(The Center Square) — Fire-brand Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman jumped into the race for New York governor on Tuesday, announcing that he will seek the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in next year’s election.
Blakeman, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump who rode a red wave into office in November 2021, made his campaign announcement during an appearance on Fox and Friends show where he bashed Hochul as a “failure” and stressed his record of keeping taxes down and protecting public safety.
“I’m running for office to make people more prosperous, to make them safer and to make New Yorkers happy again,” he said. “We want to put New York first, we want to make it more affordable, we want to make New York safer.”
In a campaign video posted on social media, Blakeman’s campaign touted his work to tighten the county’s fiscal belt, improve public safety, ban transgender athletes from women’s sports, and cooperate with federal immigration crackdowns.
“He made Nassau the safest county in America by hiring more cops, locking up thugs and cooperating with ICE,” a narrator says in the campaign spot. “He cut taxes, balanced budgets, and protected girls’ sports by mandating that boys play with boys and girls play with girls.”
“New York is desperate for change, for new leadership that will put New Yorkers first,” the narrator says. “For too long, Albany has been controlled by one party — the Democrats. We need a strong Republican, one who will take the fight to Hochul and her liberal allies.”
His candidacy set up a high-stakes primary showdown against Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who launched her bid for governor last month, criticizing Hochul as “America’s worst governor” and seeking to tie her to Democratic socialist and New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s controversial platform.
Stefanik’s campaign dismissed Blakeman’s entrance into the race, pointing to recent polling showing the congresswoman with a sizable lead in a theoretical matchup between the two GOP candidates.
“Public polling has repeatedly shown Elise Stefanik leads Blakeman by 70% in a primary, including beating him soundly on Long Island,” Stefanik’s campaign said. “Elise is the strongest candidate against Kathy Hochul by a long shot.”
Hochul’s campaign also panned Blakeman’s candidacy, calling him a “MAGA fan-boy” and a “bootlicker” who “has lost just about every race he’s touched — county legislator, comptroller, Congress, even U.S. Senate.”
“There’s a reason: just like Donald Trump, he takes money out of New Yorkers’ pockets and squeezes working families at every turn,” Hochul campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika said in a statement. “We’re not about to let him turn the governor’s mansion into Mar-a-Lago-North.”
Blakeman gained national notoriety earlier this year after he pushed through a law that bars transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports at county-run facilities.
In February, Blakeman signed an executive order setting the restrictions, which were challenged in court by the New York chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. A state judge blocked the order, but the Republican-controlled Nassau County Legislature responded by approving a bill to implement the rules, which Blakeman signed. It was upheld by a court order in October.
Blakeman was also praised by conservatives after he and Nassau County Sheriff Anthony LaRocco moved to deputize private citizens as “provisional deputies” to assist with law enforcement operations.
The move drew immediate backlash from Democrats and civil liberties groups, who decried it as an “illegal, taxpayer-funded militia.” Blakeman dismissed the criticism as politically motivated and argued that the program would provide “another layer of protection” for the county during emergencies.
