It’s no secret by now that Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has made a royal mess of his position and reputation in recent months, well, actually years. Thanks to his poor mishandling of the coronavirus, particularly when it came to nursing homes and the states most “at-risk,” many blame him and him alone for the unnecessary deaths of thousands, as well as the cover-up of such.
And if that weren’t bad enough, in recent weeks, no less than seven young women, most of them former employees, have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse, harassment, and bullying by Cuomo.
Since then, investigations have been launched, and evidence logged. Nearly every week, it seems that another demand is made for his resignation, which, of course, Cuomo ignores.
Needless to say, things aren’t looking all that great for the liberal leader. I mean, at this point, it will be a near miracle if he makes it to the end of the summer with his job still intact.
But even if he does, he might not make it much farther than that, as he officially now has a challenger for his seat who seems to have what it takes to win.
Enter current Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s 1st congressional district.
Like just about everyone else, Zeldin has noticed that Cuomo is losing legs to stand on as we speak and is more than willing to take advantage of the situation to bring some kind of actual order and stability to the Empire State.
The Republican lawmaker announced his run for the New York 2022 gubernatorial election on Thursday, via Twitter, with a promise to fight for ALL in his state and not just those who can help Cuomo attain “multi-million dollar self-congratulatory book deals, cover-ups, abuse & self-dealing.”
Naturally, progressives who see Cuomo as the greatest thing since sliced bread are not fond of Zeldin, his party, or the fact that he was a strong Trump supporter. And as such, they responded to his announcement with scorn and hate.
Of course, as we all know, just because people who avidly troll Twitter for political news aren’t happy with the situation doesn’t mean the rest of the state isn’t – or that Zeldin’s chances of winning are slim to none.
As Fox News reported, within the first 24 hours of Zeldin making his run for the governor’s seat public news, his campaign raised a whopping $1 million.
Along with all of Cuomo’s recent and epic failings, Zeldin’s success likely has much to do with the fact that he has never really acted the part of a politician. Instead of making behind closed doors deals and playing favorites, Zeldin has a reputation for saying what he thinks and fighting for the public, no matter what it may or may not do to his own reputation.
Take his past remarks on the anti-Semitic Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, for example.
Instead of sweeping her racist and prejudiced comments against Israel under the rug as much of Congress did, Zeldin didn’t hesitate to call her and her liberal cohorts out.
He said, “(Omar) in January had to apologize for talking about a hypnosis of Israel that they have over the entire world. (Omar) had to apologize in February by saying if you support Israel it must be because you’re bought off by Jews. (Omar) called it an unequivocal apology even though she filled it with equivocation and now we’re back again this time by saying that if you support the U.S.-Israel relationship that you must have pledged allegiance to a foreign government.”
He knew it would ruffle feathers to say such a thing, but he did it anyway.
Now, of course, that doesn’t mean Zeldin’s race to take Cuomo’s seat will be an easy one.
Even though Cuomo is weakened considerably at this point, the deep-blue state of New York is not exactly known for its love of conservativism. I mean, this is a place where a man as blatantly biased and corrupt as NYC’s Mayor Bill de Blasio was re-elected in 2017.
With that being said, he has a better chance now than ever before. And if his first day on the campaign trail is any indication, there are plenty of those who seem to want a significant change in leadership for the state. Hopefully, Zeldin can give the people what they want and need.