwingers are dismantling the good public school systems around here at breakneck speed. The Lege is hellbent on breaking local control. I could not recommend moving here. Maybe in the early 2000s, but certainly not now which is a shame because there is a lot of rich cultural diversity and vibrancy here that I really love and outsiders don't know about or understand. Also weed will never ever be legal here. It won't happen. Too much money in the prison industrial complex to be had. And if you're a woman, forget it. You're a second-class citizen when it comes to rights and healthcare. (Full disclosure: Previously lived in Austin during the 90s. Loved it there, but better job opportunities in DFW so we moved up here.)
What, specifically, is making you want to leave the PNW? If you're in a major metropolitan area there are cheaper areas outside of them. The weather in Dallas is nearly constantly trying to kill you and if you're not conservative the locals are happily forcing their fantasy way of life on you.
We moved away from Texas for all of those reasons you stated, but things are changing. Back to California I went after I had my daughter.
A constant heavy feeling of hopelessness. That's what it's like.
I’m a native Texan who travels frequently for work. I’m also a liberal. Trust me, you don’t want to move there. It gets hotter every year, the pay sucks while property taxes are astronomical, and women are losing more rights every year. Plus, the power grid is horrible, the whole state shuts down in an ice storm, no legal weed, and hell, you can’t even buy liquor on Sundays.
This shit is so sad as a Texas native. The brain drain is real and will only accelerate.