Every politician is apt to say that an upcoming election is the most consequential in history. But after the recent New York primaries ushered in a slew of radical Democratic candidates who trash America only slightly less than they do Israel, the upcoming New York election for governor just might be that one.

Come November, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, is squaring off against Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul. The two candidates diverge widely, sometimes diametrically, on policies such as taxes, crime, education, immigration, and how to tackle antisemitism.

Blakeman, an attorney, is no newcomer to politics. He was elected Nassau County Executive in 2021, and he is still on the job today. As Executive, Blakeman kept his promise not to raise taxes and to keep down crime, with U.S. News & World Report ranking Nassau County America’s safest county multiple times.

He previously served as Hempstead Town Councilman and was appointed Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in the aftermath of 9/11. Blakeman currently resides in Atlantic Beach with his wife, Segal, and is a member of the Jewish Center of Atlantic Beach.

The Nassau County Executive has a special admiration for the Chabad community. This past Gimmel Tammuz, Blakeman visited the Ohel and credited the Rebbe for being the model of “how one should conduct oneself as a citizen and as a person.”

“The morals and the ethics that the Rebbe gave over to us was something that was beneficial to everyone,” Blakeman said. “The Rebbe was truly an amazing and remarkable man, and to be here on his yahrtzeit, for me personally, is not only a blessing but a mitzvah.”

I sat down with Mr. Blakeman to discuss the most pressing issues currently facing New York voters, especially Jewish voters. In our conversation, Blakeman discusses his policies and plans, including how to replicate the safety of Nassau County in NY State, whether or not he would as governor remove Mayor Mamdani, and how antisemitism in the Democratic Party isn’t just a Jewish problem.

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Let’s start with the recent primaries, demonstrating the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) takeover of the Democratic Party. You have called DSA members “left wing lunatics” and “a danger.” Governor Hochul, who endorsed Mayor Momdani, caved to the socialists by bailing out the city budget and passing the pied-a-terre tax^*. Do you think Hochul will now shift even more to the left or will she not risk alienating moderate Democrats and Independents?

Kathy Hochul is completely subservient to Zohran Mandami. He is running the party now, not Kathy Hochul. She will do whatever he wants. She will pretend to be a moderate through the election. If she were, G-d forbid, to be re-elected, she would be doing what he tells her to do, because he controls the party now. What we need to do is make sure that she does not win, and that I am the governor, because I am the only person, as governor, who could keep a check on Mandani and make him behave.

As governor, you would have it within your power to remove the mayor and the district attorney. Would there be any scenario in which red lines were crossed that you would actually do that?

Governors have removed district attorneys, but they haven’t removed a mayor. So, my answer is as follows, and it’s consistent: to remove a duly elected official, it would have to be a grave situation or a clear violation of an important law.

Can you give an example?

Well, if he wasn’t enforcing the law, if a certain group of people was being picked on and they weren’t protected. But there’s incremental discipline that I could instill, and we don’t have to get to the point of removal. There are things I can do to take over various agencies of the city government. There are things that I could do with a budget with respect to the flow of funds. So, I am very confident that I could handle Zohran Mamdani.

What about other elected Democratic officials, such as city councilmembers, who are becoming increasingly progressive?

Again, if there are things that they want, they’re not going to get them if they’re doing things that I think will hurt the people of NYC. I won’t allow that to happen. I didn’t allow it to happen in my county. I’m not going to allow it to happen in NYC. I will use whatever power I have to make sure that the economy of New York City is not ruined and that there’s no lawlessness in New York City. That I will not tolerate.

Steve Hilton, a Republican, surprisingly won the gubernatorial primary in California. Does that give you hope?

I think it’s very encouraging, but California and New York are very, very different. Hilton is not running against an incumbent now. It’s an open seat. I am running against an incumbent who is very disliked. Her approval ratings are underwater. We have the most overtaxed, overregulated state in America. That’s why businesses and people are leaving our state. Our electric bills are 70% higher than the national average, and people don’t feel safe in their communities anymore.

I’m running against her record, and I’m running with my record. U.S. News and World Report named my county [Nassau County] the safest county in America. I haven’t raised taxes by a penny in four years. As a matter of fact, I cut a $150 million tax increase introduced by my predecessor. Niche Magazine says my county is the most desirable place to live in all of New York State. And I’ve gotten four budget surpluses and seven bond upgrades, which is unprecedented.

