Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Long Island Republican, announced a run for New York governor on Tuesday, setting up a primary showdown with fellow Trump ally U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Blakeman, labeled “100% MAGA” by President Donald Trump, criticized Democratic Governor Kathy Hochu in a post on social media and said New York deserves leadership that works.
In an appearance Tuesday on the Fox News show “Fox and Friends,” Blakeman said Hochul is a “failure” that needs to be replaced. “I’m running for office to make people more prosperous, to make us safer and to make New Yorkers happy again.”
Blakeman’s candidacy kicks off what is expected to be a heated Republican contest against Stefanik, a conservative from upstate New York who Trump nominated as UN ambassador, only to withdraw over concerns that the slim GOP majority cannot afford to lose any more seats in the House.
Trump – so far – has avoided taking sides, telling reporters this week “He’s great, and she’s great. They’re both great people.”
Democrats enjoy a strong lead in voter registration in New York, but next year’s race for governor is expected to be one of the nation’s most closely watched contests. Hochul, a moderate Democrat, is facing a primary challenge from her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado.
Blakeman, from his post as the leader of a suburban county just east of New York City, has cast himself as a bulwark against liberal, urban leadership in a part of Long Island that leans conservative and has embraced Trump in recent elections.
He spearheaded a policy banning transgender athletes from using county sports facilities, created a volunteer law enforcement unit that his critics labeled a militia and ordered county detectives to work alongside federal authorities in Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The first Jewish county executive of Nassau, he also signed a local ban on wearing face masks in public except for health or religious reasons, a measure that critics complain is aimed at repressing pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Blakeman cruised to victory in his election to a second term in November. And before that, he served on the Hempstead Town Council and held an appointed position as the commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
But bigger elective posts eluded him. Hochul’s campaign released a statement saying that Blakeman “lost nearly every race he touched — county legislator, comptroller, Congress, even the United States Senate. There’s a reason: like Donald Trump, he takes money out of the pockets of New Yorkers and squeezes working families at every turn.”
Both Blakeman and Stefanik now frame themselves as candidates who can appeal to moderate Democrats as well as Republicans, even though both have adopted the brash political rhetoric of Trump, who remains unpopular in New York.
Former Governor George Pataki was the state’s last Republican governor, leaving office about two decades ago.