In 2010, influenced by the Tea Party and its focus on fiscal issues, 17 states elected Republican governors. And, according to an Examiner.com analysis, every one of those states saw a drop in their unemployment rates since January of 2011.
Since January of 2011, here is how much the unemployment rate declined in each of the 17 states that elected Republican governors in 2010, according to theExaminer:
Kansas – 6.9% to 6.1% = a decline of 0.8 [percentage points (11.6 percent)]
Maine – 8.0% to 7.4% = a decline of 0.6 [percentage points (7.5 percent)]
Michigan – 10.9% to 8.5% = a decline of [2.4 percentage points (22 percent)]
New Mexico – 7.7% to 6.7% = a decline of [1.0 percentage points (13 percent)]
Oklahoma – 6.2% to 4.8% = a decline of [1.4 percentage points – (22.6 percent)]
Pennsylvania – 8.0% to 7.4% = a decline of [.6 percentage points (7.5 percent)]
Tennessee – 9.5% to 7.9% = a decline of [1.6 percentage points (16.8 percent)]
Wisconsin – 7.7% to 6.8% = a decline of [0.9 percentage points (11.9 percent)]
Wyoming – 6.3% to 5.2% = a decline of [1.1 percentage points (17.5 percent)]
Alabama – 9.3% to 7.4% = a decline of [1.9 percentage points (20.4 percent)]
Georgia – 10.1% to 8.9% = a decline of [1.2 percentage points (11.9 percent)]
South Carolina – 10.6% to 9.1% = a decline of [1.5 percentage points (14.2 percent)]
South Dakota – 5.0% to 4.3% = a decline of [0.7 percentage points (14 percent)]
Florida – 10.9% to 8.6% = a decline of [2.3 percentage points (21 percent)]
Nevada – 13.8% to 11.6% = a decline of [2.2 percentage points (15.9 percent)]
Iowa – 6.1% to 5.1% = a decline of [1.0 percentage points (16.4 percent)]
Ohio – 9.0% to 7.3% = a decline of [1.7 percentage points (18.9 percent)]
This was not the case for states that elected Democrats in 2010. For instance, the unemployment rate in New York actually went up. On average, states that elected Republican governors in 2010 saw their unemployment rates decrease at a faster clip than states that elected Democrats and the unemployment rate at the national level did.
This is yet another example of how the so-called “blue state” model is not working.
*an earlier version of this article incorrectly relied on an analysis that mistook a decline in percentage points for a percent decline.
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