Primary Day with C&B: Rep. Lee Zeldin Makes His Pitch for NY Gov

BUCK: Joining us now, we have Congressman Lee Zeldin. He is representing the first Congressional District. He is running for governor of the great state of New York. Congressman, thanks for calling in.

REP. ZELDIN: Gentlemen, it’s great to be with you.

BUCK: So, sir, it’s been a rough time the last couple years to be a New Yorker, right? New York City particularly, up in New York State, we got a lot of listeners all over New York State have been through quite a time. How are you gonna fix things? Why are you the right guy?

REP. ZELDIN: The state, I agree with you, is heading in the wrong direction right now. Kathy Hochul, the current governor, is in over her head. She is pandering to the far left. She’s got tax-and-spend, self-described socialist, pro-criminal. She’s playing along with it. So where I want to repeal cashless bail, Kathy Hochul says, “I need to see more data”. I say we should get rid of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Kathy Hochul says, “Cut him some slack. He just got there. He’s doing his job.” I believe that we should start safely extracting our own natural gas in the state. We sit on the Marcellus and Utica shales. Meanwhile, one-party Democratic rule up in Albany, not only they have this ban in place, for their next act they want to ban all gas hookups on new construction statewide. So, when you look at the issues… I mean, we’re just starting to scratch the surface here.

If you look at the issues as to why people are hitting their breaking point and fleeing New York — the attacks on wallets, on safety, on freedom, on the quality of our kids’ education — the contrast, the choice could not possibly be clearer. We have to go in a different direction. We have to security our streets to back our blue and to allow people to keep more of their money, protect their freedom. I know exactly why I’m in this race and I know we’re getting more support around the state ’cause a lot of people agree this is not rock bottom but we’re on our way.

CLAY: Lee, I was reading this morning that there’s increasing nervousness in Oregon and Washington State potentially about losing statewide races, Democrats who have dominated for a long time. I imagine that you’re feeling that momentum of a Red Wave in New York as well. Can Republicans win a statewide office in New York, in your opinion, and why?

REP. ZELDIN: Not only can we win, we are going to win. I would not be in this race otherwise. I have to give up my seat in the House of Representatives to make this run. My running mate, our state’s next lieutenant governor, Alison Esposito, was over 24 years in the NYPD. She was the commanding officer of the 70th Precinct in Brooklyn, and she had to retire not just to be our state’s next lieutenant governor. She had to retire to be our candidate to be our state’s next lieutenant governor.

So Alison and I are all-in. We saw it November 2nd. While everybody was looking at the Virginia governor’s race all throughout New York, so much flipped from blue to red, and I think that the climate has actually only gotten better since November 2, 2021. Yeah, I wouldn’t be in this race if I didn’t feel like everything was set up right for this race to finish in first. For me, my next time is that losing is not an option. The only option is for us to win, and I’m all-in.

BUCK: We’re speaking to Lee Zeldin. He’s running for governor in New York. Today is primary day in the Empire State. And, Lee, I want to know because we have people listening as you know, all over the country. We’ve got lots of folks on our various affiliates here in New York, too, which is important. It’s primary day. But it seems that there’s gonna be a trend here going into the general election in November where you’re gonna have people who are switching over, right?

People who were Democrats maybe the last time around, this time around we’re gonna change it up — or maybe they were just sitting on the fence and now they’re gonna come down on the Republican side. In New York, who do you see winning over? I mean, give us the sense of when you’re out there talking to people. Who’s coming over to vote Republican this time around, to vote for you this time around that may not have been the traditional ones, ’cause you’re gonna need those if you’re gonna beat Hochul in a state that’s Democrat more than the Republican.

REP. ZELDIN: I love the question. Right to the heart of it. In New York, a lot of people look at the registrations of Democrat to Republicans and often don’t look at the millions of voters who aren’t Republican or Democrat. In 2018, the last time there was a midterm election of the sitting president, the independents were leaning left of center. Now they’re leaning right of center. Not only are they leaning right of center, but there’s an enthusiasm gap.

The people who plan on voting Republican are more excited about doing it than the people who are planning to vote Democrat. There are a lot more disenfranchised Democrats. We’re going into a midterm in New York where for the first time in my lifetime we have a midterm election with one-party Democratic rule in D.C., Albany, and New York City at the same time. I’ve seen with the Asian-American community, they are…

Whether it’s the quality of education for their kids or it’s crime and public safety because many different members of their community have been getting murdered — targeted and murdered — inside of New York City. I happen to be blessed with a great wife, Diana, and our daughters Arianna and Mikayla. I have an Asian-American family. They’re excited about the fact that they have someone from their own community gonna be up there in Albany as the first Asian-American first family up in Albany.

I’ve seen with the Hispanic vote inside of not just New York but across the country. I believe that we’re going to win the Hispanic vote, and I’m just sharing these thoughts to answer your question. I believe we’ll do better with the black vote than what we’ve seen in the past. I last week was inside of Harlem at Sylvia’s meeting with a bunch of community members for lunch, and we’re gonna keep doing that to earn their support.

Also, I’d be the first Jewish Republican governor of New York. I’ve seen a tremendous amount of support coming in from the Jewish community, efforts to combat anti-Semitism, efforts to make our streets more secure and to promote school choice, because a lot of people in their community and others pursue nonpublic options, and they all should have access to the highest quality education possible. So all of this and more presents an opportunity. When the Democrats are doing so much damage, you have people looking elsewhere for the solutions.

CLAY: Lee, if you win, mask mandates over for kids and anyone else in the state of New York? We saw that was one of the first things that was able to happen when Glenn Youngkin won in Virginia, made a tremendous impact there. I’m presuming for you this would be the case as well?

REP. ZELDIN: Yeah, I’m against all covid mandates. I don’t believe that there should be mask mandates, there shouldn’t be vaccine mandates, there shouldn’t be vaccine passports. I don’t think that anybody should have been fired for what is a personal decision of whether or not to get the shot. My attitude is if you want to get it, get it. If you don’t want to get it, don’t get it. But where Kathy Hochul and I definitely disagree here is that she has called on New Yorkers to get the covid vaccine to be her “apostle.”

“Go be my apostle and go get it!” I look at New Yorkers as New Yorkers, as residents, as constituents, as voters. I don’t look at them the way that she does. I believe that public service is about serving the public. It’s not about being served by the public. So we see a clear contrast on many different fronts. This is one of them. Respect freedom. Respect individual liberty. You give people information; they make their own decisions. If you want to wear a mask, wear a mask. If you don’t want to wear a mask, don’t wear a mask. But on day one, every last covid mandate that we can possibly get rid of is gone.

BUCK: Lee Zeldin running for governor in New York. Congressman Zeldin, great to have you, sir. Thanks for being with us.

REP. ZELDIN: You go you guys, see you next time.