Steve Cortes, former senior spokesman and strategist for the 2016 and 2020 Trump campaigns and current head of the League of American Workers, criticized CNBC’s decision to rank Tennessee last in quality of life in its 2026 America’s Top States for Business report, calling the assessment politically driven and detached from reality.
Cortes, a former CNBC analyst who now lives in Tennessee, appeared on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show to discuss the CNBC report, which cited Tennessee’s crime rate, LGBTQ-related laws, worker protections, and healthcare measures in assigning the state an “F” grade for quality of life and placing it 50th nationwide.
“Ludicrous. Everything, unfortunately, is wrong with Scott Cohn, and with that network,” Cortes said of the report and its author.
Cortes, who worked at CNBC for eight years before leaving in 2015, said the network changed significantly during his tenure.
“I had a wonderful experience most of the time that I was there, because we were just covering business news. It wasn’t yet politicized. It hadn’t been poisoned by its cousin, MSNBC. But over time… by the time I left in 2015, I couldn’t really recognize the network because it had become so biased, politicized, and this is just another indication of that,” he said.
Asked about CNBC senior correspondent Scott Cohn, who authors the annual state rankings, Cortes said he had known him professionally.
“I think he used to be a left-leaning but basically fair reporter, 10 years ago. That’s not clearly who he is now, right? He’s incredibly biased,” he said, going on to reflect on the broader direction of CNBC, saying the network had drifted away from its original focus on business journalism.
“It used to just be straight business news, just straight market talk, and that’s what I did for years there. I wasn’t political on the show. And most people were not on the network. But over time, particularly during the Obama administration, it became almost a PR arm, effectively, of the Democrat Party,” he added.
Cortes further said that during his final years at the network, his commentary was restricted.
“By the time I left, I was being regularly censored, regularly taken off the air if I said anything critical,” he claimed.
Cortes said he eventually joined Fox Business before becoming involved in politics and later relocating his family from Illinois to Tennessee.
Calling Tennessee “a political and cultural haven,” Cortes praised the state’s business environment, people, and lifestyle.
“I couldn’t be more grateful about Tennessee,” he said. “Amazing people, beautiful mountains, great business climate. In so many ways, I should’ve done it earlier, but in so many ways, really truly a refuge.”
Now five years into living in Chattanooga, Cortes said Tennessee offers far more than its lack of a state income tax.
“The cultural part to me is so much more important… the warm, welcoming, Southern hospitality, pro-Christian, pro-America culture. That is a much bigger deal,” he said.
He also contrasted Tennessee’s lower tax burden with Illinois.
“I have roughly the same value house that I had in Chicago. My taxes in Chicago were four times my property taxes… four times what they are in Tennessee,” he noted.
Addressing CNBC‘s ranking directly, Cortes questioned whether Cohn genuinely believed the report’s conclusions.
“There’s a reason that people and businesses are flocking to Tennessee, and he probably is willing to just… spew propaganda because that’s his job,” he said.
Despite his praise for the Volunteer State, Cortes cautioned against complacency.
“Let’s make sure that we all work hard though to keep it great. Let’s not get complacent. Let’s not assume that just because we’re a red state that things are gonna be fine. There’s still problems. There’s still challenges. We need to get better all the time,” he stressed.
Cortes added that he views himself as someone who wants to contribute to the state rather than change it, saying, “I’m there as a grateful, humble new arrival saying, ‘What can I do to help make your state better?’ I’m not here to change you.”
Live July 15 https://t.co/qBN3LDaTBl
— Michael Patrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) July 15, 2026
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
