New Florida residents who fled high-crime cities praise DeSantis’ policies: ‘The governor has done a good job’

The pandemic-led trend of people moving to Florida in 2020 has continued into 2021 as former residents of large, metropolitan areas seek more comfortable living in the Sunshine State.

“I’m one who told myself when I was younger, ‘I am never moving to Florida. That’s where people go to die,'” Paula Miller told Fox News Digital. “But I’ve changed my mind, and it really didn’t have so much to do with the weather.”

Miller used to live in Evanston, Illinois — just 12 miles north of Downtown Chicago.

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“The taxes I was paying in Cook County … were getting really insane. My property tax went up $1,000 in one year. And I realized that that trend was going to continue,” she explained, adding later that she is paying less for a three-bedroom condo in Florida than a two-bedroom condo in Evanston.

Miller is also happier with the politics in her new Florida town. In Evanston, a majority of the city council voted in June 2020 to strip funding from the Chicago suburb’s police department. The city council also voted in favor of paying reparations to Black residents in March 2021, becoming the first U.S. town to do so.

“I just saw that as a trend that I couldn’t get behind. And as the election approached … no one was sure of the outcome, but … if Trump won again, I was really afraid of riots breaking out, and I did not feel safe,” she said. “And I wanted to get out for the inauguration. So I came to Florida in October and stayed with friends and looked at real estate. I bought something within two weeks.”

Miller added that she feels “truly safe” in Florida because Governor Ron DeSantis “is a law-and-order governor.” 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis arrives to announce a proposal for an increase in pay for state law enforcement…