This opinion piece by a Fox News columnist coins the term "blue blight" to describe what the author argues is a pattern of economic and educational decline in Democratic-voting ("blue") US states, likening its spread to Dutch Elm Disease, which devastated American elm populations from the 1930s onwards. The author contends that declining public education quality, falling manufacturing employment and rising state and local taxes are increasingly visible in these states, and argues that voters are the only ones who can reverse the trend.

The piece cites Department of Education data for 2017-2022 showing that states which backed Kamala Harris in the 2024 election saw faster falls in higher education enrolment than Republican-voting states, with five of the six states recording enrolment growth being Republican-leaning (Georgia, Kentucky, Arizona, Indiana and Utah). It also points to California, where manufacturing jobs have fallen from around two million in 1978 to 1.2 million today despite the population growing from 22 million to nearly 40 million, and where the number of oil refineries has dropped from 23 in 2000 to 11 today, contributing to higher petrol prices for residents.