In a soon-to-be-aired episode of Unmuted with Marsha Blackburn, “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary revealed that he does not invest in Democrat-led states because of their left-wing policies that hurt businesses.
“I’m not trying to get involved in the partisanship of this statement. Just a fact, I don’t invest in New York, I don’t invest in Massachusetts, I don’t invest in California. In my mind, those are examples of states that are uninvestable because of bad policy,” O’Leary explained in the episode, which was shared with Townhall.
“So, I’m looking for the path of least resistance. If you make it hard for me to make money, I just take my money and go somewhere else. So, in America today we have this giant competition of states, which is really incredible. The states that have lowered taxes, reduced regulatory environments are getting all the spoils. That’s where people are putting their money,” he added. “You see these phenomenal success stories like Texas and Florida and now North Dakota and others that have made it easy for businesses to grow. Anytime you throw resistance at them, they just go somewhere else.”
O’Leary pointed out that Tennessee, the state Blackburn represents, is a “monster success story.”
“Look at what’s going on in Nashville. Show me numbers like that,” he explained. “Fantastic tax policy, reduced regulatory environment, reduced permitting time. Like this is what matters. That’s why you’re getting all that stuff. I mean, Nashville’s on fire. You can’t even get a hotel room there anymore.”
Last year, O’Leary explained to CNN that states like New York were “punishing people if they’re successful,” which Townhall covered.
“The policy here is insane; the taxes are too high,” O’Leary explained, adding, “the regulatory environment is punitive. I had a project in Upstate New York behind the grid in Niagara Falls for electricity — a global data center we were building. Eventually, it got so bad with the politicians in the local region and the state policy we moved it to Norway and all the jobs.”
In the interview, O’Leary pointed out that far-left politicians Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) were “great at killing jobs.”
“Where did Amazon take their jobs? They took them away from her [Ocasio-Cortez]. She threatened to sue them if they created jobs. I mean, this is a reality,” O’Leary said.
