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.

WordsNumber of Times Used, 2020 SpeechNumber of Times Used, 2019 Speech
health218
opportunity (opportunities)167
reform169
education1512
school(s)118
economy84
tax (taxes)87
teacher(s)713
job(s)75
together78
Medicaid74
vision67
top ten67
transparent or transparency45
corrections (correctional)41
outcomes33
university30
federal34
saving(s)36
imagine or reimagine213
results24
children23
women22
men20
oversight21
God22
turnaround14
goal or goals16
college (institutions)10
priority or prioritize12
work with12
accountable (unaccountable)12
consolidate11
state government18
bold13
oil15
measurable04
higher education01
digital03
criminal justice02

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