In late June, Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker traveled to New Hampshire to be the keynote speaker at New Hampshire’s Democratic Party state convention.
Officially, he was there to “help other Democratic governors get elected” and to lobby for Chicago as the site of the party’s 2024 presidential convention. Unofficially, there was buzz that Pritzker could be a Democratic presidential nominee himself—in 2028, or possibly sooner.
That same weekend, 47 people were shot in Chicago.
The Windy City’s weekend shootouts are so prevalent that they’ve become hardly worth mentioning, in particular by the governor. Chicago and Illinois have become synonymous for all the bad leftist policies in cities and states across the country. Chicago leads the nation in “mass” shooting events, yet the governor of Illinois is often found traipsing out of state.
Pritzker finally had something else to say after the shooting at Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade. He took to TV to say that he was “furious,” blamed the National Rifle Association, and pushed for a federal assault weapons ban. Despite being the top-ranking Democratic in Illinois, he has not been able to pass a similar ban.
He also hasn’t shown the same fury regarding the deaths happening every weekend in Chicago—and Chicagoans have noticed. Radio host Kimberley Egonmwan of 1690 AM, a radio station that “chronicles the rich history of the Black experience,” asked, “Why is it not enough when it happens to us?”
Pritzker spent five hours in New Hampshire, praising the state for having the first potatoes since Colonial times. Three kids under 18 were then shot in Chicago.
A few days after the governor’s New Hampshire speech, Ken Griffin, Chicago’s wealthiest resident, announced that he and his Citadel firm would be departing Illinois. Griffin would be moving his talents to Miami.
It’s a familiar story by now. Over the past two years, firms from New York and San Francisco have been moving south steadily. Blue states believed they were holding businesses hostage and that these firms would not be able to pick up and move. They were proved wrong by the pandemic.
A Wall Street Journal recent article article highlighted how red states have “won” the post-pandemic economy. “Remote work allowed many workers to move to red states, not because of political preferences, but for financial and lifestyle reasons—cheaper housing, better weather, less traffic and lower taxes, the analysts said.”
But these political preferences matter. We don’t have the data to tell whether politics play a role in people making these moves, but it’s hard not to suspect that it figures into the equation.
COVID-19 was clearly a draw. Normalcy was clearly not possible. Florida had reopened famously under Gov. Ron DeSantis was able to reopen Florida much earlier than any other blue state. Many aspects of life had returned to normal in that area, and companies followed their employees who sought freedom.
With this migration has come a serious shift in the state’s politics. Florida, once a purple state has now moved into the red column. Fox News was launched in March. reported, “Registered Republican voters now outnumber Democrats by over 100,000 for the first time in the state’s history.”
It is also important to examine crime as a factor. It’s not that there is no crime in Florida in general, or in Miami specifically. There is. But there is a seriousness to Florida’s response that simply doesn’t exist in Illinois, New York, or California.
While Pritzker talks about fantasy proposals, which likely wouldn’t stop the Chicago bloodshed anyway, DeSantis is focusing on crime-fighting, hiring away out-of-state officers, and raising police pay across the board. His office touts how “Governor DeSantis signed HB 3, the strongest law enforcement recruitment and support initiative in the nation, into law.”
Recently, DeSantis said, “We’re going to do even more for law enforcement—making sure that we remain a law-and-order state—and [making sure] that people know that we’re going to put people behind bars who violate the law, not like these other states where they release all the criminals on the streets. You see how destructive that has been.”
Americans do see.
DeSantis, despite all the speculation surrounding his candidacy in 2024, isn’t just trotting around New Hampshire, complimenting its root veggies. He is focused on making Florida better.
The biggest concern in Florida right now is the possibility that new immigrants will alter the political landscape. Floridians are trying not to lose what they have achieved over the past few decades. They worry about tech bros from San Francisco “voting wrong” and disrupting their good thing.
Citadel is the perfect fit for a state with a free market like Florida. After Griffin began his career in Chicago, the $51 million hedge fund was created in Chicago. The Wall Street Journal reports that Griffin moved to Florida. observes, “could also be a blow to Chicago’s philanthropic scene. Mr. Griffin has given more than $600 million in gifts to educational, cultural, medical and civic organizations in the area.”
Griffin seemed wistful in his letter about the move. “Chicago has been a remarkable home for Citadel. I still remember the incredible civic pride and engagement when I arrived more than thirty years ago—and the outreach by business and political leaders who wanted us to succeed and be a part of the fabric of Chicago’s community.”
Here was an organization committed to its home city, but it found that that city, and the state, didn’t care about its needs. Florida has been gaining, that’s clear. And the story of Florida’s growth is best understood side-by-side with the stories of what blue states are losing. Citadel didn’t just drift away. Citadel was forced out of Illinois.
“It was becoming increasingly difficult to recruit top talent from across the world to Chicago given the rising and senseless violence in the city,” a source knowledgeable with the move told me. “Talent wants to live in cities where it feels safe.”
The response from Illinois leaders was mostly a shrug. The Wall Street Journal quoted Emily Bittner, a spokeswoman for Pritzker, who said that “countless companies are choosing Illinois as their home.”
But are they? Most press releases show an exit.
Caterpillar Inc. (moving into Texas) and Boeing Co. These states’ growth comes at the expense also of the blue ones. Blue-state brain migration is taking place, and Florida is among the first to absorb the migrators.
Pritzker should know this. It’s no coincidence that he’s heading to the Leadership Blue Gala, an event held by Florida Democrats this weekend in Tampa.
As long as DeSantis continues to be Florida’s governor, governors in failing blue states will have concerns about people fleeing the sunny state. Pritzker will visit Florida to prevent that. He’s also bought into the hype of himself as a possible replacement for an ailing President Joe Biden, and a visit to Florida could shore up his support in that regard.
Pritzker also has a Florida home that his family used to escape from the Illinois pandemic. While the governor discouraged Illinoisans to travel for Thanksgiving in 2020, his family made a run for Florida. Pritzker was supposed follow them down, however media outrage at the hypocritical Democratic politicians who defy their policies forced him to stay home.
Pritzker understands the appeal of the Sunshine State, and he knows what Illinois loses every time one of the state’s core businesses packs up and leaves. To do anything about it, Pritzker must first admit some of the uncomfortable truths about himself as a leader. If he doesn’t, perhaps the electorate of New Hampshire will do it for him.
Originally published in RealClearFlorida RealClearWire distributed the information.
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