When the Left Drives Business Out the Door

Howard Schultz built Starbucks from a single Seattle coffee shop into one of the most recognized brands in the world. He employed tens of thousands of Pacific Northwesterners, paid taxes, supported civic institutions, and spent more than four decades calling Washington State his home. Last month, he moved to Florida. Last week, he explained exactly why Washington’s political leadership drove him to do it.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal on May 11, Schultz offered a blunt diagnosis of a state that has turned on the very businesses that built it. His piece was not a partisan attack. It was a businessman’s report card on what happens when ideological politics replaces practical governance.

The verdict is not pretty.

What Schultz Actually Said

Schultz was careful to note that his personal decision to leave Washington had as much to do with family choices as with politics. But he made equally clear that Washington’s policy direction is damaging the ecosystem that made the state exceptional.

He pointed to Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, whose socialist rhetoric, in his words, “vilifies employers even while she continues to rely on them for revenue.” He noted that Washington’s legislature responded to a projected budget deficit of $10 to $12 billion over four years not with structural reform, but with higher taxes on businesses and successful entrepreneurs.

That deficit response produced the so-called millionaires tax, a 9.9 percent levy on personal income above $1 million, signed into law in March 2026 by Governor Bob Ferguson. It will create the highest combined income tax rate on wage earners in the United States once it takes effect, topping 18 percent in Seattle when combined with existing taxes. Washington had been one of only nine states in the country with no personal income tax. That competitive advantage is now gone.

The results are already showing up in hard numbers. A survey by the Association of Washington Business conducted in early May 2026 found that 24 percent of Washington employers are now considering leaving the state entirely. That is up from 17 percent just one quarter earlier. An additional 55 percent of business owners said they are personally considering moving to another state, up from 44 percent the previous quarter.

Starbucks recently announced it will shift hundreds of corporate roles to Tennessee. Microsoft and Amazon, once the engines of Seattle’s hiring boom, have slowed recruitment and reduced headcounts. Jeff Bezos departed Washington in 2023 following the state’s capital gains tax, costing Washington an estimated $954 million in 2024 alone.

The Democratic Party’s Own Goal

The Republican Party has dominated the national dysfunction headlines for years. The chaos in Congress, the endless partisan battles over spending and power, and the erosion of legislative independence under executive pressure are failures that deserve the criticism they receive.

But Washington State is a reminder that dysfunction is not a one-party problem. It comes in two flavors. The Republicans in Washington, D.C., have perfected the art of legislative gridlock. The Democrats in Olympia and Seattle have perfected something equally destructive: governing as though prosperity is the enemy of fairness.

Schultz put the core flaw plainly. He wrote that Washington’s leaders appear to believe “that prosperity can be mandated through redistribution rather than generated through growth.” That sentence should be carved above the entrance to every statehouse in America as a warning.

Entrepreneurs, he argued, take risks others will not. They hire before revenue is guaranteed. They invest locally, pay taxes, and support civic institutions. When businesses succeed, entire regions benefit. Washington’s Democratic leadership has responded to that reality by treating its most successful businesses as adversaries rather than partners.

The practical result? Downtown Seattle faces chronic vacancies. Small businesses that once thrived on foot traffic from tech workers are struggling. Public school outcomes are declining. Homelessness and disorder in core business districts have worsened. Higher government spending has not delivered better outcomes on any of these measures.

The Bigger Picture

Washington State is not an isolated case. It is a preview of what happens when the ideological left takes full control of a state and governs without accountability to results. The same dynamic is visible in other single-party states across the country, regardless of which party holds the keys.

That is precisely the point the Centercratic Party has been making since its founding. The 45 percent of Americans who stand with the Centercratic Party understand this clearly. Governance must be judged by results, not intentions. Public spending must be held accountable to outcomes. Business and government must function as partners, not adversaries. No single ideology owns the truth about how to build a thriving economy.

Schultz closed his piece with a hope. He wrote that Washington “once embodied the future of the U.S. economy, and it can again.” He is right. But it will require leaders willing to put practical results ahead of ideological loyalty. That is not a Democratic idea or a Republican idea. It is simply common sense.

The 45 percent already knows that. The question is when the two parties will figure it out.

The CenterWave Report is published daily by the Center Voter, the Substack home of the Centercratic Party.

Visit centercratic.party.

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