His inauguration is coming on Monday, but when he takes office as Louisiana’s 57th governor Jeff Landry knows his chief challenge is going to be to keep the state’s socially mobile residents from hitting the road.

Louisiana’s outmigration problem is an utter disaster. We’ve talked about it over and over again here at The Hayride, but it really can’t be emphasized enough.

On Tuesday, U-Haul put out their latest annual survey of net migration across the country, and it’s once again a disaster for our state not just because Louisiana comes out horribly but because of what it says about our next-door neighbor…

Texas netted the largest number of movers in one-way U-Haul^® equipment in 2023, marking the third consecutive year it has finished atop the U-Haul Growth Index.

Florida ranks right behind Texas among growth states for the third year in a row, followed by North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Idaho, Washington, Arizona, Colorado and Virginia round out the top 10 states for growth.

For the fourth year in a row, California reflected the largest net loss of one-way movers. Other bottom-five states for growth are Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois and Massachusetts. New York ranks 43rd.

U-Haul calculates growth states by each state’s net gain (or loss) of one-way equipment from customer transactions in a calendar year. The U-Haul Growth Index is compiled from more than 2.5 million one-way U-Haul truck, trailer and U-Box moving container transactions that occur annually across the U.S. and Canada.

“While one-way transactions in 2023 remained below the record-breaking levels we witnessed immediately following the pandemic, we continued to see many of the same geographical trends from U-Haul customers moving between states,” said John “J.T.” Taylor, U-Haul International president.

“Migration to states in the Southeast and Southwest is still very pronounced. Demand for one-way equipment out of certain markets in the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast mirrors what we have seen during recent moving cycles. Wherever DIY customers go, and whatever mobility and self-storage needs they have in 2024, U-Haul will be there with solutions.”

U-Haul’s survey, which is based on people renting their equipment in one place and dropping it off elsewhere, is a really good metric for tracking the movement of middle-class people and particularly young professionals. More established and rich folks, who have more stuff, are generally picked up in United Van Lines’ annual survey.

Louisiana looks awful in both. Here’s how we fare in the U-Haul survey released Tuesday…

Yikes.

The next worst southern state to Louisiana was Mississippi, which was 39th. Kentucky was 29th, and Alabama was 22nd, and all the other Southern states were in the top 20.

But those numbers, and particularly Texas and Florida ranking 1-2 in this survey tells you a couple of things. First, playing trailer as the rest of the South is pulling some serious net in-migration is a total disgrace and it’s the sum total of John Bel Edwards’ awful legacy as Louisiana’s governor. But second, we are bracketed by the two fiercest competitors for money and capital that America has to offer.

That means this is a hell of a fight Landry will have on his hands. It also means nothing short of hyper-competitive economic policies and social standards will do.

We’re famous around here for a laissez-faire attitude about government and culture. That attitude is not serving us well and it’s going to have to go away for a while.

We are way, way behind. We’re going to need a radical change in direction as a state.

And Landry and Louisiana’s newly-elected state legislature simply cannot afford to listen to the voices of those people who are responsible for where we are, particularly when the voters of the state utterly rejected them last fall.