There has long been a push to convince California businesses to relocate their headquarters to Texas, but now there's a grassroots effort to convince dissatisfied republicans in the blue state to uproot and move to the Lone Star state.
"I didn’t anticipate this much positive reaction so quickly," Paul Chabot tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI. "We have over 250 requests for assistance in moving to Texas."
The idea behind the Conservative Move website was born out of frustration. The former California congressional candidate yearned to find a community that reflected his values, so he moved his family from the suburbs of Los Angeles to Texas. When his friends started asking about his new home, he became an unlikely ambassador to the disaffected, who has similarly grown tired of the Golden State's rapidly growing taxes and pro-immigrant policies that didn't jive with their political leanings.
"Our website, within the first four hours of launching last week, had 2,700 hits," he explains. "This is definitely something that has caught fire."
The original idea for his website, he says, was to help families move and share the pitfalls he encountered. It evolved into a quazi-recruitment page, with help on finding a home and a new job.
He fights back against the notion that the website is divisive.
"What we would love is for people to have a bigger conversation about what makes a great city. What makes a great neighborhood?"