As New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani continues to advance policies targeting wealthy executives, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is reminding billionaires that everything is bigger in Texas – including economic opportunity.
Abbott is pitching his state as a refuge from liberal measures Republicans attribute to driving businesses out of the Empire State.
For New York, the stakes are high: even a modest outflow of firms and top earners could dent tax revenues and reshape the city’s role as a global financial hub. For Texas, the influx could mean more jobs, investment and economic clout.
Against that backdrop, Abbott’s office is making an aggressive case for relocation.
“Governor Abbott is proud to welcome businesses and job creators from across the country to Texas, where we have no state income tax, reasonable regulations, and a pro-growth environment that encourages free enterprise to flourish,” the governor’s press secretary Andrew Mahaleris told Fox News Digital.
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Mahaleris gave insight into Abbott’s business philosophy, saying that “punitive policies that target successful job-creating entrepreneurs only accelerate the trend of companies choosing Texas.”
Abbott has made attracting out-of-state businesses a cornerstone of his economic strategy, a push that has paid off as Texas continues to draw firms and executives to relocate from higher-tax states. Just last week, Dell Technologies announced a unanimous decision by its board to change the company’s legal home from blue enclave Delaware to the Lone Star State.
Abbott celebrated the decision in an X post, saying, “Welcome home, @Dell” and “This is what happens when job creators and innovators are welcomed, not punished.”
The governor noted that “more businesses are sure to follow.”
That kind of growth matters politically. It signals rising living standards, a stronger tax base and greater leverage to fund infrastructure, education and other priorities without raising taxes.
And the results are reflected in the data.
Texas’ economic output per person jumped more than 10% from 2021 to 2024, according to federal data. Meanwhile, liberal states like California saw far smaller gains over the same period.
Abbott is leaning into that growth as he works to lure firms and capital away from states like New York.
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Concerns of a mass exodus from left-leaning cities and states have been thrust into the spotlight by a high-profile clash between Mamdani and billionaire Ken Griffin, who leads Citadel, one of the world’s most powerful hedge funds.
The dispute was sparked by a viral April 15 video where Mamdani promoted higher taxes on non-primary residences worth more than $5 million in New York City. He specifically singled out Griffin’s record-setting $238 million Manhattan penthouse and filmed outside the 24,000-square-foot Central Park South property.
Mamdani pointed to the unit as an example of the luxury second homes that would face additional annual fees under his proposal.
Griffin later blasted the video as “creepy and weird,” saying at the Milken Institute Global Conference on May 6 that he watched it multiple times. He also said Citadel is reassessing its planned $6 billion Manhattan office tower, while continuing to expand in the red state of Florida, which he called “unquestionably” the right choice.
Mamdani has backed a slate of progressive proposals, including higher taxes on high-value properties, expanded tenant protections and measures aimed at curbing wealth inequality in the city.
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The clash is familiar ground for Griffin, who has long warned that policies targeting the ultra-wealthy and rising crime can drive business out of major cities. Those concerns prompted him to move Citadel’s global headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022, highlighting how quickly jobs, investment and influence can follow.
For Chicago, Griffin’s move resulted in the steady erosion of one of its most prominent corporate anchors — shrinking office space, relocating employees and the departure of a billionaire who once poured hundreds of millions into the city’s institutions and politics. It also meant fewer high-paying finance jobs downtown and the disappearance of a major civic and cultural benefactor.
A similar dynamic could play out in New York City, home to nearly 9 million and the world’s financial capital, where the loss of firms and top earners could cost jobs, drain tax revenue and shake the economy.
In the nation’s largest city and a global financial center, the outcome of Mamdani’s proposals could shape not only the future of New York‘s housing market, but also broader debates over regulation, taxation and urban policy.
