Lee Zeldin says he has a good chance to defeat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul
Republican gubernatorial candidate in blue state joins 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' to analyze state of the race.
Long Island Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin tells Fox News that his race against Governor Kathy Hochul will be decided by registered Democrats who have had enough of the negative results of their party, independent voters who register Democrat to partake in blue-state primaries and other moderate voters.
"You have Democrats who feel like their party has left them. Some Democrats consider themselves to be conservative. Some Democrats registered Democrat in New York City because that's what you do. You want your vote to count and you feel like the only way to make your vote count is to vote in a Democratic primary for the most normal option if you have one," he said.
Zeldin added that the Cuomo-Hochul congestion pricing program instituted by the MTA – which he called a "scam" – is also leading to people breaking from the incumbent governor.
Under the program, which is in progress, most vehicular traffic traversing Manhattan below 60 Street – essentially the southern end of Central Park, will pay up to $23 in a city already ravaged by ever-increasing tolls of $13 to enter from New Jersey and about $20 to Staten Island from the rest of the city.
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Incumbent Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin. (Getty Images)
After President Biden gave a derisive speech directed at Republicans from Amtrak/MARC Union Station in Washington, Zeldin said it is important to instead focus on issues that matter to New Yorkers and Americans.
"People are hitting their breaking point and fleeing the state because their wallets, their safety, their freedom, the quality of their kids education are under attack. When you have to wake up to video pictures and stories of people being pushed in front of an oncoming subway car or a Green Goblin gang," he said, adding that the crime wave under Biden and Hochul recently reached his doorstep in the form of a gang-related shooting in Shirley, N.Y.
"And Kathy Hochul doesn't want to talk about any of it. She wants us to just look away. There's nothing to see here. She's calling it a conspiracy. And even as you list actual factual data, she'll say that you're a data denier," he said, pointing to the Democrat's comments during their debate.
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FILE - This photo from Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015, shows New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, and Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul during a cabinet meeting at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)
Moments before Zeldin's interview, the Republican vying for the governorship in an equally difficult race in bordering Pennsylvania told Fox News that he rejected claims from the left that electing conservative Republicans present a "threat to democracy."
"I'm no hero, but I was a 30-year veteran, a colonel in the Army with top-secret access, leading men and women… in NATO – really?" Doug Mastriano asked of leftists who believe such claims.
In terms of tight races like his, Mastriano pointed to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin – saying he was projected to lose handily to Democrat Terry McAuliffe, but pulled off the upset in part due to a powerful ground game and poll watchers at 90% of Old Dominion precincts.
Biden and the Democrats, he said, are instead following Julius "Caesar's old playbook – divide and conquer."