How did Gov. Kevin Stitt’s State of the State address in 2020 differ from his first one in 2019?
First off, the second speech was about 42% longer in number of words: nearly 4,700 words, compared with about 3,300 last year.
Two word clouds below, plus a table with a sampling of key words, capture some of the content differences. This year there were a lot more references to health, reform, economy and leadership, and fewer to budget, government, teachers and reimagining. But both were imbued with his overall message about making dramatic changes in state government.
| Words | Number of Times Used, 2020 Speech | Number of Times Used, 2019 Speech |
|---|---|---|
| health | 21 | 8 |
| opportunity (opportunities) | 16 | 7 |
| reform | 16 | 9 |
| education | 15 | 12 |
| school(s) | 11 | 8 |
| economy | 8 | 4 |
| tax (taxes) | 8 | 7 |
| teacher(s) | 7 | 13 |
| job(s) | 7 | 5 |
| together | 7 | 8 |
| Medicaid | 7 | 4 |
| vision | 6 | 7 |
| top ten | 6 | 7 |
| transparent or transparency | 4 | 5 |
| corrections (correctional) | 4 | 1 |
| outcomes | 3 | 3 |
| university | 3 | 0 |
| federal | 3 | 4 |
| saving(s) | 3 | 6 |
| imagine or reimagine | 2 | 13 |
| results | 2 | 4 |
| children | 2 | 3 |
| women | 2 | 2 |
| men | 2 | 0 |
| oversight | 2 | 1 |
| God | 2 | 2 |
| turnaround | 1 | 4 |
| goal or goals | 1 | 6 |
| college (institutions) | 1 | 0 |
| priority or prioritize | 1 | 2 |
| work with | 1 | 2 |
| accountable (unaccountable) | 1 | 2 |
| consolidate | 1 | 1 |
| state government | 1 | 8 |
| bold | 1 | 3 |
| oil | 1 | 5 |
| measurable | 0 | 4 |
| higher education | 0 | 1 |
| digital | 0 | 3 |
| criminal justice | 0 | 2 |
