While Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) ultimately did not win the New York gubernatorial race against Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY), the Republican nominee sure did put up a fight, by coming close and helping his fellow Republicans along the way. In addition to winning a majority of New York's counties, Zeldin also helped elect Republican members of Congress. That Republicans will likely gain control of the House is thanks to him. Yet New York Democrats in disarray still don't get why it is that they did so poorly.
On Sunday, Caroline Vakil highlighted for The Hill how "Democrat blame game erupts over New York midterm losses."
New York Democrats have themselves to blame not merely because they couldn't convince voters to pick them over their Republican opponents, but because they thought they could get away with particularly gerrymandered maps. Lawsuits came forth about such clearly unconstitutional maps, and were overturned.
The chaos meant another August primary, after the state had already had one in June, for House members. Incumbent members, like Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Mondaire Jones lost their primaries, with the former being pitted against Rep. Jerry Nadler. In Jones' case, he was forced to run in the 10th Congressional District, after Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, also the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's (DCCC) chairman, rushed to run in the 17th Congressional District, leading to cries of racism, as Jones is black.
Maloney lost his seat to Republican Mike Lawler, becoming the first sitting DCCC chairman to lose a general election since 1980.
New York Democrats are not only in denial, but in disarray, as evidenced from Vakil's piece. Those issuing such blame include Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who lives in one of the bluest districts in the country, and who won her seat by over 43 points.
Rep. Maloney and AOC traded barbs at each other last week, as Leah highlighted, with the DCCC chairman pointing out that AOC "had almost nothing to do with what turned out to be an historic defense of our majority."
For all of the in-fighting, though, both members downplayed the issue of crime, with AOC's interview with The New York Times claiming "overreliance and insistence on leaning into Republican narratives on crime and safety hurt Democrats in the state of New York."
About that feud, Vakil wrote this:
That led to a bit of a back-and-forth between her and Maloney, who said in a separate interview with the Times that the congresswoman “had almost nothing to do” with Democrats’ impressive showing in the House and that she had only offered some financial support to battleground candidates.
Maloney himself seemed unsure as to why Democrats performed so poorly in those handful of House districts, though he suggested in the Times interview that Republicans’ messaging on crime may have resonated with voters and that Zeldin’s gubernatorial bid gave them reason to turn out.
Yup, Democrats are in serious denial, and it could be to their folly. As Madeline covered earlier on Tuesday, Zeldin has warned that New Yorkers will continue to flee the state, which already experienced the highest population loss in the nation from July 2020 to July 2021.
Jon Reinish, a former aide to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who is up for reelection in 2024, also is quoted as downplaying crime. "New Yorkers … especially in the New York City and Albany media markets for several months before Election Day were blanketed with ads solely focused on crime, on safety. Wasn’t a conversation based on data, it was an emotional conversation based on aiming to stoke fear, and that message was extremely well-funded and extremely consistent," he claimed.
Reinish also offered that it helped suburban voters too. "I think it really rallied Republicans, suburban voters in Putnam County and Nassau and Suffolk County. A lot of those are swing voters," he added. "Yes, they tend to usually support Democrats. But I think that they were persuadable by the consistency of this message, and it was hard to recover from that."
While murder is down in New York City, other crimes are up, leading to an overall increase in crime. Subway crimes have also increased. Democrats, including and especially Gov. Hochul, seemed to largely dismiss the crime issue, not merely by calling out Zeldin and other Republicans for putting a spotlight on it, but by doing little to nothing about it and tying it solely to gun control.
Also on Sunday, The New York Post, which has covered the issue at length, published an op-ed from Nicole Gelinas on how "Media’s election deflection can’t cover up New Yorkers’ worries about crime."
In a statement issued on November 9, the day after the election, Zeldin in part continued to focus on crime, with a warning. "Those controlling Albany should take note. New Yorkers of all walks of life are sick of the attacks on their wallets, their safety, their freedoms and the quality of their kids’ education and are hitting their breaking point, as proven by these results. As they take office in January, Governor Kathy Hochul and those controlling Albany must address the grave concerns voiced by the voters. While this campaign has come to a close, the rescue mission to Save Our State continues," he said.
Congratulations @KathyHochul on her election to a full term.
— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) November 9, 2022
This once in a generation campaign was a very close margin in the bluest of states.
If not for the dedicated, hard work of grassroots volunteers & supporters this incredibly close race wouldn’t have been possible. pic.twitter.com/7latYSaka7
As for what's next for Zeldin, there is chatter that he'll run for the chairman of the Republican National Committee, though current Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has made her intentions known that she'll be running again.