BOISE, Idaho — The Gem State has not voted to send a Democrat to the White House since 1952.
Though Idaho's two biggest Democratic names in history, Cecil Andrus and Frank Church, are legendary here in Idaho and in Washington, the Gem State has been a Republican stronghold for decades.
If history does repeat itself, the majority of Idahoans will vote Republican tomorrow.
It's that Red stronghold, however, that has made Idaho very appealing to Conservatives living in predominately Blue states, like California. Roughly 80,000 people moved to Idaho in 2018.
One former Californian took this appeal and made a business out of it. The business, called Conservative Move, helps clients move from Blue states to Red states.
Idaho is the second most popular destination for their clients, according to Paul Chabot, founder of Conservative Move.
"People want a better quality of life and that's why they're coming to Conservative Move for our advice and suggestions," Chabot said. "And quite honestly, families have just had enough."
The goal of this business is to help families looking to live the "American Dream."
"Most of us our pro-faith. We are pro-life. We wear our values on our sleeves. Most of us are military veterans, or spouses, or small business owners. We love our country," Chabot said. "We love our founding values and we just want to live somewhere where we're not going to be attacked. You've seen these Trump conservative voters across this country, you can Google it. It's everywhere. They're getting punched. They're getting run over. They're getting shot. It is just disgraceful."
Families looking for a place to raise their families or retirees looking for somewhere to enjoy this final stage of their life are looking for a state like Idaho, according to Chabot.
Not all newcomers, however, move to Idaho simply for political reasons.
One of Conservative Move's clients, a retiree, moved to Idaho two months ago from Oregon, sight unseen. Oregon was her home, but after the riots in Portland, she wanted to get out of there.
"I thought, you know, I think I want to be out of there for, possibly for personal safety. Not saying I was afraid, but, you know, I'm not sure what's going to go on," Chris said. "When there was threats of, 'Hey, we're coming to burn the suburbs next, I thought 'Wow, I don't feel comfortable in my own home anymore.'"
After seeing a video of armed citizens in Couer d'Alene standing up to ANTIFA, Chris decided Idaho was the next destination.
"In Salem, I would have been afraid to wear a Make American Great Again T-shirt. I would have loved to, but there's no way," Chris said. " And neighbors even said the same thing, they said, 'We'd like to, but don't do it. You will get beat up. You'll get hurt.' So there's no way I would have done that there. But here, I feel like if I want to express my conservative opinion, I can do so."
Although the move to Idaho was overall a good decision, it was very hard to Chris to leave Oregon.
"I thought, you know I pay a lot in property tax and income tax, and the government of Oregon is not protecting its citizens from violence, from destruction," she said. "It's not protecting its businesses and it seemed to even be promoting the violence going on. And so I thought, I'm taking my tax dollars somewhere else. I will gladly give them to the state of Idaho."
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