Hochul Sings New Tune After Banishing Republicans From NY

In her inauguration speech on New Year’s Day, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) expressed her desire to fix a major problem plaguing her state: people fleeing her state to escape the consequences of Democrat policies.

The governor appeared to be ignorant of the fact that her own past comments may have contributed to the problem, as she suggested in August that those who disagree with left-wing ideology — including her Republican opponent, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) — should leave the state because they are “not New Yorkers.”

“We’re here to say that the era of Trump and Zeldin and [Marc] Molinaro — just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK?” Hochul said, according to a transcript. “Get out of town.”

“You are not New Yorkers,” she added.

Many people have taken this advice over the past few years — escaping New York’s oppressive, anti-business state government, skyrocketing crime rates, homelessness crisis and radical left-wing policies for more freedom-minded states such as Florida.

Data from the Census Bureau shows that New York had the highest population decline of any state in the U.S. in 2022, while Florida boasted the highest rate of population growth and the top destination for domestic immigration in the America.

In her inauguration speech, Hochul lamented New York’s population decline, claiming that the state has to make changes to fix the various problems that are causing the decline — while not actually providing any meaningful policy proposals to address those problems.

“We must and will make our state safe … we have to make our state more affordable … And we must reverse the trend of people leaving our state in search of lower costs and opportunities elsewhere,” she said.

In the past few years, New Yorkers have had numerous reasons to flee the state, including exorbitantly high corporate and personal tax rates, authoritarian pandemic restrictions and the state’s consistently poor ratings in personal freedom and business freedom — as well as the disastrous leadership of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio that led to many residents fleeing New York City.

However, Hochul did not promise to address any of these issues during her speech, nor did she acknowledge the Democrats’ fault in causing many of the problems that have led to New Yorkers fleeing the state.