Bruce Blakeman is leaning on Donald Trump and his signature issues as he tries to energize upstate Republicans about his run against Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The Nassau County executive laid out a tough line against undocumented migrants during a Sunday speech by Great Sacandaga Lake, whipping up a crowd at a joint rally with North Country congressional candidate Anthony Constantino.
The crowd roared when Blakeman noted the governor directed $3.9 billion to pay for shelter and assistance for asylum-seekers who were bused to New York City during the Biden administration.
“They're not New Yorkers, they're not Americans,” he said. “And think about this: All they have to do is step foot in New York state, and they get free food, free transportation, free housing and a free cellphone, while New Yorkers get stuck paying the bill.”
Hochul has said that helping migrants was the right thing to do. The governor also signed a new state law that restricts local governments from cooperating with federal immigration agents.
Nassau County is one of a dozen localities on a collision course with the new state law. Blakeman has said he’s consulting his lawyers about whether he will resist after a federal judge gave the state an initial green light.
Hochul says the new law will increase public safety because it will allow local police to focus on crimes. She has said the Trump administration shouldn't be detaining immigrants who haven't broken any laws.
“People that have been making pizza for 25 years, or caring for their kids, or their friends, or running, you know, small start-up businesses. That's not how we treat people in the state of New York,” Hochul said last month. “It's time that we now have a chance to show our values and our morals as a people, because the contrast in Washington is sickening.”
Blakeman doesn’t shy away from the Trump associations. The county executive is scheduled to appear with the president on Friday at an event in Nassau County.
In response, Hochul’s campaign called Blakeman a “MAGA fanboy.” Blakeman told reporters last week that Hochul attacks his relationship with Trump because she doesn’t want to talk about her record.
There were plenty of Trump fans at Sunday’s rally. Angela Ryan, 68, drove about an hour to attend the rally. She said she’s concerned about immigration, and while she knows little about Blakeman, she’s behind him.
“You know, we're all about President Trump, and when he endorses someone, we're right there,” she explained.
That won’t be the case everywhere. A Siena University poll released Wednesday found 60% of the likely New York state voters surveyed disapprove of the job Trump is doing compared to 37% who support him. There are also twice as many registered Democrats in New York as Republicans.
Because of that party edge, Syracuse University political science professor Grant Reeher said Blakeman should concentrate on pocketbook issues that could appeal to independent voters.
“The problem with the energy costs and other things that are often related to affordability is they're not as emotionally gripping, so I think that's what he's reaching for with those cultural things,” Reeher said. “I just don't think the arithmetic is there to hang your hat on that in New York state.”
Any Republican looking to win statewide in New York needs to run up the score in ruby red areas like the 21st Congressional District, which went for Trump by 20 percentage points in 2024. The path to victory requires high margins upstate, a slight win on Long Island and the northern suburbs of New York City and gaining at least a third of the vote in the five boroughs.
The Siena poll found Hochul leading Blakeman 49%-39%, a narrower lead as the college adjusted its sample from registered to likely voters. The poll showed Hochul ahead 64%-19% in New York City, but has Blakeman up 49%-41% in the suburbs. Blakeman is ahead by just 46%-45% in upstate areas, well inside the poll’s 4.2-point margin of error.
Many upstate Republicans were hoping their gubernatorial candidate this year would be Elise Stefanik, a six-term member of Congress who abruptly ended her gubernatorial campaign last year, saying that she didn’t want to expend resources on a primary contest with Blakeman.
She has a national following and $10.8 million sitting in her congressional account with no re-election campaign underway. That’s double the money Blakeman has.
“I think she might have been the stronger candidate, but she took herself out,” said Reeher. “I hadn't thought about Stefanik's exit making [Blakeman’s] task tougher, but it does require people to kind of reorient.”
Indeed, many GOP leaders who had enthusiastically backed Stefanik were now left with their second choice. Like Fulton County Republican Chair Sue McNeil.
“As things progressed, it was going in a different direction,” she said. “We have to unite. There are those who continue to have bad blood. That's on them. I'm not one of those.”
McNeil bragged that this is Blakeman’s second campaign visit to her mostly rural county, which straddles the Mohawk Valley and the foothills of the Adirondacks between Albany and Utica. Many of the cars and pick-up trucks in the parking lot of the banquet hall where the event was held had stickers proclaiming gun rights.
Blakeman has said he supports “reasonable restrictions” on gun ownership and he abided by a 2022 state law that created certain gun-free zones in public buildings and houses of worship. Stefanik, by contrast, was a vocal critic of recent gun control laws enacted by Democrats in Albany.
She hasn’t endorsed Blakeman, though many members of her political team are now supporting Constantino’s campaign, and he invited Blakeman to the rally. Constantino, a former boxer who erected a giant Trump sign on his internet printing business, downplayed any bad feelings.
“We're here today,” Constantino told Gothamist when asked how he would be helping Blakeman. “I'm trying to drive up the Republican vote as much as possible in the North Country to help Bruce win.”
Blakeman’s take: “In politics, only amateurs stay mad.”
