A poll released on Tuesday found that Americans think the District of Columbia is the worst place to live in the United States.
YouGov surveyed 1,211 U.S. adults and had them continuously rank states in comparison to one another. Respondents only saw each state one time, and were asked to then identify which state is preferable in head-to-head matchups. Washington D.C., which was included but is not a state, barreled out at number 51, with an abysmal win percentage of 35 percent.
The results of the study are not all that shocking. Aside from being home to a central government and elite bureaucratic class that has favored lockdowns, D.C. was reported in 2020 to have far-and-away the highest rate of homelessness per 10,000 people in the U.S. While Hawaii came in at 45.6 per capita and New York at 46.9 per capita — D.C. displayed an astounding 90.4 per capita. Worse, 66 percent of the homeless population in D.C. were residents prior to sinking into poverty — demonstrating the failures of those in power to institute policies that promote law and order, public safety, and fiscal policy that doesn’t strip power from the individual citizen.
The YouGov researchers claim “Americans might be rejecting the political divisiveness” of Washington D.C., as speculation over why it fared so poorly in comparison to the rest of the nation. Nearby Virginia ranked third in the nation, winning 64 percent of head-to-head matchups, with Colorado coming in at second with a 65 percent win rate, and Hawaii at number one with a 69 percent win rate.
In 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump ran on “draining the swamp,” a message that resonated with voters and propelled him to the presidency. Even with four years of Trump, “the swamp” shows no sign of changing — as the Biden White House is on track to sign more executive orders than any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, according to the American Presidency Project.
While there is no definitively provided rationale for why Americans ranked D.C. as the worst place to live in the nation, it is curious that Trump’s critiques of D.C. are reflected in a nonpartisan poll.
