Americans Are Voting With Their Feet and Ohio Is Losing That Election Badly

Without new leaders, Ohio will remain a dead state walking, as its best and brightest seek brighter futures elsewhere.

Though just anecdotes, the annual U-Haul rental state and city rankings are an important anecdote that shows in- and out-migration among the fifty states. Keep in mind, U-Haul, unlike paid moving companies, is largely used by people in the middle and lower classes who can’t afford to pay the higher fees that come with paid moving companies like United Van Lines. This year, Ohio experienced among the biggest drops from 2022, as it fell thirteen spots to #23 in U-Haul's annual ranking of growth states. Even worse, despite the constant droning on about how the Intel project will transform the Greater Columbus Areas, not one Ohio city reached the top thirty in U-Haul’s city ranking.

With America two years past the pandemic that shutdown so much of our lives, 2023 is the first year in which analyzing the movement of people represented more than people moving due to the crisis we faced in 2020, 2021, and 2022. As such, 2023 gives us a more accurate view of how each state is doing when it comes to competing for and attracting people via creating opportunities for them and a greener pasture for prosperity. On that mark, the U-Haul data indicates Ohio is losing the competition for middle class professional and blue collar workers.

As for the annual United Van Lines Annual National Movers Study Rankings, Ohio did even worse when it came to professionals who could afford to pay movers or those corporate-level workers whose companies paid for their relocations. Specifically, more people left Ohio than came to Ohio, with 4% more Ohioans leaving for a job than coming for a job. As I’ve previously discussed, Ohio is gaining more retirees than workers, which will increase our already above-the-national-average aging rate and tax burden on workers. Finally, we are gaining far more lower income residents than we are losing, with those making over $100,000 or more per year leaving Ohio at a much higher rate than they are coming to Ohio.

What do these two rankings mean? It means few people are actually moving to Ohio and the ones who are moving here are either retirees or lower income workers. If Ohio’s private sector and economy were strong, these anecdotal rankings would be much better, with more people coming than going and more higher income workers moving here for opportunities. I’ve discussed for years how Ohio’s private sector is systemically weak and how our elected officials fail to enact the bold color ideas that would give Ohio a chance to boom economically. From John Kasich to Mike DeWine to Jon Husted to Ohio’s supermajority Republican legislature, the men and women you elect lack the political courage to do what needs to be done to make Ohio great again. It is inexcusable given the political control Republicans have in Ohio over the last fourteen years that so little gets done. It is political malpractice.

The simple truth is Americans are voting with their feet and Ohio is losing that election and losing it badly. Ohio desperately needs bold leaders and bold color ideas instead of more status quo politicians and their stale, regurgitated policies. Without new leaders, Ohio will remain a dead state walking, as its best and brightest seek brighter futures elsewhere.

P.S. Wouldn’t it be great if our state and local media actually asked DeWine and Husted to defend their limp jobs record in light of the U-Haul and United Van Lines rankings (and the data I produce every month)? Wouldn’t it be even better if Ohioans stopped electing such ineffective men and women? One can dream…