Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, who unsuccessfully ran for New York governor in 2022, said that his state has definitely been trending red in recent cycles and encouraged former President Donald Trump to make a hard push to win there in November.
“There’s so much to unpack here. First is we’ve seen this trend in New York, where each year since Joe Biden came into office, the state has been trending right,” Zeldin told Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM.
Zeldin stated that Albany has a single-party rule with a supermajority of Democrats. He explained that the state is facing prosecutors funded by George Soros and laws that favor criminals, such as cashless bail. Additionally, the migrant crisis is causing problems. Finally, Biden’s approval ratings are suffering and have taken a hit recently.
“Biden’s numbers aren’t good,” he said, noting further that as the state is trending right and that as Trump is forced to spend weeks inside of New York due to his criminal trial at the hands of Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, he is making the most of his time.
Trump is “smart,” Zeldin said, noting that the former president is “going into these different communities and meeting voters, and it should continue as long as he’s going to be forced to stay in New York over these next few weeks.”
“He should continue to do these events. Going to the bodega … a very smart move [for] that Dominican community, especially. I expect President Trump to win even though they are Democrats. He should go into the Asian American community … There are different types of ethnic communities. You can go down to Brighton Beach in South Brooklyn — heavily Democrat — they’re voting for President Trump,” he continued.
“We won in our 2022 governor’s race the Asian American vote, even though they’re majority Democrat. We won the Orthodox Jewish vote down in Brooklyn, Williamsburg, and Borough Park and Crown Heights. President Trump should be able to carry that area heavily,” Zeldin said, walking listeners through the strategy.
Zeldin emphasized the importance of reaching out to various regions across the state. But he noted that the former president “only becomes more and more popular as you get further away from New York City.”
“I think it’s smart for him to just continue to lean into this. I would say a bonus is that it’s sending a message across the entire country. This isn’t just isolated into some local community. When you show up to one of these campaign events, word spreads all across the entire country. They see this video of President Trump receiving support from these different Democrat groups, and that resonates all across America,” the former congressman said, encouraging Trump to “keep the strategy up.”
“I’m willing to do everything in my power to help him. He seems to be in great spirits despite the other side trying to take him down,” Zeldin added.