So, I’m going to run on my report card versus her report card. NY ranks 50th in economic outlook of 50 states, which is a national embarrassment. I will win over the moderate voters, because they have no choice right now. It’s either vote for somebody who is controlled by someone who is un-American and antisemitic or vote for me and have hope that somebody will bring down their taxes, cut their electric bills in half, and make safer communities. And everybody wants that.

I have common-sense voters come up to me every day. I had a 65-year-old woman come up to me a few days ago. She said, “Mr. Blakeman, I have never voted for a Republican in my life. You will be the first Republican I ever vote for. I don’t recognize my party. I just don’t understand how we’ve gotten so radical.” This isn’t the party of John F. Kennedy or Daniel Patrick Moynihan or even Bill Clinton. This is the party of Zohran Mamdani.

How difficult will it be to duplicate your success in Nassau County in Albany, where you’ll be facing a very progressive Democratic-controlled State Legislature?

First of all, the governor of the state of New York has tremendous power. It is the second most powerful governor position in the United States, after New Jersey. I will have tremendous power over the budget, which obviously will be of great concern to members of the legislature. So, it’ll be a negotiation and bargaining process. It’ll be a situation where there are things that they’ll want, and there are things that I want. And if I don’t get what I want, they’re not going to get what they want.

Let’s talk about the growing antisemitism issue. Many of the DSA candidates were almost indistinguishable from other progressive Democratic candidates, but they won specifically because they came down harder on Israel. Jews don’t feel safe anymore and some are leaving. What kind of protection would you offer?

Let me give you an example. The same protesters who took over Columbia University and blocked bridges and roadways in New York City came to my county. The same exact ones, we have them on video, and we share intelligence with NYPD and the FBI. We knew exactly who these people were. They came to my county and tried to do the same things. They tried to storm a synagogue in my community, and they were met with a different reaction. I brought out my helicopter unit, my tanks, my SWAT team, our canine and mounted units. The best tool was our horses. When they tried to take over a synagogue, it lasted about 15 minutes, and it was over.

I don’t tolerate lawlessness. Quite frankly, if I were the governor, when all of these protests were going on in New York City, they would have been over very quickly, because I would not tolerate that. I would have told the President of Columbia University if there are violations of law occurring on your campus, I don’t need an invitation to come in and protect people. I would not have waited for an invitation, which never came from Columbia University. I would have gone in and done the job, and got it done very quickly.

Police protection is really taking care of the symptoms of the problem. How would you combat the spread of antisemitism, such as through education or tracking the funding of these antisemitic groups?

We obviously have to stop the flow of money to organizations that are antisemitic, but this is not just a Jewish problem. This is an attack on religion. It’s an attack on religious freedom. As I tell my Christian friends all the time, the Jews are just appetizers. You’re the main course. And if you tolerate that kind of antisemitism, eventually, they will win. And when they win, the next target is going to be you, because that’s the way it’s happened throughout history.

Whether it be communism, which is a form of socialism, or whether it’s Nazism, which is a form of socialism, it’s anti-religious. It’s the government controlling every aspect of your life, and that’s what these people want to do. They’re starting with the Jews, then they’ll get to Christians, and then they’ll take over. That has to be stopped. That’s one of the reasons I’m running for governor.

What kind of reaction do you get from Christians when you tell them this? Do they realize the danger?

They get it. Christians understand. Unfortunately, there are a lot of Jewish people who don’t get it. And it’s the young people who are indoctrinated in their schools and universities. There are really two types of antisemites. There’s the uneducated person who believes these antisemitic tropes because they’re indoctrinated. They can be rehabilitated through education. And I strongly suggest we do that and do more of it. And then there are evil people. They can’t be rehabilitated; they have to be destroyed.

What about the antisemitism within the Republican Party? Do you speak about that?

Yes, of course. We don’t tolerate that in the Republican Party. It’s not an epidemic in the Republican Party. It’s an epidemic in the Democratic Party. You don’t see mainstream Republicans standing with antisemites in the Republican Party. You see mainstream or former mainstream Democrats, and now they’ve become Democrat Socialists. Where are the Democrat mainstream candidates and elected officials? They’re nowhere to be found. Or maybe they are, maybe they are standing with them.

What is your take on Vice President Vance? He has disappointed many people, especially in the Jewish community, with how he’s come down so harshly on Israel.

Yes, with respect to Vance, I would say that I can understand how people think that his criticism was a little too sharp. But I think that maybe it could be a circumstance of playing good cop, bad cop, and the fact that there are instances where Israel wants to be more aggressive than the United States.

