In a recent study by WalletHub, Texas ranked as having the nation’s ninth-best economy. Credit: Unsplash / Lucas Beck

Billboards are popping up around Los Angeles and San Francisco using the mass shooting in Uvalde as reasoning not to move to Texas, as first reported by the Express-News.

“The Texas Miracle Died in Uvalde,” the billboard reads.

A hooded man wearing sunglasses is also visible on the display panel, with the catchphrase “Don’t mess with Texas” crossed out with red spray paint, instead replaced with the phrase “Don’t move to Texas.”

Reactions to the billboards have been mixed, as seen in threads in the San Francisco, Los Angeles and Texas subreddits.

“Pretty fucking evil to use the death of children to promote your agenda, no matter what it is,” wrote Reddit user Darnitol1.

“The miracle will be when Abbott is voted out,” another Reddit user wrote.

The billboards don’t appear to be affiliated with any specific company or organization, leading some Reddit users   to speculate whether the message was paid for by people from Texas or California.

Although it’s unknown who coined the term first, the Texas Miracle refers to when the Texas economy managed to escape the 2008 financial crisis relatively unscathed and the unprecedented number of jobs created since then, according to the Atlantic.

According to data from Dallas-based WFAA News , 885,000 people moved to the Lone Star State between 2010 and 2019, 34% of which were from California.

What’s more, 161,465 Californians moved to Texas between 2018 and 2021, according to Houston-based KHOU 11 news.

The Texas Miracle is the opposite of what some newspapers call the “California Exodus,” with the LA Times reporting that the state lost over 352,000 residents between April 2020 and January 2022.

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This article appears in Aug 10-23, 2022.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...