Red States Archives - The Minnesota Sun

Commentary: Americans Largely Stand with Red States on Transgender Issues

December 19, 2024 The Daily Torch

As transgender issues have risen in prominence, a patchwork of federalism has emerged, with red states taking a firm stand against the mutilation and chemical castration of young people and blue states declaring themselves “sanctuary states” for transgender youth.

States like Idaho, Florida, Alabama and North Dakota have taken a strong stand against the chemical castration or mutilation of minors, making it a felony to drug or operate on children under the age of eighteen for the purposes of changing their gender.

Red States Report More COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects, Study Finds

April 7, 2024 The Center Square

People living in states with more Republican voters were more likely to report COVID-19 vaccine side effects than those in states that lean blue.

That’s according to a new study that looked at 620,456 COVID-19 vaccine adverse event reports from adults reported to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. The study was published in JAMA.

Red States Considering Sex Ed Bills That Would Require Students to Watch Pro-Life Video

February 23, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

Multiple legislatures are considering bills that would require students to watch a video of an infant’s development in the womb as part of their sex education.

Live Action, a pro-life activist organization, created a three-minute video, which shows an animated infant named Olivia go through the developmental process from conception to full term at nine months. Bills have been proposed in Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and West Virginia to include an animation “comparable” to the Live Action video for students from high school to as young as third grade.

America Is Undergoing a Massive Population Shift

December 25, 2023 Minnesota Sun Staff

Democrat-run states are still losing population, new Census Bureau data reveal, a development that could have electoral implications when the government reapportions congressional districts in 2030.

Oregon, California, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania, all states with Democratic governors and Democrat-controlled state legislatures, lost between 0.01% and 0.52% of their population between July 2022 and July 2023, according to the Census Bureau. Left-leaning states experienced similar declines in the lead-up to the 2020 Census, which led to them losing seats in the House of Representatives and votes in the Electoral College, an outcome that could occur again in 2030 if current trends persist.

Americans Move to Red and Blue States as Polarization Deepens

July 10, 2023 Minnesota Sun Staff

As political polarization is on the rise in the United States, Americans are increasingly moving to either deep-red states or deep-blue states in order to live among others who share their political beliefs.

According to the Associated Press, 48 out of the 50 states have one party in control of their state legislature. In 28 of these states, the party in control has a veto-proof supermajority in at least one chamber. As a result, Republican-controlled states are implementing more conservative policies while Democratically-controlled states enact more left-wing policies.

Commentary: Red States Ban Destructive Transgender Treatments as K-12 Schools Funnel Children to Dangerous Path

May 5, 2023 Minnesota Sun Staff

Citing “very serious side effects” and a “lack of reliable scientific evidence for their efficacy and safety,” Missouri is clamping down on chemical and surgical gender transition interventions for both children and adults.

The move comes as public schools across the nation push children toward transgenderism with organized efforts and intentional tactics that leave children’s parents and legal guardians in the dark.

Parents Organization Reports Nearly 6,000 U.S. Public Schools Support Keeping Child’s Gender Identity Hidden from Parents

March 9, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

A Parents Defending Education (PDE) report revealed that 5,904 government schools in the United States maintain transgender or “gender nonconforming” policies that openly assert school staff can or should keep a child’s preferred gender identity hidden from parents.

Abortion Pill Maker Sues Red States over Bans: ‘Impacts the Company’s Bottom Line’

January 26, 2023January 25, 2023 Admin

A company behind the manufacturing of a pill used in chemical abortions filed a lawsuit on Wednesday morning challenging state bans on the abortions, The New York Times reported. GenBioPro, which makes the abortion pill mifepristone, filed the lawsuit in a West Virginia federal court to argue that Federal Food and Drug regulations (FDA) take priority over state laws regulating abortion, according to the NYT. The lawsuit argues that the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill trumps state laws and that abortion bans violate the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which protects interstate commerce.

Planned Parenthood to Send Mobile Clinics to Borders of Red States

October 5, 2022October 4, 2022 Minnesota Sun Staff

After the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the subsequent restrictions on abortion implemented in multiple states across the country, the far-left pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood has announced a new strategy to combat such pro-life laws: Opening multiple “mobile clinics” that will travel to the borders of states with such laws in place.

According to NPR, the group plans to open its very first mobile abortion clinic in southern Illinois; the clinic operates out of a large RV that includes a waiting area, a laboratory, and two separate exam rooms. The clinic will offer consultations and give out abortion pills in late 2022, and will eventually begin offering surgical abortions in 2023, bringing its services as close to the borders of certain Republican-led states as possible while remaining within the borders of a pro-abortion state like Illinois.

CEO Threatens Company ‘Exit’ from Red States over Abortion Laws Despite Having Investments in China

September 28, 2022September 27, 2022 Minnesota Sun Staff

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said Friday his multinational software company may “exit” Republican states over anti-abortion laws. At the same time, however, Benioff through his business has investments located in China, a country that has engaged in human rights abuses.

“If you’re going to discriminate against our employees, we’re not going to set up shop there,” Benioff said Friday to a CNN anchor asking whether Salesforce is “considering” moving out of places “restricting or outlawing abortion.’”

