OPINION:
“Welcome to 2024. New York IS a swing state.”
Those were the words spoken by former Republican presidential candidate and now Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as he took the stage in October at Madison Square Garden to face thousands of fired-up Trump supporters in the heart of New York City.
Although President Trump did not win New York in the November presidential election, he performed nearly 12 percentage points better statewide than he did in 2020 and flipped several reliably blue counties red.
After the commanding victory of 33-year-old radical socialist and State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary last Tuesday, it’s hard to imagine a redward lurch happening in New York.
Yet it can happen, and the triumph of Mr. Mamdani over a slew of other candidates, including disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose heart never seemed to be in the race, is energizing New York Republicans, whose faith in the electorate is fueling ambitions for a red wave next year.
Although entitled, White, college-educated liberals in New York City — whose financial pedigree grants them the gift of championing their luxury beliefs — buoyed Mr. Mamdani’s candidacy and celebrated his victory this week, the majority of New Yorkers aren’t buying the insanity Mr. Mamdani is selling. Like it or not, the young, left-wing extremist is the face and represents the future of today’s Democratic Party.
Using taxpayer dollars to pay for pediatric gender mutilation surgeries doesn’t sit well with the hardworking farmer from upstate. It’s also fair to say that Mr. Mamdani’s open disparagement of New York’s finest (he once called the New York Police Department “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety”) is not a vision shared by legal immigrants residing in the city’s outer boroughs.
As the general election looms, the presumptive next mayor of New York City will likely temper some of his more radical positions surrounding crime and immigration.
Still, Mr. Mamdani’s explicit anti-Israel hostility will remain intact and blanket every policy decision he makes, rendering the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel unlivable for Jewish New Yorkers.
The electorate in New York is smart and understands that the one solution to stop Mr. Mamdani from destroying NYC and prevent his fanatical, anti-American worldview from seeping into the suburbs is to elect a Republican governor.
A GrayHouse poll of registered voters in New York conducted this spring found that only 36% approve of the job Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul is doing. Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican, is close to officially launching her campaign for the state’s top seat, putting her within striking distance of unseating the appropriately dubbed “Worst Governor in America.”
Ms. Stefanik’s grit was on display during her questioning of the presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania at the December 2023 House hearing on the failure of these schools to address the rampant antisemitism on their campuses. It set into motion a series of serious investigations into the systemic problem of Jew hatred at America’s elite institutions.
It’s this same determination that can carry Ms. Stefanik to Albany. With broad oversight powers and executive authority, she would provide a formidable presence and serve as a check to Mr. Mamdani’s lunacy. Simply put, Ms. Stefanik represents her state’s best shot to dial back the madness and usher in a new era for New Yorkers.
Mr. Mamdani holds dangerous positions that most New Yorkers reject. Yet what he does have are core convictions, a trait absent among his Democratic colleagues.
Beyond the gubernatorial race, his election win also bolsters downballot Republican legislators and candidates across the state, with tight races expected across swing districts in Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Mr. Mamdani’s triumph last week revealed the establishment’s spinelessness, as the state’s Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, lined up behind the man who defended the slogan “Globalize the intifada,” a rallying cry to kill Jews. Mr. Mamdani has also pledged that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be arrested if the Israeli leader ever visits the city under his watch.
Even Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from the Bronx and a potential primary challenger to Ms. Hochul, has refused to distance himself from Mr. Mamdani. In a June 26 statement on X, he chose instead to defend the radical Islamist against “despicable Islamophobic attacks.”
A favorite among Jewish Democrats, Mr. Torres lacks the personal will and political capital to take the necessary steps to put the state on a much-needed course correction.
New York City Democrats crowned Mr. Mamdani as their chosen leader. The majority of New York voters are sharper than your average city coed, and come next year, these sane citizens will demand change by turning the Empire State red.
• Irit Tratt is a writer and was a co-chair of the Trump 47 National Women’s Leadership Coalition.
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