Some Democrat strategists have expressed alarm by recent Republican gains and warned incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul could be defeated next week.
New York has not elected a Republican candidate for governor in decades. An aggregate of polls from RealClearPolitics shows that Hochul’s alleged lead over Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) has shrunk in recent weeks, coming as Zeldin has repeatedly targeted Hochul and Democrats for what he said are their soft-on-crime policies—prompting Hochul to declare herself the “underdog” in the race last week.