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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said New York City just shot itself in the foot by electing avowed democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani its next mayor, adding that the far left would have lost in both the Big Apple and New Jersey if an exodus wasn’t already under way.
Fox News host Sean Hannity said at least 9% of New Yorkers plan to leave the city if Mamdani wins, adding that he personally hopes Mamdani loses — for the sake of friends who haven’t yet joined him in Florida after the city’s political decline.
DeSantis suggested he will continue to welcome New Yorkers to Florida who want to keep any far-left politics back north.
"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," he said, adding he’d also accept the Statue of Liberty if it decided to leave and instead be erected in Lake Okeechobee.
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"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 said.
Mamdani’s win was also followed by several fervent reactions from critics who noted that the socialist will be at the helm on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 – including Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., who posted a clip of a plane hitting the World Trade Center and writing, "Wake up New York."
DeSantis said Mamdani appeared to only offer sympathy to an aunt who was on the subway and "got dirty looks" after the terror attacks.
"He never expressed the sympathy in that regard for all the people that got murdered. He's always embraced George Soros-style soft-on-crime policies. He hates the NYPD, if you look at his history. He is not going to stand up for law enforcement," the governor said.
Soros’s son, Alexander, posted a photo captioned that he was proud to be a New Yorker after voting for Mamdani on Tuesday.
"The number one thing that moves people to want to flee these jurisdictions is the collapse of public safety," DeSantis added.
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"And I think he's going to make the [Bill] de Blasio reign look like the Golden Age."
DeSantis noted that New Jersey GOP candidate Jack Ciattarelli came close to defeating Gov. Phil Murphy four years ago — but 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.
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"[W]hen 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."
Fox News Digital reached out to DeSantis’ office as well for further comment on the exodus.
DeSantis also commented separately on Virginia voters selecting a man to be their top law enforcement officer who had envisioned the violent murder of a Republican leader and his children:
"That Virginia would elect a guy who wanted to see the children of his political opponents murdered — against a successful Republican incumbent — is a sign that the state is about to move strongly left," DeSantis said of Jay Jones’ win over incumbent Jason Miyares.
In response to an X follower who asked where DeSantis would house refugees from New York City, the governor quipped: "Southern Connecticut?"
Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins separately commented prior to Mamdani’s victory that it is heartbreaking to see what is happening politically in the northeast.
"I guess the last thing you can say about that is ‘Don't New York Our Florida’ -- Don't take your doctrine and your indoctrination and bring it down here. We're very free," Collins said.
"We stand for freedom and liberty, and we want to keep it that way. So if you're going to come to Florida, you better start espousing how we do things here."
Sharing conservative commentator Benny Johnson's collage of Mamdani calling the NYPD "Haram" -- an Islamic Sharia word for sinful or prohibited -- or for the force's defunding, Attorney General James Uthmeier remarked that the left is "so desperate for a 'W,' they'll cling to Mamdani just to get one."
Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, ran on promises of rent control expansion, climate investment, and city-run groceries. His campaign did not immediately respond to DeSantis’ remarks.
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