Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has a message for New York City residents disheartened by the results of yesterday’s election that saw democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani elected as the Big Apple’s next mayor.
Florida is ready for you!
During an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, DeSantis said the Sunshine State will continue to welcome New Yorkers to Florida who want to flee the socialist takeover in New York.
DeSantis’ comments come after Hannity noted that at least 9% of New Yorkers have planned to leave the city if Mamdani won.
“This is a guy, Mamdani, he wants to take down the Columbus statue. I have already said if they take that from Manhattan, we will take it in Florida,” DeSantis said, adding he’d also accept the Statue of Liberty if it decided to leave and instead be erected in Lake Okeechobee.
“And I think it’s an incredible act of ballistic podiatry, shooting yourself in the foot, by New York City voters. This is a guy who does embrace Marxist economics. He claims he’s going to lower everyone’s costs by having government-run grocery stores, and the only people that would think that would work are people who have never studied a lick of history,” DeSantis added.
“And I think he’s going to make the [Bill] de Blasio reign look like the Golden Age,” DeSantis quipped.
Florida is preparing for a mass exodus.
According to a recent poll from the Daily Mail, which indicated some 765,000 or so would “definitely” leave, and that another 2 million or so would consider fleeing in the event Mamdani is victorious.
“The departure of at least 765,000 citizens would be one of the biggest mass exoduses in American history, with a population equivalent in size to Washington DC, Las Vegas or Seattle leaving the Big Apple,” the outlet noted.
“We’ve absorbed a lot of people over the years,” DeSantis also told Hannity. “I think this guy’s policies, soup to nuts, are probably the most radical left that I’ve ever seen of a major party candidate in a big jurisdiction.”
“I’m telling you, I think I’m going to have to charge an entry tax or something because of this guy, because I don’t know if we’re going to be able to absorb everyone that’s going to flee his poor rule if he gets in,” DeSantis added.
DeSantis pointed to that last election for governor of New Jersey, which saw GOP candidate Jack Ciattarelli come close to defeating Gov. Phil Murphy four years ago. But even after the narrow election, DeSantis said countless Republican voters have since left the Garden State for Florida.
“First of all, we’re not asking for anyone to move. People have talked about putting a tariff on people moving in at this point, because so many have done so. And I know a lot of people in Florida would think that that would be necessary, but here’s just the truth: You look at all 49 other states since I’ve been governor, look at who’s migrated to Florida,” DeSantis said.
“When I got elected, we had 300,000 more registered Democrats in Florida. Today, we have 1.4 million more Republicans. Nobody has ever seen a change that profound.”
DeSantis also noted Mamdani’s vocal criticism of the NYPD, including calling the NYPD “Haram” — an Islamic Sharia word for sinful or prohibited.
The recent comments by Mamdani about the NYPD reinvigorated a push by DeSantis to recruit law enforcement to come live and work in Florida.
Florida currently has a program that pays police officers a one-time bonus of $5,000 (after taxes) to relocate to the state or begin their careers there.
The initiative, part of the Florida Law Enforcement Recruitment Bonus Payment Program signed into law by DeSantis in 2022, aims to attract new and experienced officers to the state.