Asking a U.S. citizen where’s the best place to live in the U.S. pre-election may be a totally different answer post-election. In 2020, when Pennsylvania and Georgia made history at securing a vote for President Joe Biden, cities like Philadelphia or Atlanta may have looked promising. In November’s election in 2024, those were two of six battleground states that left the Blue Wall and joined the Red Sea.

Meanwhile, Floridian women, in a state that’s historically red, may have raised eyebrows when voters supported former President Donald Trump’s return to the White House but also voted against putting the Heartbeat Protection Act (abortions after the six-week mark) into their state constitution. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion rights have been left up to each state and seven of them are headed toward undoing these restrictive abortion bans. With Vice President Kamala Harris securing more than half (53%) of women voters compared to Trump’s 46%, women nationwide are considering a U.S. 4B Movement to protest her loss.

Curly haired girl wearing patriotic T-shirt — RDNE Stock Project

These days, pondering on the best place to live in the U.S. isn’t about the best local meals for foodies, the coolest looking cities in movies, where your kids or college students may have the best schools, or the best cities for campers and outdoor adventurers. Now, it’s about life-altering decisions, such as where citizens would be able to secure health insurance and child care needs (especially if Republicans return to their 70-time protest against the Affordable Care Act). And 15 states, including New Hampshire where Harris won, had already filed a federal lawsuit in August against the Biden administration over a rule that would allow 100,000 undocumented immigrants (who were brought to the U.S. as children) to enroll in 2025’s ACA.

Will Harris Supporters Flock To Blue States?

With 69 million voters supporting Harris, largely in blue states, would these 20 states be considered the best places to live in the U.S.?

California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Hawaii
Illinois
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Oregon
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Washington, D.C.

For approximately nine in 10 Black women and six in 10 Latina women who voted for Harris, these 20 states may be the way to go. However, the majority (60%) of Black people live in almost as many red states (Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas) as they do blue states (California, Illinois, Maryland, New York). According to the Census, more than 2 million each live in California, Florida, Georgia, New York and Texas. And in both red and blue states, there were counties that were as Liberal as they were Conservative.

Fleeing the U.S. altogether won’t make everything all better either. As Jessica Nabongo, a Black woman who has visited every country, has already confirmed in her book Catch Me If You Can: One Woman’s Journey to Every Country in the World, some of the -isms and phobias in the U.S. can happen overseas too. Depending on where you visit, some places outside the U.S. can be as comforting or as cruel as American cities.

Continent shapes made out of food — Monstera Production

Will Trump Supporters Flock To Red States?

While there’s a wide-held belief that Trump supporters already live in the Red Sea, that’s not always true. For example, a population of 500K in Downstate Illinois encouraged a ballot question to separate themselves from Chicago to create their own state. The Chicago metropolitan area totals about 8.5 million people — or roughly two-thirds of the state’s population. If it had passed, the Illinois General Assembly and U.S. Congress would have to approve this secession to become a 51st state. Seven counties (Calhoun, Clinton, Greene, Iroquois, Jersey, Madison and Perry) all voted in favor of a separate state from Cook County.

Would it make sense for locals to leave their home states to be near those who they have more in common with politically? Maybe, maybe not. Revisiting election results in Georgia and Pennsylvania in 2020 versus 2024, predicting how people will feel every four years is a roll of the dice in some states and not others. And there is no one personality in any state: House Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Senator Ted Cruz both kept their Texas seats in Congress during the same election.

So where’s the best place to live in the U.S.? Like your favorite chair, what may be too hard or too soft for some may be just the right state for another.

election day