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U-Haul gives Gavin Newsom very bad news

By:

“On the Holmes Front” with Frank Holmes

In 2024, the American people voted for President Donald Trump, giving him one of the largest victories of any Republican candidate in decades.

But Democratic state officials mad with Trump Derangement Syndrome reacted by going into all-out “resistance” mode, in the blue states and cities they still control.

So, in 2025, Americans voted again, with their feet—and President Trump won this election with an even greater mandate.

And it’s bad news for California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s national ambitions.

In all, 90 percent of the states people want to live in backed President Trump in the last election. At the same time, 90 percent of the states Americans want to run away from are run by Democrats like Newsom.

“Seven of the top 10 growth states currently feature Republican governors, and nine of those states went red in the last presidential election,” said the annual U-Haul Growth Index, which was released on January 5. “Conversely, nine of the bottom 10 growth states feature Democrat governors, and seven of those states went blue in the last presidential election.”

Based on the figures, the American people are running scared from Democratic officials and the failed cities and states they manage.

The report counts the number of one-way trucks, trailers, or containers people rent and compares where each trip begins and ends. U-Haul admits not perfect, but it’s still a good measure of “how well states, metros, and cities are attracting and maintaining residents.”

Americans have flocked to the same top five red states for the last two years—Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, and South Carolina—although the order has shifted a little.

Texas ranks number one for the seven out of the last 10 years. On the other hand, California led states losing population for the sixth year.

That’s a huge embarrassment for California Governor Gavin Newsom—because he got caught lying through his teeth about the statistics.

Top 10 growth states:

  1. Texas
  2. Florida
  3. North Carolina
  4. Tennessee
  5. South Carolina
  6. Washington
  7. Arizona
  8. Idaho
  9. Alabama
  10. Georgia

Bottom 10 states:

  1. California

  2. Illinois

  3. New Jersey

  4. New York

  5. Massachusetts

  6. Maryland

  7. Pennsylvania

  8. Ohio

  9. Connecticut

  10. Michigan

As The Horn reported, Newsom told Sean Hannity that the huge number of people leaving the Golden State had been “anomalous the last three years,” and Californians’ desire to move someplace else “already slowed down”—in June 2023.

That’s going to leave a lot of egg on the chiseled face of the 2028 Democratic presidential frontrunner and his party in general.

Take New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist with a soft spot for radical Islam.

“There are almost 5 Florida-bound U-Haul trucks LEAVING NYC for every one truck arriving FROM Florida,” said economic expert Mark J. Perry of the American Enterprise Institute.

That’s great news for Republicans such as likely 2028 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.

“The Sunshine State has never ranked below fourth since U-Haul started ranking growth states in 2015,” noted U-Haul.

All in all, 12 of the top 20 cities Americans moved to are in Florida, with Ocala topping the list. The only two cities in the top 10 that are not located in the Sunshine State are Myrtle Beach and the Dallas suburb of McKinney.

U.S. citizens have so little interest in blue states that only a handful of top destination cities or “metro areas” are in Democrat-led states. Tim Walz’s Minneapolis came in at number 14 of the top 25 metropolitan areas (as opposed to cities). Spokane, San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, and Philadelphia also made the top 25 “growth metros” list, along with Bend, Oregon.

But seven out of 25, or less than one in three of the best places to live, is not much to brag about.

“Liberals in denial like to say it’s the weather. Then why isn’t anyone moving to California?” asked the Republican Party of DuPage County, Illinois. “Elections have consequences … one of which is the reality that if your community stays blue it gets destroyed.”

U-Haul pointed out that not all of these moves are directly influenced by politics. The decision to change living quarters is usually driven by events in people’s personal lives…but not always.

“We continue to find that life circumstances — marriage, children, a death in the family, college, jobs and other events — dictate the need for most moves,” said U-Haul International President John “J.T.” Taylor. “But other factors can be important to people who are looking to change their surroundings. In-migration states are often appealing to those customers.”

It’s easy to see what other factors may attract new residents from blue states.

Four of the top 10 states people moved to last year also had one of the lower tax burdens, as measured by the Tax Foundation’s 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index. Six of the bottom 10 states rank at the bottom on taxes.

Only one blue state managed to rate higher on tax burden and still make the top 10 U-Haul destinations: Washington state, which has no state income tax. The only red state to make the bottom 10 was Ohio.

The U-Haul report comes as yet another sign of American improvement led by President Trump’s MAGA policies.

In 2025, the number of homicides in American cities may have hit an historic low: Los Angeles saw the fewest murders since 1966, Detroit and Chicago the lowest since 1965, and San Francisco the fewest since 1954.

But still, nobody wants to live there.

Maybe the Americans leaving deep-blue cities see the Trump administration as a “safe space” to run for the hills, before the Crazy Party takes over the White House again.

President Trump’s greatest achievements came at the southern border, where illegal border crossings fell by 99.99 percent during President Trump’s first 100 days in office.

The economy looks also set for another boom during the Trump-Vance years: In the third quarter of 2025, GDP growth increased 4.3 percent, a rate CBS News described as “blistering.” Real U.S. economic growth is higher than any of the other seven leading world economies, the G-7.

But Americans want a state government that respects their hard work as much as the president and vice president do, and they’re moving accordingly.

Legal U.S. citizens have to dig out of an enormous pit of the last four years. But Americans see the dawning of a new golden age rising over the horizon of 2026—and they’re preparing for the golden sunlight to shine down them in a red state.

About the Author

Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”