Billboard: ‘Dear NYC residents, move to Ohio’

 Residents of the Big Apple should consider the Heart of it All.

A digital advertisement in New York City’s Times Square suggests New Yorkers worried about the possibility of left-wing candidate Zohran Mamdani winning the city’s mayoral race should consider moving to Ohio.

“Worried About Zohran? Ohio Is Waiting For You!” the ad says, the New York Post reported. According to the publication, a group named “Vivek Super PAC — Victors, not Victims,” which supports Vivek Ramaswamy in next year’s gubernatorial race, is behind the digital billboard, shelling out $50,000 on the ad.

The ad is expected to appear all week, Fox Business reported.

“While Mamadani will further crush New York City with his job-killing socialist tyranny, Vivek is ready to unleash freedom, supercharge the American dream and make Ohio a state of excellence,” Andy Surabian, chief strategist to VPAC, told the New York Post.

Tired of the chaos?

Tired of radical leadership?

There’s a better way.

Vivek Ramaswamy is building a conservative movement rooted in freedom—right here in Ohio.

Join us 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/eKOQcZCHWm

— Ohio Republican Party (@ohiogop) July 14, 2025

“We put this billboard up because we couldn’t think of two politicians in the country that represent such wildly different paths for the future of our nation,” he added, according to the report. “The Mamdani path of socialist totalitarianism versus the Vivek path of American freedom.”

Amy Acton, the state’s former health director and the only announced Democrat vying for the state’s top elected post next year, decried the move, telling The Blade newspaper in Toledo that Ramaswamy is “auditioning for the national stage.”

“Vivek’s just using our state to boost his brand while the policies he advocates for actually drive people to move elsewhere,” the newspaper quoted Acton as saying in a statement. “We need a governor who’s in this for Ohioans and will fight for a better future, not for their own ambition.”

According to The Blade, the PAC also launched a $3 million ad campaign, running ads on digital platforms statewide and on TV stations in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Dayton.

Despite the New York City advertisement, the Big Apple has been bleeding residents, particularly wealthy ones, for years.

In April, Bloomberg News, citing the Citizens Budget Commission, reported that 30,000 net New Yorkers left the city for Florida’s Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties in a five-year period ending in 2022. In doing so, they took with them $9.2 billion in combined income.

The report found that New York state’s share of millionaires dropped by four percentage points between 2010 and 2022. Ohio’s share remained stable during the timeframe, Bloomberg reported.

For its part, Ohio could use the residents. Population numbers indicate that the state’s population has remained relatively stable, growing by just 2.1% between 2016 and 2024, from about 11.6 million residents to more than 11.8 million.

Earlier this year, a new analysis from the Tax Foundation found that Ohio lost 0.02% of its population to other states in fiscal 2024, as Americans sought to move to states with more favorable tax landscapes.

According to the analysis, the Buckeye State ranked 30th in the nation for out-migration. Ohio ranked 27th in 2023, 36th in 2022 and 37th in 2021.

New Yorkers looking for a new home probably shouldn’t confer with a recent finding from U.S. News & World Report, which found the Buckeye State ranked as the 38th best state in the country. WHIO-TV reported that the ranking was worse than a year ago, when the state ranked No. 36 in the analysis.

The Ohio Republican Party joined in the chorus encouraging New Yorkers to flee the state, posting to social media and touting Ohio’s “conservative movement rooted in freedom.”