Nan and William Nagle climbed into their Ford 150 pickup, buckled their seatbelts and said goodbye to the state they had called home for the past seven decades. A removals firm had days before packed up the family home near Palo Alto where they had spent 35 years raising their children and riding horses in the sunshine. As born-and-bred Californians the couple never imagined they would leave The Golden State, but as its progressive policies became more and more entrenched, they felt they had no choice.
So in May 2021 the Nagles and their two corgis, Freddie and Flossie, set off on the 20-hour journey to start a new life 1,200 miles away in “free” Montana. “Leaving a home of 35 years is sad, but so much had changed over the years that the place we were leaving was very different, and not in a good way”, Mrs Nagle, 76, tells The Telegraph from the porch of her blue slatted house overlooking Whitefish Lake. “It is rather bittersweet to see the destruction to a previously wonderful place and be forced to leave it behind.
” The Nagles are among scores of “political refugees” who have in recent years fled progressive blue states for Montana’s breathtaking natural beauty and conservative values. And in a state where cows outnumber the population of 1.1 million by more than two-to-one, the influx of newcomers could have major national consequences and hand control of the Senate to the GOP.
A red wave has in recent years swept across Big Sky Country. Democrats have go.
