It’s hardly breaking news: millions of residents from blue states have packed their bags and headed for red states over the last three decades. Federal data lays it all out, and a policy think tank group didn’t hold back, calling it proof that Democratic policies are, frankly, unlivable.

Between 1990 and 2021, 13 million people escaped California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts for the sunnier—and apparently saner—pastures of Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, Tennessee, Nevada, and South Carolina.

Edward J. Pinto, who works for the American Enterprise Institute, termed this mass migration the “blue state exodus.” His diagnosis? Progressive policies are driving people away with their potent cocktail of high crime, astronomical housing costs, sky-high taxes, and growing homelessness and unemployment.

“The trend is undeniable: Americans are fleeing progressive states for conservative ones, and they are bringing their incomes with them,” Pinto wrote in a Newsweek op-ed. Translation: not only are they leaving, but they’re taking their wallets and tax dollars with them.

The American Enterprise Institute, for those unfamiliar, describes itself as a free-market think tank that’s all about defending human dignity, expanding human potential, and building a freer and safer world. (Read: they’re not exactly fans of big government and high taxes.)

IRS data makes it clear who’s leading the pack: California, the poster child for progressive policies, saw a net outward migration of 4.6 million people over 31 years. New York matched those numbers, with many of its residents heading straight for Florida. Illinois waved goodbye to over 2 million residents, New Jersey lost 1 million, and Massachusetts saw 800,000 residents say “so long”—50,000 in 2020 alone.

According to Pinto, red states are reeling in these blue state defectors with policies that prioritize low taxes, cracking down on crime, school choice, and stricter immigration enforcement. Meanwhile, blue states keep doubling down on the very policies driving people away.

If Democratic governors don’t pivot soon, Pinto warned, their states could spiral into a “doom loop” of permanent decline: dwindling populations, increasing subsidies, weakening economies, rising poverty, and a not-so-bright future. But hey, maybe they’ll finally find a way to tax the tumbleweeds.