Your candidate lost? Some exit strategies

By Sue Horton

Nov. 7, 2012 12 AM PT

It didn’t really matter who won Tuesday’s election -- other countries were likely to see an influx of immigrants either way. We know this thanks to the science of Googling. On Tuesday morning, entering the search phrase “if Romney wins, I’m moving,” got 61,200 hits, while “if Obama wins, I’m moving” yielded 21,400.

Those vowing to flee the election results said they were headed to all points of the globe and beyond if their party lost, with popular destinations including Australia, Britain, Europe, Cuba, Mars and Margaritaville.

One supporter of President Obama advocated moving to India or China in the event of a Mitt Romney victory because “that’s where he’ll be outsourcing all the jobs to.” Another promised not only to move to Canada but to raise an army to invade from the north and “liberate” the United States from a Romney presidency.

In the event of an Obama victory, one voter plans on “moving to Antarctica and starting my own government.” Another is opting for Texas “cuz I know y’all are gonna secede from the US of A.”

But not all those planning to migrate blamed the candidates. As one tweeter put it: “If Romney wins, I’m moving to Canada. If Obama wins, I’m moving to Canada. This is not a political tweet, I just want to live in Canada.”

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Sue Horton

Sue Horton returned to the Los Angeles Times as Op-Ed and Sunday Opinion editor in December 2018, then moved to a senior editor role before leaving the newsroom in July 2021. For four years before that, she was a Top News editor and West Coast bureau chief at Reuters. She held a variety of editing jobs at the Los Angeles Times between 2001 and 2014, including Op-Ed and Sunday Opinion editor and deputy California editor. Before her first stint at The Times, she was editor-in-chief of the L.A. Weekly for six years. Prior to that, she was a journalism professor at the University of Southern California. Horton started her journalism career working for Community Information Project, an investigative reporting nonprofit that did stories on contract with public television, “60 Minutes,” and a variety of newspapers and magazines. She is the author of a nonfiction book, “The Billionaire Boys Club,” which was the basis for an NBC miniseries. Horton has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Redlands and a master’s in journalism from USC.

Your candidate lost? Some exit strategies

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