Republican governors are firing back at CNBC after the financial news outlet released its annual quality-of-life rankings, which placed conservative red states in all the bottom-10 spots on the list, even as official U.S.Census data shows those very states are leading the nation in population growth.CNBC faced a wave of online mockery and conservative backlash Monday following the release of its 2026 "America’s Top States for Business" study.
Critics quickly took to social media to call out the outlet, alleging a blatant liberal bias embedded in its ranking criteria, which heavily penalize conservative legislation."Somebody must have forgotten to tell the tens of thousands of new Arkansans who have moved to our state in the last few years about this CNBC report, because they’re voting with their feet and voting overwhelmingly for the commonsense, conservative leadership Arkansas offers," Arkansas Gov.Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Fox News Digital.CNBC SURVEY MOCKED AFTER RANKING ALL RED STATES AS TOP 10 'WORST PLACES TO LIVE'Republican governors, including Arkansas Gov.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, criticized CNBC after the financial news outlet released its annual quality-of-life rankings, which placed Republican-led states in the bottom 10.(Al Drago/Pool Photo via AP, File)Counting down from the tenth-worst quality-of-life ranking to the absolute worst, CNBC ranked the bottom ten states as Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Missouri, Utah, Georgia, Louisiana, Indiana, Texas, and Tennessee.
All ten states are Republican-led and voted for President Donald Trump in 2024.The list is a subset of CNBC’s broader business study, which is now in its 20th year."CNBC is placing increasing emphasis on Quality of Life, one of the 10 categories of competitiveness in our annual America’s Top States for Business study," CNBC's report states.Under this year's methodology, the "Life, Health and Inclusion" category makes up 11.6% of a state’s overall score, up from about 10% last y...