From Silicon Valley to the Lone Star State: How Texas Became America's Business Capital—and How McKennon Plans to Keep It That Way

Something significant is happening on the American economic map, and it is not subtle. Boardrooms in California, New York, and Illinois are making decisions that would have seemed unlikely a generation ago—decisions to leave. The destination, with remarkable consistency, is Texas. This is not a coincidence, and it is not a temporary trend. It is the result of deliberate policy choices that have made Texas the most compelling business environment in the United States. The question now is whether Texas leaders have the resolve to protect and extend that advantage. McKennon's answer is an unequivocal yes.

The Numbers Tell a Compelling Story

Between 2019 and 2023, Texas attracted more Fortune 500 corporate relocations than any other state in the nation. Companies including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle, Tesla, Charles Schwab, and CBRE Group made high-profile moves to the Texas market, bringing with them thousands of high-wage jobs, billions in capital investment, and the kind of economic credibility that attracts further growth. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex now ranks among the top five metropolitan areas in the country for corporate headquarters, a standing it did not hold two decades ago.

Beyond the Fortune 500, the data on small and mid-sized business formation is equally striking. Texas consistently ranks first or second nationally in new business applications, and the state's share of venture capital investment has grown substantially as coastal investors follow the talent and the opportunity that has taken root here. Manufacturing, long presumed to be a declining sector in the American economy, has found a second wind in Texas, with semiconductor facilities, aerospace manufacturing, and advanced logistics operations selecting Texas sites over alternatives in other states.

This is the Texas Advantage—and it did not happen by accident.

Why Texas Wins

The structural reasons for Texas's business appeal are well understood: no personal income tax, a regulatory environment that respects the time and resources of job creators, a legal system that does not treat businesses as presumptive defendants, and an energy infrastructure that provides reliable, competitively priced power to industrial and commercial users alike.

But the Texas Advantage is also cultural. Texas respects work. It respects risk-taking. It does not impose the social and ideological costs that have become embedded in the business cultures of California and the Northeast. Executives who have relocated describe not just favorable tax treatment, but a sense that their enterprises are genuinely welcome—that government exists to serve the economy rather than to regulate it into submission.

Workforce availability has also played a critical role. Texas universities graduate substantial numbers of engineers, computer scientists, finance professionals, and skilled tradespeople each year. Combined with migration from other states and a robust community college system oriented toward workforce needs, Texas offers employers a labor pool that is both deep and diverse in its capabilities.

The Threats That Cannot Be Ignored

Honesty demands acknowledging that the Texas Advantage faces real and growing pressures. The rapid population growth that corporate migration has accelerated places strain on infrastructure, housing affordability, and public services. If Texas fails to manage this growth intelligently, the quality of life that makes the state attractive to executives and workers alike will erode—and with it, the competitive edge that took decades to build.

There is also the risk of policy drift. States that have watched Texas win business away from them have not been passive observers. Several are now pursuing targeted incentive packages, regulatory reforms, and workforce investment strategies designed to recapture some of what they have lost. Texas cannot assume that its current advantages will persist without active stewardship. Complacency is not a strategy.

Perhaps most importantly, Texas must resist the temptation to adopt the regulatory and fiscal habits of the very states companies are fleeing. When local governments in Texas pursue policies that mirror the progressive governance models that hollowed out Chicago or San Francisco, they undermine the very distinctions that made Texas a preferred destination. The state's competitive identity must be defended at every level of government.

McKennon's Framework for Sustaining the Advantage

McKennon's policy platform addresses each of these pressures with directness and specificity.

On infrastructure, McKennon has committed to an aggressive investment agenda that prioritizes transportation corridors connecting Texas's major economic centers, expansion of water supply capacity to meet the demands of a growing population, and continued investment in grid reliability and energy generation. Growth is an opportunity, not a burden—but only if infrastructure keeps pace.

On the regulatory environment, McKennon supports a systematic review of state-level regulations to eliminate redundancies, reduce compliance costs for small businesses, and ensure that Texas's permitting processes remain among the most efficient in the nation. The goal is not deregulation for its own sake, but a regulatory culture that treats job creators as partners rather than adversaries.

On workforce development, McKennon's platform calls for deeper alignment between Texas higher education institutions, community colleges, and the private sector. Companies relocating to Texas need assurance that the talent pipeline will meet their long-term needs. That requires intentional investment in STEM education, skilled trades training, and workforce programs that respond to market signals rather than bureaucratic inertia.

On fiscal discipline, McKennon is unequivocal: Texas will not adopt an income tax, will not grow government faster than the economy, and will not allow the state's balance sheet to become a liability that future generations must resolve. The fiscal predictability that Texas offers is itself a competitive asset, and it must be protected with the same vigilance as any other element of the state's business climate.

A Legacy Worth Defending

The corporate migration to Texas represents one of the most consequential economic shifts in modern American history. It reflects a verdict—rendered by thousands of individual business decisions—that Texas has built something genuinely exceptional. A state where enterprise is honored, where government knows its limits, and where the conditions for prosperity are treated as a public responsibility worth maintaining.

McKennon understands that this verdict is not permanent. It must be earned, election by election and policy by policy. The leadership Texas needs at this moment is not the kind that merely manages what has been built—it is the kind that actively defends, refines, and expands it.

The Lone Star State did not become America's business capital by following someone else's model. It got here by being unmistakably, unapologetically Texas. McKennon intends to keep it that way.