On a tough election night for Republicans in other states, Gov. Ron DeSantis is saying a contributing factor is that many of those who might have voted for more conservative candidates have moved to Florida.
“If you look at all 49 other states since I’ve been governor, look at who’s migrated to Florida, all 49 more Republicans have moved to Florida than Democrats. Vermont, New York, Illinois, you name it, and the result of that is not just migration ’cause we’ve had a lot of people shift within Florida. But when I got elected, we had 300,000 more registered Democrats in Florida. Today, we have 1.4 million more Republicans,” DeSantis said on Tuesday’s “Hannity.”
While the Governor did not talk about Virginia’s elections, he did specifically address the mandates for Democrats in New York City and New Jersey.
He said New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli “would have won four years ago and he would have won tonight if you just take all the Republicans who’ve left New Jersey since I’ve been governor and moved to Florida.”
“If they could have still voted in New Jersey, he would have won both of those races,” DeSantis said.
He acknowledged that “maybe not a Republican” could have won in New York City where Zohran Mamdani emerged victorious despite Republicans crossing over for Andrew Cuomo, noting that former Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani “would not be able to win with this electorate the way it is now.”
The issue is that “center right voters… leave,” and “the resulting electorate is actually more liberal.”
DeSantis also acknowledged that not every Floridian is thrilled with their new neighbors.
“We’re not asking for anyone to move. I mean, 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,” he said, alluding to a joke Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made about taxing new arrivals from NYC.