Republican New York gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman is closing in on Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, according to some recent polls.
A Siena University poll in August suggested that Blakeman had halved the gap—from 20 to 10 points—between him and Hochul since June. And a July poll from Red Oak Strategic, a Republican firm, indicated that Blakeman was behind by just 4%.
That may be due to Democrats—many of whom have never voted for a Republican before—who plan to cross party lines and vote for Blakeman. JNS interviewed half a dozen such voters, who all cited the same reason: to stop New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani from spreading his antisemitic views.
The anti-Israel mayor campaigned on arresting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York but later admitted he wasn’t authorized to do so and asked the federal government to detain the Israeli premier. Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in the city for the United Nations General Assembly later this month.
Jewish leaders have said that Mamdani’s anti-Israel statements, including accusing the Jewish state of “genocide,” and his response to surging anti-Jewish hate crimes in New York City, have fomented Jew-hatred.
U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed Blakeman, who shares some of the president’s tough-guy persona. Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, identifies as a pro-choice Republican and is moderate, compared to many of his GOP peers, on some other issues.
But Trump has called Blakeman“100% MAGA,” or “make America great again,” and the Long Island politician has put resources behind supporting federal immigration agents deporting undocumented immigrants in Nassau County, which is on Long Island.
In late August, immediately after a new law, which Hochul backed, banned local law enforcement in the state from working with immigration agents, Blakeman stood before 15 sheriffs and announced his support for their lawsuit to end the ban.
Blakeman will need to entice Democratic voters in the blue state, and two months before election day on Nov. 3, there are indications that he may be succeeding.
In an interview with JNS on Tuesday, Blakeman said that “we are tied.”
To be sure, while many New York Democrats will never vote for Blakeman, some signals suggest that a surprising number plan to do so, albeit with reservations.
“Only crossover Democrats can make the difference in this race,” said Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, who was an aide to George Pataki, who was the state’s last Republican governor from 1995 to 2006.
“It has to be Democrats for any Republican to win state wide,” said Weisenfeld, who is also a recently retired wealth manager and says he is a longtime friend of Blakeman’s.
A mental health professional, who lives in Nassau County and spoke anonymously with JNS, said that she is a lifelong registered Democrat but intends to vote for Blakeman, whom she called “kind of a brute, not a very diplomatic person.”
The source, who feels conflicted about voting for Blakeman because of his views on immigration, is part of a family of Jewish immigrants from Syria and Egypt.
“Blakeman is the bully that’s going to stop Mamdani from doing more insane things,” she told JNS.
Those things include allowing violent anti-Israel protestors to harass Jews on New York City streets, she said.
The Nassau County resident thinks that Hochul has been “spineless.”
“She said something recently about protecting Jews but it felt hollow,” the source said. “Hochul provides too much justification for Mamdani, for blatant, violent antisemitism and political violence on the left.”
Blakeman, who is Jewish, told JNS in an interview on Tuesday that he “wouldn’t let Zohran Mamdani get away with the virulent antisemitic comments he’s made.”
“I would tell him to stop or, if he didn’t, take action against him, which the governor has the power to do,” Blakeman said.
Hochul has said that she is concerned about the interests and safety of Jews in the state, and she participated in the Israel parade that Mamdani skipped and signed a state law making a “buffer zone” to protect houses of worship. The mayor had vetoed a city bill to that effect, although with a smaller buffer, after the New York City Council passed it without a veto-proof majority.
According to a provision in the New York City charter, the governor may suspend a mayor for up to 30 days and, after a process of committee evaluation, permanently remove him. That power has never been used.
“The Blakeman-Hochul race comes at a time when there are a lot of signals that Jewish voters are rethinking their allegiance to the Democratic party,” according to Bradley Honan, president and CEO of an eponymous Democratic research and polling firm in Manhattan.
“It has a lot to do with the rhetoric, with safety and security and who understands and represents the community’s values,” Honan told JNS.
The nationwide “blue wave” that many Democrats anticipate in the midterm elections in November will not happen in New York state, Honan predicted.
Dr. Andrew Zeidman is a retired oral surgeon who began devoting his time to pro-Israel activism after Oct. 7. He has been a liberal Democrat for 60 years, and voted for former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, he told JNS.
Yet he held a fundraiser for Blakeman on Aug. 11, at which 175 attendees at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury, Long Island, donated between $40,000 and $50,000 to Blakeman’s campaign, according to Zeidman.
Many committed Democrats attended, including Muslim residents of the Bronx and Hindu residents of Westchester, he told JNS.
He had never organized a political fundraiser before, “but I have to do everything I can to get Blakeman elected,” he said.
“Mamdani is a jihadist who hates Jews,” he said.
“This is the most important election in the country right now,” Zeidman told JNS. “Get him in, and he’ll squash Mamdani like a bug.”
Blakeman has recently been spending significant time in New York’s outer boroughs, campaigning with conservative-leaning religious and ethnic groups, including Haredi Jews in Crown Heights, Borough Park and Flatbush, he told JNS on Tuesday.
Hochul’s campaign has raised $71 million since she won her first term in 2022. In July, Blakeman’s finance chair told press that his campaign raised $11 million, but the sum reported in the July 15 regulatory filing was about $8 million.
Still, Blakeman’s supporters are optimistic that he will win the election.
“It’s definitely within striking distance,” Wiesenfeld, the former Pataki aide, told JNS