Commentary: The Federal Government’s Bungled Census Is Bad News for Red States

September 4, 2022September 3, 2022 Minnesota Sun Staff

If a politician from Florida decides to run for president in 2024, his (or her) home state will be short two votes in the Electoral College, and when the new session of the U.S. House of Representatives convenes in January 2023, Florida will be missing two congressional seats to which it is entitled.

Why? Because according to a post-2020 census survey, the U.S. Census Bureau significantly undercounted the population of Florida, as well as Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. At the same time, it overcounted the population of eight states, all but one of which is a blue state.

Red States to Cash In on Dems’ Green Energy Bill

August 31, 2022August 30, 2022 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Inflation Reduction Act is pumping money for electric vehicle initiatives into Republican-led states with congressional representatives who unanimously opposed it.

The new law will offer a tax credit for the production of battery cells at a rate of $35 per kilowatt hour the battery can store, representing a credit of about 35% the cost for a company to fabricate a cell, according to Axios. A survey of major electric vehicle and battery production investments in the U.S. as of June 2022 reveals that roughly 2 out of every 3 are being built in a state with two Republican senators, according to data from Axios.

Commentary: The New ‘Blue Confederacy’

November 23, 2021November 22, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Why are progressive regions of the country—especially in the old major liberal cities (e.g., Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle)—institutionalizing de facto racial quotas through “proportional representation” based on “disparate impact”? Why are they promoting ethnic and racial chauvinism, such as allowing college students to select the race of their own roommates, calibrating graduation ceremonies by skin color and tribe, segregating campus “safe spaces” by race, and banning literature that does not meet commissariat diktats?

Why are they turning into one-party political fiefdoms separating the rich and poor, increasingly resembling feudal societies as members of the middle class flee or disappear? What does it mean that they are becoming more and more intolerant in their cancel culture, and quasi-religious intolerance of dissent, on issues from climate change and abortion-on-demand to critical race theory and wokeness?

Isn’t it strange that there are entire states and regions wholly reliant on the money and power of “one-crop” Big Tech monopolies? And why, in the 21st century no less, are Democratic-controlled counties, cities, and entire states nullifying federal law?

Commentary: Keep Slandering Red States, Corporate Media and We’ll Keep Winning

October 31, 2021October 30, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

One of the delights of living in Montana under complete Republican governance is that even though your state can be mercilessly trashed by the arrogant blue state corporate media, they can’t do much to stop you or your neighbors from living your best lives.

I kept that in mind this week with the simultaneous appearance of not one, but two extended hit pieces on the poor, benighted, ignorant, awful, rednecks in Montana: one in Jeff Bezos’ propaganda fishwrap, the Washington Post, and the other in the failing New York Times.

I had low expectations before reading each, and in that sense the articles did not disappoint; but they are worthy of forensic examination, because both, in different ways, provide sterling examples of the arrogant ignorance that epitomizes our failing elite class, and the hysterical desperation they feel as both power and the narrative slip from their grasp.

Americans Remain Hard Workers Even Through the Pandemic, Especially in Red States

September 6, 2021September 6, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

With Labor Day upon us, it’s time to take a look at which are the hardest-working states in America, and why. It has been a year that daily and weekly work routines have dramatically changed for tens of millions of Americans.

Researchers for WalletHub, a personal finance website, have once again set out to determine which states are home to the hardest working Americans in their annual report. They compare the 50 states based on both direct and indirect work factors, and then apply 10 different metrics to reach an overall score to rank each state.

The direct work factors, according to WalletHub, include “average workweek hours, employment rate, the share of households where no adults work, the share of workers leaving vacation time unused, share of engaged workers, and idle youth.”

Cities in Red States Show Best Economic Recovery from the Pandemic

July 8, 2021July 7, 2021 The Center Square

As the country continues to climb back from more than a year of an economic downward spiral during the COVID-19 pandemic, cities in states with Republican-led governors that imposed fewer restrictions are experiencing a faster and more robust comeback.

A study by WalletHub ranked the top 180 cities in the country to determine where economic recovery is occurring.

Red States Top Those with Lowest Unemployment Rates

June 2, 2021June 1, 2021 The Center Square

Republican-led states and Vermont reported the lowest unemployment rates in April, according to a new report by the U.S. Commerce Department. States led by Democratic governors recorded the highest jobless rates, according to the report.

Unemployment rates were lower in April in 12 states and the District of Columbia and stable in 38 states, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

States with the highest unemployment rates in April were Hawaii (8.5%), California (8.3%), New Mexico and New York (both at 8.2%), and Connecticut (8.1%). All five states with the highest unemployment are run by Democratic trifectas, meaning Democrats control the governor’s office and both houses of the state legislature.

Analysis: The Hard Facts on COVID-19 Science Denial

August 26, 2020August 25, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

In a Washington Post op-ed titled “More Republican Casualties From Trump’s Coronavirus Denial,” columnist Jennifer Rubin claims that “red states”—specifically Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas—are “paying the price” for their “arrogant and reckless disregard of expert advice.”

In concert with Rubin, multitudes of reporters and commentators have declared that Republican governors have worsened the effects of Covid-19 by “denying science” and reopening “too early.” Meanwhile, they have praised Democratic governors, like Andrew Cuomo of NY and Phil Murphy of NJ, for their handling of the pandemic.