In an exclusive conversation with DailyMail.com, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said just days before the midterm elections that incumbent New York Governor Kathy Hochul is “one of the weakest activists we’ve ever seen.”
After a 3,000-person rally in upstate New York with gubernatorial hopeful Lee Zeldin, Stefanik says she’s looking forward to Tuesday when New Yorkers “take our state back.”
He has frequently referred to the upcoming midterm as “the best chance to take back New York in a generation.”
The potent combination of a bad year for Democrats, rising crime, a bleak economic outlook and a disappointing replacement governor running as the Democratic nominee could make that opportunity a reality.
Stefanik, currently the third Republican in the House of Representatives and rapidly developing a reputation as one of the party’s most effective kingmakers, is so confident in her party’s current position that she predicts that only New York will hand over all five seats in the House. the House needed to change control of the lower house. to her party.
“The one-party Democratic regime has failed at every level,” he said.
‘It has failed at the federal level, it has failed at the state level’ and now, longtime Democrats who ‘felt entitled and assumed they would win’ are bracing themselves to see the consequences of bad policy and political complacency.
Throughout this cycle, the Republican position has been that the Democrats have utterly failed to step up on a number of issues facing the American people, notably inflation and crime.
Stefanik (right) and Zeldin (center) rally in upstate New York on Thursday, November 4, less than a week before the midterm elections. The event drew a crowd of 3,000
Zeldin is now a stone’s throw away from winning the election of incumbent Democratic governor Kathy Hochul, whom Stefanik called one of the “weakest campaigns we’ve ever seen.”
Stefanik met up in upstate New York on Thursday: She has quickly become one of the top fundraisers in the Republican Party and one of the political leaders in her home state of New York.
In New York, crime has visibly increased since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and has only increased as economic problems and the illegal immigration crisis have become more pronounced.
On Thursday morning, hours before Hochul and Zeldin were to meet, a New York City woman was brutally raped by a crazed homeless man while jogging in the West Village. The man had a mile-long rap sheet and an established pattern of brutalizing women similar to the episode that occurred Thursday morning.
These types of attention-grabbing incidents have become common in New York City in recent years and are one of the main reasons most New Yorkers are focused on effective crime mitigation tactics ahead of the election. .
Carl Phanor was arrested Thursday after allegedly raping a woman in lower Manhattan. He was on the streets despite an extensive rap sheet and an established pattern of sexually assaulting women.
US Representative and New York Gubernatorial Hopeful Lee Zeldin Slammed Governor Kathy Hochul for New York City’s Latest Violent Rape and Skyrocketing Crime
Violent crime has skyrocketed nearly 30% in the last year in New York City, and is up across the board in New York State. Republicans have largely led this cycle with a pro-safety, tough-on-crime message.
Zeldin promised to unilaterally suspend bail reform efforts on his first day in office, if elected, and that message is resonating. A few days before the elections, he is a shot behind Hochul in the polls.
New Yorkers, Stefanik says, have spent the last few years realizing that it’s about time they “rallied in support of the pro-safety, tough-on-crime party that is the Republican Party.”
“People want basic security, which we expect and deserve as New Yorkers,” he said, adding that crime rates have skyrocketed in both upstate and New York City.
“Crime is at the top of every New Yorker’s mind,” and Democrats have squandered every opportunity to address the problem.
In Stefanik’s mind, Gov. Kathy Hochul tops the list of Democrats who haven’t stepped up on the issues, or for this election season.
Since taking office after former Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgrace more than a year ago, there has been “mistake after mistake” for Hochul, the congresswoman says.
“She accepts Democratic ideology, shows no independence and doesn’t have the political clout” to handle the job. And that’s with the avalanche of ‘positive media coverage’ she received for ‘weeks and weeks’ after taking office.
“She’s one of the weakest activists we’ve ever seen from a high-profile candidate from New York,” he said, evidenced, among other things, by Hochul’s lack of ability to draw a crowd.
While Stefanik and Zeldin rallied with thousands of New Yorkers, Hochul struggled to draw a 450-strong crowd at a downstate rally Thursday, even alongside big names like Vice President Kamala Harris and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. .
She expects Republican candidates from across the state to surprise the national media on Tuesday, including winning three seats in New York’s Hudson Valley.
One of those seats is held by the current chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Sean Patrick Maloney, whose removal would be the icing on the cake of an election in which Republicans are expected to do extremely well.
Violent crime offenses are up nearly 30% in New York City since last year. Upstate has also been negatively impacted by rampant crime
