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Republicans see a real opportunity to take the New York governor’s office for the first time in decades and are pumping money and support into Rep. Lee Zeldin’s surging campaign against incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
With exactly two weeks until the Nov. 8 election, records show the Republican Governors Association gave $500,000 to a pro-Zeldin super PAC, which has helped Republicans catch up in the money game against Hochul as her once-formidable polling lead began evaporating weeks ago.
“Democrats are breaking out in cold sweats. Kathy Hochul ignored the top issues currently on voters’ minds – rising crime and the skyrocketing cost of living – her entire career in Albany. The RGA’s investment in the race is a sign of our confidence in Lee Zeldin’s ability to win after he built the best statewide Republican campaign New York’s seen in decades and brought the race to a statistical tie,” RGA spokesman Will Reinert told The Post Tuesday.
RGA Chair Doug Ducey, the outgoing governor of Arizona, even urged donors to funnel money to Zeldin in a Monday phone call, the Wall Street Journal reported, following months when the party was focused on gubernatorial races in other states like Arizona.
The late push from the national party comes as part of a bigger effort by outside groups to help Zeldin in a race now rated as a “toss up” by RealClearPolitics.
Records show Zeldin and pro-Zeldin super PACs have raised roughly $38 million to compete against Hochul’s $45 million war chest — a big change from weeks ago when the incumbent Democrat had about twice as much as the Long Island pol and his allies.
