Analysis: Republican-Led States Lead Democrat-Led States in Economic Recovery Through February

Jacob BlissMarch 26, 2022

States led by Republican governors and legislatures have been overwhelmingly more successful at bringing their respective state’s economic recovery before those governed by Democrats, according to an analysis of the February state-by-state unemployment data from the Department of Labor.

An analysis of the Labor Department’s state employment and unemployment data for February from the Republican National Committee (RNC) research team revealed that Republican-led states continue, month after month, to outperform Democrat-led states in job recovery and lowest unemployment numbers.

“The latest data confirms Republican states continue to lead the nation with more jobs and lower unemployment,” the RNC research team wrote in its analysis of February data.

Republican governors and legislatures run the top four states with the highest job growth in the country. At the same time, the top ten states led by Republican legislatures have the highest job growth, as states across the country continue to get back to work after the coronavirus pandemic.

Looking further into the data, the RNC analysis confirmed that through February, 15 of the top 20 states led by Republican governors are doing a better job versus those led by Democrats governors. And 17 of the top 20 recovering states have Republican-controlled legislatures:

Republican states are leading the way on jobs and economic recovery. https://t.co/Jz5QAkRnPP

— GOP (@GOP) March 16, 2022

Additionally, 9 of the top 11 states — Utah, Idaho, Montana, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee — are entirely led by Republicans and have produced more jobs than the fully Democrat-led states had before the coronavirus pandemic started and any restrictions were put in place. These are also the same states from the January data that produced more jobs than before the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the pandemic started, Utah has had 156.5 percent of its jobs recovered, Idaho has had 149.9 percent, Montana has had 124.1, Texas has had 115.1 percent, Florida has had 111.9 percent, Arizona has had 111.2 percent, Tennessee has had 110.1 percent, and Arkansas has had 109.6 percent.

The RNC analysis also showed that all Republican-led states had recovered at least two-thirds of the jobs lost during the pandemic. On average, Republican-led states have recovered 97 percent of their lost jobs from the pandemic, compared to the 84 percent for the Democrat-led states.

As a result of this analysis, RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel stated that “Republican leadership is delivering freedom, opportunity, and prosperity.”

U.S. Department of Labor Data

Furthermore, according to the RNC analysis, the three states with the lowest unemployment rates are fully Republican-led. The top seven states with the lowest unemployment are led by Republican legislatures, as states across the country continue to get back to work after the coronavirus pandemic.

The three Republican-governed states with the lowest unemployment rates from February are Nebraska (2.1 percent), Utah (2.1 percent), and Indiana (2.3 percent).

Additionally, out of the top 25 states with the lowest unemployment rates, 21 are led by Republican governors. And out of the top 25 states with the lowest unemployment rates, 22 are Republican-controlled legislatures. In fact, eight of ten states with the lowest unemployment rates are fully Republican-led. Simultaneously, six of the ten states with the highest unemployment rates are fully Democrat-led:

Analysis: Republican-led States Ahead of Democrat-led States in Economic Recovery in December – Breitbarthttps://t.co/bjNmYA8VL3 via @jacobmbliss

— Nathan Brand (@NathanBrandWA) January 27, 2022

Democrats lead the two states with the highest unemployment percentages: California (5.4 percent) and New Mexico (5.6 percent).

The analysis found that Democrat-led states have an average unemployment rate of nearly one percentage point higher than the Republican-led states. The 28 states with Republican governors average 3.4 percent, whereas Democrat-led states have an average unemployment rate of 4.3 percent. Both are down from prior months.

Additionally, according to the RNC analysis, of the states with lower unemployment rates from when the pandemic began, 79 percent are helmed by Republican governors, and 95 percent have Republican-controlled legislatures, which is identical to the January data. It also outlined that 12 states hit new record low unemployment rates, noting that ten have Republican governors, and all 12 have Republican-controlled legislatures.

U.S. Department of Labor Data

“It’s not a coincidence that 21 of the top 25 states with the lowest unemployment rates are Republican-led, and 9 of the top 10 states for income growth are led by Republicans,” McDaniel added about the analysis of the Labor Department’s February data. “Voters will reject Biden and the Democrats’ failed policies and vote Republican in November.”

This all comes as the country has seen the skyrocketing price of gasoline and the highest inflation rate in nearly four decades. The RNC noted that under President Biden, “33 states have hit new record high gas prices, and in 33 states, Americans are paying average prices above $4 per gallon.”

In fact, as the Biden administration and the Democrats push for a world that does not use oil, it makes oil investment scarcer. Since the Democrats have also taken power in Washington, they have taken aim at American energy between Congress and Biden.

As most Democrats have stood by, Biden has canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline, suspended oil and gas leasing, halted federal support for oil and gas projects overseas, and suspended oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). On the other hand, House Democrats passed bills that targeted the oil, natural gas, and refining industries in the United States. The Democrats lobbied their colleagues to eventually pass the disastrous $1.2 trillion, 2,702-page so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill — which Biden signed into law — and passed the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act (BBB) in the House:

“States with Republican governors and legislatures are leading Americans back to work quicker than those led by Democrats.”

18/20 of the fastest recovering states have Republican majority legislatures.

Hey Joe, this is how you actually #BuildBackBetter.https://t.co/Qigl0BBFsA

— Republican State Leadership Committee (@RSLC) December 21, 2021

A recent article from the National Review also exposed that Biden has actually “been following in the footsteps of blue-state Democrats, whose policies began undermining domestic energy production long before Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine, ramping up pressure on already strained global markets.”

Multiple states across the country, such as Maine, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico, have passed bills targeting American energy.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill into law nicknamed the “State-Level Green New Deal” in 2019. In a press release, her office openly asserted that it would “help achieve [the] Governor’s goals of 80 percent renewable energy by 2030 and emissions reductions of 80 percent by 2050.”

The Colorado General Assembly passed Senate Bill 181 in 2019, which had sequentially imposed “sweeping regulations that crippled Colorado’s oil and gas industry.” The Colorado Gazette editorial board explained that “within six months of the bill’s enactment, approval permits for oil wells plummeted by 57%; approved well-drilling permits dropped 58%.”

Nevada’s legislature in 2019 passed SB 254, which would require the Division of Environmental Protection to create a yearly inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and develop strategies to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. The goal is to reduce the emissions by 28 percent by 2025 and 45 percent by 2030, from a 2005 baseline.

And only last March, New Mexico passed Senate Bill 8, which would have “allowed the State to set environmental standards more stringent than federal law” aligning the state with Biden’s policies on air pollution, the Carlsbad Current-Argus noted. A Santa Fe-based spokesman for Power the Future also contended that the “constrictive energy policy at both the state and federal level were responsible for rising prices of gasoline and other sources.”

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.