ALBANY, N.Y. — Ask Republican Lee Zeldin how he's turned the governor's race on its head in reliably Democratic New York, and he quickly points to a year and a half ago.
That's when Zeldin, a Long Island congressman, launched what many considered a long shot bid to unseat Democrat Kathy Hochul in a state that hasn't elected a Republican statewide in 20 years. It was an early entry for Republicans, who typically wait months longer for candidates to enter the field.
"In my first six months of the campaign, I campaigned in each county of the state at least twice, and we just kept going from there," Zeldin said Saturday in a wide-ranging telephone interview, speaking between campaign stops in New York City and Long Island.
Now, with polls tightening and the finish line in sight, Zeldin exudes confidence as he tries to move past his anti-abortion record and support of former President Donald Trump, including his vote against certifying the 2020 election results.
Most public polls show Hochul with leads that range from 4 points to 11 points, but Zeldin is clearly within striking range — seizing on concerns over crime, the high cost of living and an out-migration of more than 1 million residents to other states over the past decade. He has sought to downplay his Trump support and vowed to not touch New York's abortion laws if elected.
"When I got into the race, we were talking about New York leading the nation in population loss, and the reason why there was so much out-migration was because New Yorkers are hitting their breaking point and believing that their wallet, their safety, their freedom and their kids’ education were under attack," Zeldin, 42, a former state senator, said.
Hochul spent the summer ripping Zeldin over his anti-abortion stance after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade. She also went after him for his Trump ties, which included writing a text to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows soon after Election Day on how to fight the election results. She pivoted in recent weeks to her efforts to fight crime as it has risen as one of the main issues, if not the top one, for voters, while still keeping a focus on abortion access in a state with some of the strongest abortion rights in the nation.
If she wins, the Buffalo native will be the first elected female governor in New York history — and the first from Upstate New York in a century.
Below is POLITICO’s interview with Zeldin on what he would do if elected, edited and condensed for length and clarity. You can also read POLITICO's interview with Hochul on her plans if she wins.
Q: Why do you think your message appears to be resonating with voters?
There’s a few different aspects of the analysis. From one standpoint, I got into this race a year and a half ago, and in my first six months of the campaign, I campaigned in each county of the state at least twice, and we just kept going from there.
My days are always long and spent with the people. I started today with a rally in Staten Island. I had a rally in Rockland. I just left a rally in Queens. Tonight, we have a rally in Suffolk. And we’re doing events in between — media interviews, interacting with constituents and otherwise. So many different relationships across the state have been built.
Over the course of that last year and a half, people are trying to compare 2022 with past statewide races for Republican candidates — they usually start in springtime of the election year, while I started springtime of the year before the election.
Q: How can that help you win the race?
People would ask a year and a half ago: Well, how do you think you’re going to be able to win this race in this blue state, and I said if you fast forward to the fall of 2022, you’re now post-Labor Day and you’re battling for undecided, independent-minded voters. If we’re obsessing over the issues most important to New Yorkers and those issues are prominently based off of their breaking point in the state and the Democrats are talking about other issues, other than that, we are going to be winning a very large majority of the undecided, independent-minded voter.
Now the undecided, independent-minded voter includes Republicans, Democrats and independents. I think there is a big misunderstanding at looking at voter registration numbers in the state: one is just how many people are registered to vote who are not Democrats or Republicans. We’re talking about millions of voters.
The other thing is that there are people who are proud ticket splitters, who are registered Republican or registered Democrat and just because they are registered Democrat doesn’t mean they are going to vote for you just because you are a Democrat.
Q: You are against abortion rights, you supported President Trump in a heavily blue state. How do you overcome that — particularly in New York City?
The answer is perfectly summed up from watching this debate we had a few days ago, and the question was asked about crime, followed by another question on crime and another one. And it was good, because there’s a lot to talk about with the need to fight rising crime.
And we’re just about through the crime portion of the debate, Kathy Hochul still hasn’t spoken about the locking-up-criminals part of fighting crime. I pointed that out. And if she was smarter, she would have taken what I said as a hint or a tip and used that opportunity to talk about why it is important to be locking up these criminals, and that there is a debt to society owed, and that our streets belong to law-abiding New Yorkers instead of criminals and we need district attorneys enforcing the law.
She could have ran with that, and instead she went after me saying she doesn’t understand why this is so important to me.
