— In Texas this morning,
state legislators kicked off a 30-day special session
called by Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
He’s pressing them to pass a new conservative agenda,
including an anti-trans bathroom bill and restrictions on abortion funding.
If that effort is successful,
Texas will become even more red—
and a polarizing new real estate venture is banking on just that.
Their target clients want to live in a politically homogenous, conservative utopia,
and they’re willing to move across the country to find it.
Nigel Duara has more from North Texas.
— So you can see the stone and brick facade, the nice features.
that’s pretty common.
In fact, you won’t see a house in North Texas that’s not brick.
— We noticed that, yeah.
— Tamir Barkan and his wife, Sarah, grew up about 30 miles north of LA.
But they don’t want to live there anymore.
— Which one would be yours?
— The Barkans are looking at homes in McKinney,
a small city north of Dallas that’s recently seen a construction boom.
They wanna be able to rely on a single income so Sarah can stay home and raise the kids.
But they’re also fed up—
as conservatives, they’re tired of being surrounded by liberals.
— I guess we align with the political beliefs of everything conservative.
The gun laws…
— Taxes.
Abortion.
I mean, and that’s not the way California aligns.
And so, it’s hard for us.
Like, when we read the news and everything,
it’s like, “Ugh.”
It’s kind of disheartening.
— I did not promise all yards to be this big.
— That’s where Derek Baker comes in.
He’s a lead realtor with a new company called Conservative Move,
which is grounded in one simple idea:
if you’re a conservative,
then living in a conservative area means a happier and safer life.
— They can actually live out the American dream, buy a home.
— And is that part of your pitch,
to tell them to come experience the American dream?
— It is, absolutely.
And we say this is not make-believe.
I’m living it.
I have a five bedroom, four bath on a third of an acre.
I bought it six months ago for less than $400,000.
That’s a million dollar house in most places in California.
— Baker’s a native Texan.
He returned to his home state in 2011,
after 25 years on Capitol Hill as a staffer for a number of Republican politicians.
And he isn’t just looking to help Republicans buy houses.
He wants to make sure it’s Republicans who are selling them, too.
— We’ll help any client.
But when we want to have a real estate agent on our team,
we want them to be able to talk our language.
Are they conservative?
Do they espouse the same beliefs, generally, that we do?
— The idea of a for-us, by-us realty company came from founder Paul Chabot,
who met Baker in Washington:
— Conservativeness can’t solve everything.
But it is an ideology and a belief for a better way
and a healthier way of living for a community.
— Coming out of college as a sheriff’s deputy,
Chabot began a nomadic career:
in the White House, working intelligence in Iraq,
then home to California,
where he twice ran for office on an anti-drug message
that highlighted his career in law enforcement:
— By holding one another accountable, there’s no limit to what we can accomplish.
— He moved his wife and four young kids to McKinney in January,
after losing for a second time.
— When we lost that election, this last go-around,
it was a wakeup call.
I mean, we realized that you can’t help people who don’t want to help themselves.
So for us, it just made sense to leave.
We feel like we’re on vacation everyday.
— Chabot says the safe streets and top-notch schools drew them to McKinney.
It’s safe enough to leave the keys in your golf cart.
There’s no graffiti, no trash, and definitely no loud music.
He told us he wished he moved here earlier,
and that he hadn’t wasted so much time trying to fix a broken system.
— I think the liberal experiment is California.
It is the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country about what not to become.
— Those who no longer recognize their home states
are interested in Chabot’s plan.
He’s working to close his first few deals,
and has already recruited realtors in other conservative states.
Since launching the company in May,
he says more than a thousand prospective clients have called and written in.
— Devens, Massachusetts:
A gentleman writes us, “I’d like to own, but renting is just fine with me, I can move in October.”
“I’m a veteran and live in a liberal hellhole.”
You have Fritz that writes,
“I’ve been a conservative Republican, registered voter for decades in New York,”
“and cannot stand liberal politics.”
— Political self-segregation has become increasingly common in the U.S.—
more than half of Americans live in a county
that’s overwhelmingly Democratic or overwhelmingly Republican.
And Chabot thinks most people like it that way.
— Look, I worked for both Clinton and Bush in the White House.
I believe back then,
Republicans and Democrats could get along and have a conversation.
Today, we just don’t even recognize each other.
— Happy Fourth of July!
— Collin County remains a Republican stronghold,
but it’s changing—
it went to Romney in 2012,
and by a smaller margin to Trump last year.
George Fuller is McKinney’s mayor.
He’s a longtime real estate developer and something of a local rock star:
— Are you moonlighting as the mayor,
or are you moonlighting as a guitar store owner?
— Man, I’m all-in as the mayor.
— Fuller’s a Republican,
but he says he doesn’t agree with Chabot’s vision—
he says McKinney isn’t Pleasantville,
and it’s better that way.
— As a mayor of this community that has seen both conservative and liberal constituents,
boy, the power of them coming together is by far greater than any party individually.
— So really, the message from the mayor in this case
is just to open your arms wide as possible?
— Open your arms wide as possible,
let’s forget about what party that you’re in.
Let’s talk about this as a community.
And I think if we did that on a grander level, on a state level, on a federal level,
we’d be a better country as well.
— Chabot sees it differently.
He says his company encourages people to confront a divide that already exists—
and to choose a side.
— What do you tell your friends in California when they say they want to move out here?
— I tell them it’s a lot like being in a bad relationship.
That California is that bad relationship,
and you might not realize how truly bad it is until you’re out of it.
There’s a better life, a better way to live,
and that’s out here—
or many other red states, for that matter.