US ‘National Divorce’ Appears to Already Be Happening

Analysis finds that large numbers of Americans moved from blue to red counties

A U-Haul moving van on Elm Street in Montpelier, Vt., on Aug. 12, 2017. Artaxerxes via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0

The so-called “national divorce” that was promoted earlier this year by some Republicans appears to be occurring organically, according to a new analysis of U.S. population trends.

Since 2020, some 2.6 million people have moved out of U.S. counties that were won by President Joe Biden and into those that former President Donald Trump prevailed in, the analysis found. It cited recent Census Bureau data.

“More than 61 percent of the counties that voted for Biden in 2020 lost population, while 65 percent of Trump-supporting counties gained population,” the Issues and Insights analysis said. The data showed that some 2,562,937 people moved from Democrat-leaning counties to Republican-leaning counties since Biden was elected in the divisive November 2020 election.

The two counties that lost the most population from net internal migration were Los Angeles County and Cook County, Illinois, which both overwhelmingly voted in favor of Biden. Cook, which includes Chicago, was down about 200,718, while Los Angeles lost about 363,000 people since the election.

California, which has a Democrat governor and legislature, experienced “a massive net outflow” of people—871,127—in the past two years. New Jersey, which has a Democrat-controlled legislature and a Democrat governor, lost 107,000 people in the same time period, although the analysis noted that red counties in the Garden State gained 22,507.

“While many of the blue counties that lost population were urbanized,” it said, “the exodus was widespread and nationwide, including many far more sparsely populated liberal areas.”

Meanwhile, the largest loss suffered by any red county or equivalent was Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, which was down by 18,470, the analysis found.

“On the other hand, blue counties lost population in states that saw overall gains,” the analysis noted. “For example, Florida had a net gain of 622,476 over the past two years. But counties that backed Biden nevertheless lost 3,374. Georgia had a large gain of 128,089, but blue counties still had a net loss of 28,178. Tennessee saw an increase of 146,403 people, but counties that voted for Biden saw a decline of 37,306.”

Earlier Calls

Earlier this year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted on social media about the prospects of a “national divorce” occurring within the country, noting that the differences between Republican and Democratic voters are simply too great on a range of issues.

“We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,” Greene wrote in February during Presidents’ Day. “Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) speaks outside Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on the day of former President Donald Trump's planned court appearance on April 4, 2023. Reuters/Caitlin Ochs

Greene at the time did not elaborate on how such a “national divorce” could be accomplished. During a later interview with Fox News, the Republican lawmaker said she doesn’t want a civil war or Balkanization of the country.

“The last thing I ever want to see in America is a civil war,” she told Fox’s Sean Hannity at the time. “No one wants that—at least everyone I know would never want that—but it’s going that direction, and we have to do something about it.”

In an interview with political commentator Charlie Kirk, Greene proposed allowing Republican-backed states from blocking Democrats from voting if they recently came from a blue state.

“Red states can choose in how they allow people to vote in their states,” Greene told Kirk. “What I think would be something that some red states could propose is: well, okay, if Democrat voters choose to flee these blue states where they cannot tolerate the living conditions, they don’t want their children taught these horrible things, and they really change their mind on the types of policies that they support, well once they move to a red state, guess what, maybe you don’t get to vote for five years.”

But Greene is not the first to call for a secession or separation—and likely wont be the last. A June 2021 poll found that 66 percent of Republicans in southern U.S. states supported leaving the country and forming a new one. Some Democrats in the West also supported such a move, as 47 percent in that region also supported a division.

The Epoch Times has contacted Greene’s office for comment on the latest findings. She told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that the “national divorce is already happening because conservative Americans will no longer tolerate the abuse, harassment, and hate by the Left.”

After Greene’s call, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, recently ousted Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) criticized Greene and claimed it would spark a new civil war.

“I think Abraham Lincoln dealt with that kind of insanity,” Romney told the Salt Lake Tribune in February, without elaborating. “We’re not going to divide the country. It’s united we stand and divided we fall.” In response to the criticism, Greene wrote on Twitter that “people agree with me and not the RINO (Republican in name only) governor of Utah.”