So, you can ask about the former president, for example, but if you were to ask New Yorkers what are the issues that are more important to you, the issues that are most important to them have far more to do with crushing taxes and skyrocketing costs and soaring crime.
Q: You say you’re not going to touch abortion rights in New York. But you would have a lot of authority as governor. You’re saying you’re not looking to defund things or take rights away?
I started making this point before the Republican primary, talking about the reality of the state Legislature — that I’m not going to be changing this law in January. And there’s a less than zero percent chance that [Democratic Assembly Speaker] Carl Heastie is going to send me a bill that rolls back that law. So, I have been highlighting the basic point that New York a few years ago codified far more than Roe, that when we woke up a day after the Dobbs decision, the law in New York was exactly the same as it was before, and I’m not going to change it.
Q: Can you explain your text exchange to Mark Meadows on the day before the 2020 election was called for Biden?
This was at the very beginning of November, before the race was even called. And my reason for sending the text, which is also supported by the actual words in the text, I was observing that all allegations of irregularities were being all thrown into the same mix.
Something posted on social media, even if it was done anonymously, was being adopted, even if it wasn’t true. And at the same time, something else would be coming through that would be a vetted, confirmed irregularity. And I thought that it was important as the counting was underway. Again, this text was sent before the race was even called when going through the count, you have to separate what is a confirmed vetted irregularity and what is something unvetted and unconfirmed.
Q: And you believe the election results were accurate?
I have never once called the election of Joe Biden illegitimate. My focus has been on the issues most important to New Yorkers.
Q: You have vowed to call a state of emergency on crime if you are elected. What would that entail?
Plan A would be for the state Legislature to come to the table to fix these laws. Everyone in the state Legislature needs to understand what is being reflective of the will of the people, of us winning this race as it relates to cashless bail and these other pro-criminal laws.
And we’ll see what the numbers are in the state Assembly and especially the state Senate. I’m very confident that the [Democratic] supermajority is going to be broken and the competitive field in the state Senate is much larger than people realize.
The state Legislature has so far indicated that it will not come to the table. So, I have to get them to the table. That’s my job. State of emergency declarations have been done by every governor. As far as these laws like cashless bail, I can’t repeal them by myself, and I wouldn’t try to repeal them by myself. But I can suspend them.
Q: Why not support gun control as part of this? There’s a lot of illegal guns on the streets.
We should absolutely be cracking down on these illegal guns, and we need district attorneys enforcing the law. We need to make changes to some of New York’s laws that are currently on the books. We need to crack down on criminals with illegal firearms committing crime after crime after crime.
And they are still out on the streets, and they should be behind bars.
Q: If you get elected what changes in a Lee Zeldin administration New York?
For one, a story that will be written in 2023 is how well Governor Zeldin is working with Mayor [Eric]Adams to save New York City. I want to work with all 213 state legislators. Some state legislators may decide that they just absolutely don’t want to work with me, but my desire is to work with any state legislator of any district, of any party, of any ideology to try to find common ground however possible. That’s how I’m wired, and I feel like the people of New York are desperately hungry for that...
So now in 2022, the business climate is so poor in New York you essentially have to bribe businesses with massive tax breaks to get them to come here. In other states, there are businesses that move to Texas because they want to move to Texas: they look at the business climate that’s there; they look at the tax policy, the regulatory environment; the state agencies supporting businesses rather than prosecuting businesses and they decide to come.
Q: How do you lower taxes and have the money to do the things you want to do?
A few things come to mind: for example, when I talk about reversing the state’s ban on the safe extraction of natural gas and approving new pipelines; that’s a lot of jobs. That’s a lot of revenue.
Revitalizing communities and people staying here and living their lives instead of chasing opportunities elsewhere. Whatever we can do to just unleash different industries that are being purposely held back by government — that alone generates revenue.
Q: At a time when there is so much antisemitism, what would that mean to be the first Republican Jewish governor?
In Congress, I was a co-founder and I’m currently a co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Black-Jewish Relations. I co-chair the House Republican Israel Caucus. When I got to Congress, I was the only Jewish Republican in all of Congress.
I’ve co-written the anti-[boycott] resolution that passed the House and have been very engaged in many different issues to combat antisemitism in our streets, in schools and in the halls of government. It’s something that is a very close personal issue for me. It’s an issue that I feel like there is a lot of opportunity to be able to do far more to make a positive difference as governor than what we have seen.
