Tennessee Population Grows as Residents Flee More Liberal States
People are leaving more crowded areas to seek peace and quiet. New York California and California are for smaller but growing states such as Tennessee, but other reasons have accelerated peoples’ move to the area.
In interviews with The Epoch Times, three individuals who moved to small towns in the Southeast region of Tennessee over the past several years from more liberal states said they were motivated to move for things like conservative politics, personal freedoms, and lower taxes.
Tennessee surpassed 7 million residents in 2022 for the first time, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, making it the seventh fastest-growing state in the United States by population last year.
States like Tennessee have become attractive to individuals beyond the natural environment, mountains, and rivers. Those interviewed by The Epoch Times who moved from Illinois and New York said lower property taxes, low or no state income tax, and more conservative populations have become attractive reasons to move to the southeast.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Southeastern U.S. is the most populated region of the country with nearly 129 million residents and was the largest-gaining region in 2022, with a gain of 1.1 percent or 1.3 million people. Most of the increase in population came from within other U.S. states (867,935) while a smaller percentage came from international migration (414,740).
The West was the only region to also increase in population, with an annual increase of 0.2 percent. The Northeast and Midwest both lost residents “due to negative net domestic migration.”
Corporate World to Homesteading
“We wanted to be out in the middle of nowhere,” said Matt Moreno, who moved to Spring City, Tennessee, with his wife, Marla, from the Chicago region in 2020. “We were tipped off about the property and came here fresh out of the corporate world in Chicago. We thought at first it might just be a temporary move, not permanent, and we could maybe make an Air BnB out of it and move back up north once COVID was over.”
Matt and his wife, both in their 30s, grew up in an area of northern Illinois about an hour north of Chicago and less than a half-hour south of Kenosha, Wisconsin—where riots and looting dominated the public psyche just around the time the Moreno’s were packing up to head south.
Matt works in real estate, while Marla sells herbal medicine products. While the natural environment and ability to become more homesteaders than city-dwellers was attractive, so were statistics like lower crime, lower taxes, and conservative politics.
“You see a lot of people here with guns on their side, but we feel safer here,” he said.
The move was not the easiest decision to make, he said, as he said of himself he was not good with his hands or “mechanically inclined” coming from the corporate world.
“The thing about the area that surprised me the most was the sense of community,” Matt added. “In Illinois people will run you over and flick you off in the street. When we came here, neighbors came together to help us get established.”
Matt got into the real estate world in Tennessee quickly after moving and said now he has been able to help other couples and families wanting to move to the area from similar situations he was in.
Aside from the natural beauty and culture, he said the political climate was another major reason for the move southward.
“Tennessee is a very conservative state with conservative values, and to be honest that attracted me,” he said. “Illinois had an extremely liberal workforce and I like being here among like-minded thinkers.”
Other positives for Matt were no state income tax in Tennessee, which he said he’s heard from people in his real estate ventures as a reason they are moving to the state, too.
Matt said they had some learning experiences, such as learning the mountain they lived on was quite windy and the tents they put up to store his wife’s products for her herbal medicine line did not hold up.
They also got into homesteading, noticing a goat was for sale on Craigslist. They bought the goat but quickly discovered goats were social animals so they bought a second and then a third. Then came chickens and ducks.
“We felt people were rude and only cared about money where we were,” he said. “It’s peaceful here. We have trails to access and hike, it’s just a very different world.”
Also from the real estate business, he said one of the main things people ask about land is what are the restrictions to building on it. He said people are surprised to learn that there are none and are really excited about that fact.
There is a slight inconvenience of living in a rural area such as driving longer distances for shopping or eating, but he said he wouldn’t trade the convenience for the location.
From Upstate New York to Southeast Tennessee
The same sentiment of the Moreno’s was true of Lynne Jornov, a nurse who moved south with her husband Gary in 2018. At first they moved to Soddy-Daisy, but relocated to the small town of Dunlap after about two years.
