Idaho has welcomed an influx of Californians and Washingtonians who have fled their liberal homelands for the deep-red state.
Just over 32,000 people moved Idaho from the Democrat states in 2023, according to data from the Census Bureau.
The Gem State drew in around 17,338 Californians, 14,655 Washingtonians and 7,458 people from Oregon last year, Idaho Statesman reports
In total the Gem State, which has a population of two million, gained 81,708 new residents last year.
Many say they have been driven out by a high cost of living, soaring crime rates or their home state’s liberal policies.
Idaho is one of America’s most conservative states, but some locals fear the combination of newcomers and proposed new election laws could turn the state purple, or even blue.
Husband and wife Nick Kostenborder and Ashley Manning are among those who moved with their baby to Sandpoint to escape Portland, Oregon.
Kostenborder pointed to the homeless problem in his old city as something that swayed his decision to up and leave.
‘You’re worried about someone else besides yourself. So you start to notice threats more.
‘Like, it’s no longer charming to have the homeless guy asleep in front of the grocery store. Now it’s like, all right, this actually might be dangerous,’ Kostenborder told Fox News earlier this year.
Disillusion in Democrat-run Oregon has grown so strong that several counties have voted for a ballot on seceding from their home state and joining Idaho.
The Greater Idaho Movement seeks to move the Oregon border so that 14 counties and several partial counties would become part of Idaho and be subjected to the state’s more conservative laws.
Meanwhile, an increased number of Arizonians made the move to Idaho in 2023 compared to the year before.
The Grand Canyon State elected Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs in 2022.
In recent years, Idaho has become a haven for retired California servicemen looking to get more mileage out of their pensions.
According to comparison website, My Life Elsewhere, California is around 27 percent more expensive that Idaho.
Many transplants have also pointed to the Golden State’s liberal policies as a driving factor behind their moves.
Among them was Melvin Galang and Coree Ray who said they wanted to leave California for a more conservative state.
The family relocated to Idaho Falls, which boasts a crime rate 26 percent lower than the national average.
In contrast, the City of Angels has a crime rate 52.4 percent higher than the national average, with roughly 370 crimes daily, just under a quarter of them violent, per statistics from the FBI.
The Golden State has been battling problems with rising homelessness and open drug abuse in its major cities in recent years.
Homelessness jumped 6 percent to more than 180,000 people in California last year, federal data shows. Since 2013, the numbers have exploded by 53 percent.
These numbers help explain why Idaho – a landlocked locale located 450 miles from the Golden State – surfaced as a top relocation choice for Californians during the pandemic.
This proved particularly true between 2021 and 2022, when spikes seen during the first year of the crisis persisted and worsened in many cases.
However, after three years in Idago Galang and Ray revealed they had chosen to move home to California after struggling to ‘fit in’ with their more rural neighbors.
They added to the 65,000 people who left Idaho for a different state in 2023.
Most people relocated to Washington, followed by Utah and Texas.