A Florida sheriff is urging Americans migrating from blue states to not bring votes for anti-police liberal leadership with them.
"Do me a favor, don't vote the way the majority of the people voted from where you came or you'll have here what you had there – guaranteed," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told The Epoch Times in a candid interview.
"Please don't vote like you did up north. You'll still have warm weather in the winter, but you won't have low taxes or a safe community."
Judd said defund-the-police movements have a direct correlation to rising crime rates in areas led by Democrats.
"Florida has had a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and a Republican governor for a very long time," Judd told the Times. "So all you have to do is compare-and-contrast. You go to these areas where crime is through the roof, look at you representatives."
"The good things that are happening in Florida don't just happen," Judd told the Times. "If they did, those good things would be happening in Seattle and Portland. But when you create an environment where criminal conduct is acceptable that's exactly what you get."
The Portland, Oregon, city council voted 3-1 to cut $15 million from the police budget, effectively eliminating 84 police officer from its force. The 37 homicides in the city this year are six times as many as last year at this time.
"We are definitely seeing the trend of people fleeing blue 'lockdown' states for the 'free state' of Florida," GOP Florida state House Rep. Blaise Ingoglia told the Times. "They are coming here because of sunshine and opportunities. I can only hope that they leave any liberal ideology at the border.
"You are coming for a reason. Please don't 'New York our Florida.' Don't turn this great state into the state you fled from."
Judd says the crime in those blue states is likely even worse than reported.
"When people lose trust and they lose faith in the government or the police they quit interacting with you," Judd said. "So you don't know how bad the crime rate is if people aren't calling to tell you and people quit calling to tell you when you quit caring."