Deep blue Democrat stronghold, New York City, may be shifting to Trump as Democrats are sick of areas of the City and suburbs being overrun by violent migrant crime!
The shift of two major New York City suburbs to the political right could be a boon for former President Trump on Election Day, according to insiders on both sides of the aisle.
Traditionally purple, if not leaning blue, Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties went solidly red in the 2022 midterms even though state voter rolls show Democrats outnumber Republicans in both places.
And that may be a bellwether of where things are headed in similar communities in New York State and around the country.
Trump narrowly won Suffolk County in 2020, beating Joe Biden by fewer than 250 votes. But then, in the 2022 midterms, both Suffolk and the neighboring Nassau County, which borders the City, saw red waves in local and congressional elections.
“I think the real catalyst was the crazy way that the Democrats were managing both Washington and Albany,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, told Fox News. “Now, when you talk about cashless bail, when you look at our insecure borders . . . we’re spending billions of dollars on people who have been here for 15 minutes rather than hospitals, infrastructure, schools. People are fed up.”
Trump’s message resonates more with suburban voters, he said.
“I think the Democrats are the ones that are helping us the most, and I think moderate Democrats and independent voters want to vote Republican now because they’re fed up with the policies of Biden-Harris,” he said.
The state’s unpopular governor, Kathy Hochul, is another weak spot from Dems and a plus for the ex-president. A new Siena College poll found that her favorability among New York voters has fallen below Trump’s.
At a Trump rally last week, the former president said former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, who is from Suffolk County and tried to unseat Hochul in the last gubernatorial race, could have a role in his next administration if he wins re-election. The capacity crowd erupted in cheers.
Hochul squeaked by with a win over Zeldin by less than 5% in a state where registered Democratic voters outnumber registered Republicans by more than two to one.
Crime, in general, and especially migrant crime, are at the forefront of voters’ minds, as are taxes and the economy, polls show.
In Suffolk, the former president’s Justice Department played a major role in combating a plague of MS-13 violence, something the police union there hasn’t forgotten. The Suffolk PBA became the first police organization in New York to endorse Trump’s re-election bid earlier this year.
After Trump left office, the Biden-Harris administration gave itself a black eye by reversing Trump’s remain-in-Mexico policy, opening a floodgate that led to a massive wave of violent crime in “sanctuary cities” like NYC.