Lynne said because she is a nurse, she was able to move because she can work anywhere. Her husband is a trucker and drives for himself, so his job was flexible as well. The two said in an interview the main reasons they moved were because of taxes and conservative values.
“The cost of running a small business in New York was instance, it was pretty much unmanageable,” she said. “That together with property taxes, we realized we could retire and own our own home outright and still have to pay $10,000 a year in property taxes just to stay there. That was a little eye-opening, along with the political insanity up there. It just wasn’t worth it anymore.”
She said although their families are still in New York, they “had to do something” and move. They also wanted to get into agriculture, with a few cows and other farming to become more self-sufficient.
“It was a tough decision, we really like the geographical aspect here and we loved it in New York,” she said. “It was very beautiful, we had all four seasons. Of course my parents are getting older and I would love to be there all the time, but we wouldn’t be able to live anywhere near as comfortably as we do here.”
They said they thought on the decision for a long time and the business taxes for her husband along with the property taxes pushed them over the edge.
She said the couple has grown children, so that wasn’t a factor in their decision, but they would have a tough time raising their kids in New York’s political climate.
“We love it here and we definitely notice the influx of people now that we’re here,” she said. “We’ve never felt unwelcome, I’ll put it that way. It’s a different way of life and we like that.”
[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]
Gary added current proposals for toll roads, what Tennessee legislators are calling “Choice Lanes,” are not something he would want to see.
“This state needs to be conservative, that’s why we came here,” he said in an interview. “We want to keep conservative clause and not be taxed to death. Hopefully that doesn’t change here and stays the way it is.”
Lynne said she understands concerns of Tennessee natives not wanting people from states with different cultural backgrounds to bring their values with them, but that’s not what they want anyway.
“We could’ve stayed in New York for that,” she said. “Tennessee is more of what we were looking for. Thank God we don’t have small kids because I wouldn’t want to raise a child in any of those places. Things they are doing and allowing are absolutely insane.”
Southward Move Followed by Millions
Jae Gillispie, who moved to the same area from a suburban area in Illinois has documented her move with her husband to Pikeville, Tennessee on social media to tens of thousands of viewers.
She said she left her job after 21 years and her husband left his job after 25 years.
“We downsized,” she said. “No traffic. We love our little home. It’s just beautiful out here, I am so glad we did this. It was a huge risk, because we are not retired. We made decent money, good money, and now we make less than half of what we did, but it’s worth every penny. It’s worth it. It’s just peaceful, it’s tranquil.”
The couple moved to a rural area around 2.5 miles from Fall Creek Falls State Park, the largest and most visited state park in Tennessee, and is around 14 miles from the small town of Pikeville.
“If you’re thinking about moving out here, which a lot of people are, this state is going crazy. Everything has doubled and tripled in price because this is such a hot state right now,” she said, adding they moved in 2020 as the pandemic began. “It’s not cheap anymore, it’s definitely going up in price, but it’s the best move we ever made.”
She said after 48 years being in Illinois, they decided to leave for a variety of reasons, including taxes.
“The freedoms down here, you can’t beat that,” she said. “It is amazing and it’s just so great. So, just to set some of the people straight that care about transplants coming down—we’re not here to change anything, we’re pretty darn conservative.”
After she started posting videos, she said she got about 150 direct messages. She said the most asked question was about the locations of things. Since then she has kept posting videos and has amassed over 14,000 followers and millions of viewers from her posts.
“People are so nice,” she told viewers. “When they say southern hospitality, they mean southern hospitality. It’s the best move we ever made, we love it, absolutely love it.”
She added a similar sentiment to Lynne, stating she and her husband didn’t move to Tennessee to change anything.
“We are not here to change anything,” she told her followers, who had left comments concerned about things being changed by those moving in. “One of the top five reasons why we left is because of the freedoms down here and because it’s a conservative run state. We have been conservatives our entire lives, we both grew up in conservative families, and that’s just the way it is.”
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