In the past 2 weeks, five companies announced moves to NC resulting in the creation of 3,000+ jobs and $1.8 billion worth of investment. The Toyota battery plant that recently opened in Liberty, NC is expected to create 5,100 jobs (even though electric vehicle sales have cooled, Toyota plans to migrate to more hybrid vehicles).
Anecdotally, many of my daughter’s finance friends ended up in Charlotte - a large banking center - no surprise there. They hail from a variety of northern states including NY, NJ, PA MA & MD. They are all happy here (according to D). Charlotte leans very blue, btw, as does Raleigh.
There will always be people who have political opinions about life in the south and that’s fine - no one is putting a gun to anyone’s head to move here. I certainly have my opinions about the decline of NY and am extremely thankful that we made the decision to leave 30 years ago. Having raised two southern girls, they have never felt compromised or discriminated against as females and both have chosen to remain here after college and raise families. In all my years here, I have met many grandparents from northern states who have retired here to be close to their children and grandchildren. They are mostly thankful to be out of the cold weather and don’t seem to be overly concerned about the politics.