Tennessee YR Chairman says three main reasons explain exodus of blue to red states

TAMPA, Fla. – Stevie Giorno, chairman of the Tennessee Young Republicans, emphasized less taxes, limited government, and the right to bear arms as reasons why people were leaving blue states for Tennessee and others during his visit to the Florida Florida Young Republicans 2024 State Convention over the weekend.

“Well, believe it or not, most of the people moving to Tennessee are like minded. They know why they are leaving. They want less taxes, less government, and they want to keep their rights to own firearms,” Giorno told Florida’s Voice.

Escaping from Chicago to Tennessee in 2014, Giorno stated his family left the Windy City because they were “tired of being taxed and tired of the crime.”

“I think we’re seeing more and more of that throughout the country,” Giorno said. “That’s why in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, we’ve got to keep building more and more roads and more and more homes.”

On his work in Tennessee, Giorno emphasized the importance of growing the party’s GOP base, particularly by electing young republicans.

“We’re very grateful to have over 1000 members, we’re in 30 counties. Most of our work is in Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville,” Giorno said. “That’s where we’re trying to focus, in our major cities. We had 21 Young Republicans get elected statewide to be delegates for President Trump. It’s the most we’ve ever had.”

Giorno also stressed the importance of having young leadership within its ranks.

“Unfortunately, our state party removed some of our young Republicans for various reasons. One being that they were too young to represent the Republican Party, but I think that’s exactly what we need,” Giorno said.

“We need to combat the left, who has all these influencers and all these people on social media, and we need to get people who are young who are ready to knock doors and raise their voices for President Trump and Senator Blackburn and all the other Republicans down the ballot,” the chairman said.

Similarly, Giorno pointed to outreach being done in Florida to grow the party, including its recent red trend of electoral victories.

“I think they’re doing a great job. They’re doing the hard work that’s what we need to do, and that’s evident as we see with all of the elections,” Giorno said.

He added, “We’re winning more and more. Republicans are doing better and better every single cycle.”

“That’s something that Tennessee is doing, that’s something that Florida is doing,” he said. “And we really hope that for President Trump, we’re going to have a lot of other states doing the exact same for Republicans.”