{"id":28721,"date":"2025-07-01T02:36:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T02:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/28721\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T02:36:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T02:36:19","slug":"i-fled-nyc-for-florida-sorry-mamdani-fearing-democrats-were-full","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/28721\/","title":{"rendered":"I fled NYC for Florida \u2014 Sorry, Mamdani-fearing Democrats, we’re full!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since Zohran Mamdani won last week\u2019s Democratic primary<\/a> and put himself in pole position to become New York City\u2019s next mayor, a fresh cohort of Gothamites seems to be eyeing the exit ramp<\/a> toward the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n

This Floridian says: Sorry, we\u2019re full.<\/p>\n

For more than five years now, Florida has been the top destination for fleeing northerners, \u00e9migr\u00e9s seeking something more than milder weather and lower taxes.<\/p>\n

These new Floridians arrived to join a freedom movement led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, escaping the insane blue-state policies that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to a head.<\/p>\n

The newcomers \u2014 myself included \u2014 made the state redder than it had ever been before. <\/p>\n

In the 2024 election, President Donald Trump romped in the formerly deep-blue Miami Dade County and turned Palm Beach County purple, losing it by just a single percentage point.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKarol Markowicz<\/p>\n

Pundits pointed to the increasingly Republican Hispanic vote, and that was a factor. But the energized newbies<\/a> made the shift a GOP tsunami.<\/p>\n

To this day many Floridians habitually send real-estate listings to their ideologically aligned friends up north \u2014 those who longed to join the \u201cGreat Migration\u201d but whose work or family obligations made them stay put.<\/p>\n

When those friends complained about their deteriorating schools, the congestion tax or rising crime, we\u2019d send back an alligator gif, a Florida flag emoji or a video of tough-talking DeSantis describing the fate of protesters who dare to block Florida traffic.<\/p>\n

Come join us, we\u2019d say.<\/p>\n

Now a different group is looking in our direction \u2014 and we\u2019re not feeling so encouraging.<\/p>\n

These people didn\u2019t think the COVID restrictions that kept NYC children in masks outdoors through 2022 were too much.<\/p>\n

They were fine with cashless bail and New York\u2019s sanctuary city status.<\/p>\n

Boys in girls\u2019 sports? Who cares! They vote blue, no matter who.<\/p>\n

But even these Democrats find Mamdani to be a bridge too far.<\/p>\n

They were OK with the city\u2019s leftward drift and the accompanying chaos \u2014 yet they know Mamdani\u2019s agenda of government-owned grocery stores<\/a>, higher taxes on \u201cwhiter\u201d neighborhoods<\/a>, destroying screened<\/a> schools, disdain for Jews<\/a> and more will degrade the city to a place they can\u2019t abide.<\/p>\n

But Florida is not the place for them.<\/p>\n

This new Florida-curious group, we fear, still thinks Democrats\u2019 policies work, and that it\u2019s just a funny coincidence that in so many major blue cities those policies have led to disarray. <\/p>\n

Real liberalism has never been tried, you see.<\/p>\n

Floridians, old and new, understand this is not so.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m seriously concerned\u201d about Mamdani flight, a man who moved here from Connecticut told me. \u201cHis socialist policies \u2014 like rent freezes and free everything \u2014 are exactly the kind of insanity I left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they move here, they better keep their blue votes at home,\u201d his wife added, \u201cand learn to appreciate the true reasons why Florida is so amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lifelong Floridian living on its west coast told me he worries about blue-state newcomers who arrive \u201cnot simply to build a better life, but often bringing with them political agendas that risk altering the character of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBring your money, leave your liberal views,\u201d as a long-time Floridian in Boca Raton put it.<\/p>\n

Florida has been at the top of the net migration list for years, a point of statewide pride. This spring the Citizens Budget Commission reported<\/a> that at least 125,000 New Yorkers fled for Florida since 2018 \u2014 taking nearly $14 billion of income with them.<\/p>\n

But money isn\u2019t everything.<\/p>\n

Or, as Florida state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia warned \u201call of my Republican friends\u201d on X, \u201cGeorgia \u2018welcomed\u2019 people with tax credits for the liberal film industry. Now they\u2019re a swing state\u201d \u2014 one that was once solidly red.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about an influx of money. It\u2019s about an influx of ideology,\u201d Ingoglia added. \u201cIF you come, please leave your leftist ideas behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Floridian man suggests handing out \u201cDon\u2019t New York My Florida\u201d t-shirts at the Fort Lauderdale airport \u2014 but I say that\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s distribute them at JFK or LaGuardia and require our wannabe neighbors to wear them on the trip.<\/p>\n

Floridians have built something great here, and we want to keep it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cKind of left\u201d is too far left for us, and a \u201cmoderate Democrat\u201d is, too.<\/p>\n

Understand that Mayor Eric Adams might be New York City\u2019s voice of civic moderation \u2014 but his stances would never fly here.<\/p>\n

So stay and fight, all you New York Democrats dismayed at your party\u2019s leftward swerve. Take your city back!<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t come to Florida and try to \u201cmoderate\u201d us. Do it at home.<\/p>\n

Karol Markowicz is the host of the \u201cKarol Markowicz Show\u201d and \u201cNormally\u201d podcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since Zohran Mamdani won last week\u2019s Democratic primary and put himself in pole position to become New York…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,69,723,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5341,1269,5620,14516,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-28721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","18":"tag-opinion","19":"tag-republicans","20":"tag-ron-desantis","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114775653392214851","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}