U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) shared the stage with fellow MAGA lawmakers Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) and Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FL), at an event in Washington, D.C. this week called ‘Rescuing the American Dream.’
With the photos below, Lee echoed President Trump’s claims about Americans leaving blue states for red states, and wrote: “Red states are like magnets right now for Americans sick of Democrat cities packed with crime and socialist taxes.”
Red states are like magnets right now for Americans sick of Democrat cities packed with crime and socialist taxes.
Thanks @SenRickScott for leading our conversation this morning with @RepDonaldsPress and @SenJonHusted on how to keep our states great. pic.twitter.com/icgSNPWHLv
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) December 4, 2025
Lee’s post is being met with criticism from MAGA supporters, as many say those reported Democrats who are moving to red states haven’t changed their voting habits and in fact “are voting for the same type of people that caused” them to leave blue states.
As one replied, “Red states are going to regret the migration one day when they turn blue from those same idiots they’re welcoming now.” Another replied, “It’s not migration, you imbecile. It’s an invasion!”
Note: According to an analysis of census data by rental listing site Point2Homes, Lee’s state of Utah is drawing fewer out-of-state movers than most other states: “Of those who moved into a Utah home in 2024, just over 1 in 5 — about 95,000 — were from another state.” Statistics for Florida, where the Governor often claims a large influx of new residents are coming from blue states, were similar: about 1 in 5 of the people who moved to the Sunshine State (about 574,000) were from another state, near the national average.
[Note: Cross-state migration isn’t part of a growing trend, but the opposite. A record low 11 percent of Americans changed addresses last year and just 19.3 percent of those switched states, down from the previous year.]
Despite what Lee and others claim, MAGA residents of red states might not need to worry about an “invasion.” Of all 50 states, New York and New Jersey — with Democrat governors and crowded cities — saw the fewest residents relocate at all, with just 8.5 and 7.7 percent changing addresses, in or out of the state.
While Florida, Texas and California attracted the largest numbers of new residents, Wyoming (with two Republican senators) and New Hampshire (with two Democrat senators) had the highest percentages of “new residents from beyond their borders: 36.1% and 35.4%, respectively, of all the people who moved here last year were coming from other states.”