Fox News personality Laura Ingraham ranted on Tuesday's episode of The Ingraham Angle after CNBC issued their annual "America’s Top States for Business" study results showing the 10 worst states were all MAGA red states that mostly voted for Republican President Donald Trump.
The 10 states identified as the worst, largely due to having the poorest quality of life, were Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Missouri, Utah, Georgia, Louisiana, Indiana, Texas, and Tennessee. All but Georgia voted for Trump in 2020, while all of the states chose Trump in 2016 and 2024.
To rebut the report, Ingraham shared a recent survey that asked millionaire CEOs which states they feel are the most "business-friendly."
Ingraham declared:
"650 CEOs were polled, and they rated the best states in which to do business. The top 10, including Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, are Republican. They are run by Republicans, except Virginia, which is at number 10, and North Carolina, kind of a purple state, at number five."
"So, money and people, resources, are pouring into red states. How do the socialists brush this off? Well, they do so either by ignoring it or distorting the data, or [with] a little help from their friends."
But the CNBC study Ingraham was ranting about didn't ask millionaires if the states gave them tax breaks or had poor worker's rights and lax environmental protection laws. Instead, it looked at things like crime rates, air quality, healthcare access, worker protections, availability of childcare, and state civil rights laws.
In defense of the study, business site selection consultant Larry Gigerich stated:
"Quality of place, especially investing in quality of place, is the top thing you can do for talent attraction and retention."
CNBC, which reviewed 10 separate factors for their ranking, placed an increased emphasis on quality of life in this year's study based on feedback from business leaders from all levels of corporate structure, including talent recruiters.
You can see Ingraham's meltdown here:
People mocked Ingraham's outrage.
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Independent analysis of quality of life metrics has long shown states that have been controlled by Republican governors and GOP-controlled state legislatures for extended periods rank lower in things like household income, basic human rights, education, childcare, and healthcare.
Why the people who suffer most at the hands of the GOP continue to vote for Republican local, state, and federal candidates is difficult for most outsiders to fathom.
But listening to Trump's MAGA minions finally gave analysts a big clue.
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