CNBC Claims Red States Are ‘Worst Places To Live’ In America Because Of ‘Voting Restrictions’ And ‘Transgender’ Policies

CNBC claims that Republican-led states are among the worst places to live in American due to “voting restrictions” and “transgender” policies.

CNBC’s Top States for Business study weighs states according to categories such as “Infrastructure,” “Cost of Doing Business,” and “Workforce.” However, the news outlet began considering how adequately states protect their citizens from “discrimination” in its “Life, Health, and Inclusion” category — which represents 15% of the total score.

As a result, CNBC says — “based on the data” — that the following states are the “worst places to live” in 2021, as they rank lowest in “Life, Health, and Inclusion.”

1. Arizona
2. Texas
3. Nevada
4. Missouri
5. Tennessee
6. Georgia
7. Alabama
8. Arkansas
9. Louisiana
10. Indiana

Eight of the ten aforementioned states are run by Republican governors. The two states that are not — Louisiana and Nevada — have sizable Republican voting bases.

CNBC’s explanations of the rankings are transparently partisan. For instance, the rationale for Georgia’s position centers upon the state’s election reform law:

Georgia’s sweeping new voting restrictions set the tone for similar legislation across the country — and for the business backlash that followed, with Major League Baseball pulling this year’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta. The state ranks 49th in an index of voting difficulty calculated by researchers at Northern Illinois University. Proponents of the new law note that the Peach State allows no-excuse absentee voting while President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware does not. But the broad crackdown on supposed election fraud — despite no evidence that fraud occurred in 2020 — has drawn widespread scorn in the business world. Georgia also has no statewide protections against discrimination.

Likewise, CNBC slams Tennessee for its protection of women’s athletics:

Tennessee lawmakers took aim at the state’s transgender population in a big way in 2021, passing a flurry of bills including a ban on transgender girls participating in girls’ sports, restrictions on the use of public bathrooms and school locker rooms, and a ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

In CNBC’s overall rankings of the best states for doing business, the “Life, Health, and Inclusion” score appears to give many lackluster states a significant boost. The following are the highest-performing states for “Life, Health, and Inclusion” paired with their overall ranking:

1. Vermont — 42nd overall
2. Hawaii — 49th overall
3. North Dakota — 18th overall
4. Minnesota — 7th overall
5. Iowa — 20th overall
6. Maine — 48th overall
7. Washington — 9th overall
8. Massachusetts — 14th overall
9. Nebraska — 13th overall
10. New Jersey — 26th overall

In the wake of COVID-19 and the lockdown-induced recession, red states’ economies have been recovering far faster than those of blue states. Indeed — as measured by Moody’s Analytics and CNN Business — many Republican-led states have economies that are producing above their pre-recession levels.

At the time of this article’s writing, here are the top-performing states for return to economic normalcy paired with their governors: 

1. South Dakota (108%) — Kristi Noem (R)
2. West Virginia (102%) — Jim Justice (R)
3. Idaho (101%) — Brad Little (R)
4. Nebraska (101%) — Pete Ricketts (R)
5. Wyoming (100%) — Mark Gordon (R)
6. Rhode Island (100%) — Daniel McKee (D)
7. Mississippi (99%) — Tate Reeves (R)
8. Montana (99%) — Greg Gianforte (R)
9. Iowa (99%) — Kim Reynolds (R)
10. Nevada (98%) — Steve Sisolak (D)

Here are the bottom ten states with their governors:

1. New York (80%) — Andrew Cuomo (D)
2. Illinois (82%) — J.B. Pritzker (D) 
3. New Mexico (85%) — Michelle Grisham (D)
4. Massachusetts (86%) — Charlie Baker (R)
5. Oregon (86%) — Kate Brown (D)
6. California (87%) — Gavin Newsom (D)
7. Hawaii (88%) — David Ige (D)
8. Pennsylvania (88%) — Tom Wolf (D)
9. Maryland (89%) — Larry Hogan (R)
10. Texas (89%) — Greg Abbott (R)

Perhaps Georgia, Arizona, and Tennessee are not the ideal places to live according to progressives’ standards. But conservative Americans — especially as they watch Democrat-run states crumble by all objective measures — are likely enjoying themselves just fine.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.