WESTCHESTER, N.Y.—Democrats should prepare to see a “shockwave” in New York on Nov. 8 when the polls come out, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said at a rally for Lee Zeldin in the state’s Westchester county.
The 54-year-old Youngkin, who last year flipped red a state where President Joe Biden won in 2020, said he was there to “pass the baton to Lee Zeldin for him to finish and become your next governor.”
Five to six months ago, Youngkin said the “smart pundits” had declared that “a Republican can’t win in New York.”
“They forgot to do one thing: ask the voters,” he said to cheers and applause from the crowd of hundreds. “We won cities that Republicans had never won. Why? Because we came together in a way and stood up and said no. And it’s New York’s turn to say no.”
Youngkin vowed that the same thing that happened in Virginia’s governor race can happen again on Nov. 8 and bring Zeldin, the sitting representative for New York’s 1st congressional district, to the New York governor seat, a result he said will “send a shockwave around the world.”
Democrats have created a super PAC to boost incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, a sign of their party’s fears that a deep blue state like New York could flip red in a race that has proved surprisingly tight.
“The momentum is building like they can’t believe,” Youngkin said. “You can see them all of a sudden go from cocky to scared. It happens just like that.”
“We will hit the high in the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 8, when the polls closed and the results are in,” he told reporters later at the event.
‘New York Needs to Change’
Both Zeldin and Hochul have deployed political stars as they campaign around the state to rouse their base, with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida backing Zeldin in Long Island and former President Bill Clinton stumping for Hochul in Rockland County on Oct. 29.On Monday, George Pataki, the last Republican elected statewide, said he has confidence that victory will be on Zeldin’s side.
When Pataki ran against three-time Democrat governor Mario Cuomo in 1994, he “had the gall” because he believed that “New York needed to change.” His victory, he said, had commentators “choking on their microphones.”
“New York needs to change again,” said the former governor. “We need another victory like 1994.”
Republican political candidates have positioned themselves as individuals to bring fresh perspective and more accountability in government.
“If you’re tired of the world as it is today, then we cannot continue to the vote for the architects who have built it,” Joe Pinion, who is seeking to unseat Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), told The Epoch Times.
And Alison Esposito, who recently left the New York City Police Department after 25 years to become Zeldin’s lieutenant governor running mate, likewise pledged to “put people before power.”
“The people of New York State are fed up with the status quo ‘ruling elite’ governor who believes that she knows better than we do—she wants New Yorkers to not believe their own eyes when it comes to crime,” she said.
The Epoch Times has reached out to Hochul for comment.
Hopes for fixing New York’s soaring crime rates were one of the most shared concerns driving hundreds to the rally.
Cara Sarlo, a 41-year-old Westchester resident, has contemplated moving to the south to be around her family in the last few years. A potential Hochul administration would compel her to action, she said.
“If Lee Zeldin is the governor, I would stay. If she’s governor, I would want to move in a heartbeat,” she told The Epoch Times. On the way back to the state from a family visit last winter, she said she was crying as she thought of all the freedom she would miss.
Her friend, 56-year-old Antonieta Rome, recalled living in Manhattan in the late 1990s and early 2000s, during which then-mayor Rudy Giuliani led an aggressive policing campaign to address crime in the city.
“The city was pretty much a safe place to live,” Rome, who had for decades considered herself a Democrat, told The Epoch Times. Hochul, she added, “has a poker face. She doesn’t care.”
“Fortunately, I’m here,” she said, referring to Westchester. “I don’t have to ever go back to the city—I hope—but it’s just sad.”
Judy Baker, 67, and her 73-year-old husband Watson, who like Esposito spent 25 years serving in the police force, said the rally was their first since 2010 when they went to Washington to protest against the Affordable Care Act.
In their suburban neighborhood, incidents of car theft and break-ins, once rare, have popped up. She now stays away from the city she once traveled to every week, out of the fear she would feel walking on the streets.
The polls may show a lead for Hochul, but the couple argued those numbers don’t tell the full story.
“I think there’s a lot of silence out there,” Judy said.
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