As someone who has been all over the US, grew up in an extremely wealthy (and Republican) part of California, and moved to South Carolina for graduate school, be careful that you're not idealizing this place.
Texas was a slave state, and it shows today... demographically... The deep south is essentially an apartheid state. While there are no physical walls, there are economic and institutional ones. The result is vast swathes of urban and rural decay that you need to be at least moderately wealthy to avoid.
In my opinion, having lived in both, Southern states are quite simply poorly run. Republicans do not know how to govern, and even if they did, they are incapable of producing enough revenue to do it properly, because conservatives have been hilariously duped into believing that the taxation that fuels public services is evil. Be ready for crumbling infrastructure, terrible roads, and shitty schools. Of course you won't agree but that's my biased perspective.
I hope you are wealthy. Parts of the South, as well as parts of Texas, can be affordable. But they are affordable for a reason. Be ready for your kids to get gangbanged and have classmates dancing on their desks unless you can afford to send them to a private school or place yourself in a higher COL area. Who knows though, if you're coming from rural Washington, it might not be so different.
If you're a Trump supporter you'll probably love it. Be ready for endless conversations about trucks, deer hunting, guns, and other riveting topics.
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