I think that, like families or friends, there are disagreements from time to time, but you don’t get rid of your family. You don’t get rid of your friends. So, I would say to anybody who is concerned to think of where we are now, and where we were two and a half, three years ago. I think everybody would take where we are now.

In a nod to Jewish New Yorkers, Hochul pushed through the “buffer zone” law to protect synagogues and the federal tax credit scholarship program. Where do you stand on these issues?

It didn’t cost Kathy Hochul anything to sign on to President Trump’s scholarship program. And that’s why she did it. It was a little nod to people who were getting a program from the federal government, when for years, they’ve been trying to get [a program] from the state government.

I think the state should match what the federal government’s doing. There should be vouchers and tax credits for people who want their children to be educated in a religious environment or in a non-traditional public-school environment. I think every child is different, and you educate children differently. I believe in parental choice. And I know that’s what the government is trying to take away. Tuition tax credits, property tax relief, vouchers. Hochul’s against those, I am for those.

As for the buffer zone law, I enacted my own six months earlier right in Nassau County. The governor was copying what we did. But it’s not enough. We’re fighting it now because the court overruled our buffer.

How would you summarize your feelings about the State of Israel?

I believe that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. Israel is a democracy with human rights, an independent judiciary, religious freedom. And they would be absolutely out of their minds if they gave Judea and Samaria to the Palestinians as part of a deal, because Judea and Samaria, first of all, are part of Israel and should remain part of Israel. But from a strategic standpoint, especially where Samaria is located, overlooking Tel Aviv, I think that it would be a security disaster for Israel to even think about that. I actually have a friendship and cultural exchange agreement with Judea and Samaria through Nassau County, and I am an investor in Israel as well.

You’re also a proud MAGA supporter. Do you see that as an asset or liability in New York?

Of course I support MAGA. We want to make America great. I don’t understand anybody who doesn’t. And I am who I am. New Yorkers can see a phony a mile away. When I ran for reelection in Nassau County, with 110,000 more Democrats than Republicans and in an election where the county executive candidate in the same party as the president has lost in the last 32 years, I won in a landslide. When every other Republican across the United States got severely hurt, I won by 36,000 votes, double Chai.

I had President Trump come into my county for a rally, and we were seen together on many occasions. But nothing Democrats say about me and my relationship with President Trump is going to change the fact that people are miserable under NY Governor Kathy Hochul. This race is about Kathy Hochul’s record and my record. Hochul can only say that I’m MAGA because my record is excellent and her record is miserable.

Your record includes turning Nassau County into America’s safest county. How would you turn that success into a state-level success?

First of all, I wouldn’t defund the police. I would make sure that we had adequate personnel, that they had the best training and state-of-the-art technology and equipment like I’ve done in my county. I would enforce the laws. I would seriously negotiate with the state legislature on cashless bail, raise the age, etc. Hochul is the most pro-criminal governor in the United States. She has made every criminal justice initiative easier for criminals to operate in our state. And that ends when I become governor.

How concerned are you about voter integrity? Are you doing anything about it?

Of course I’m concerned. Yes, we’re going to invest a lot of money in ballot security. I’m not going to let them steal the election. And I will demand that our law enforcement officials make sure there’s no fraud. And then if there is fraud, those people are arrested and incarcerated. Because the integrity of our elections is paramount to our democracy.

Do you think Jewish New Yorkers are motivated?

We need to get people more involved. We’ve got to get them out to vote. Jews need to be awakened that this is a perilous situation. We are in danger. It’s unacceptable that less than 50% of the Orthodox community vote, especially in these times. This is 1938 again. Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander, and this kook Darializa Avila Chevalier, who just won the primaries for a NY Congressional seat. They’re running the show now. It’s a cancer, and it’s spreading. If we don’t stop them, it’s going to be very dangerous to live in New York State.

Do you have any parting words?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe had a message that was universal. One of the most important things he did was to be a uniter, not a divider. He wanted to unite Jewish people and bring them together. And the Chabad movement has brought Jews closer and closer together from all around the world.

Sara Lehmann is an award-winning New York-based writer. For more of her writings, please visit saralehmann.com. A version of this article first appeared in Hamodia.

Sara Lehmann’s story with the Rebbe was published in the Tammuz 2024 N’shei Chabad Newsletter.

^*New York City’s pied-a-terre tax is an annual surcharge on luxury non-primary residences, effective from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031. It targets condos and co-ops valued at ≥ $1 million and 1- to 3-family homes valued at ≥ $5 million.