Trump to headline fundraiser for New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin in New Jersey
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to headline a fund-raiser next month with Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican nominee for governor of New York, the congressman’s campaign said Wednesday.
The fund-raiser, set for Sept. 4 in Deal, N.J., represents a risky strategy for Zeldin, given Trump’s unpopularity in New York.
Then-President Donald Trump (right) greets Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. (center), and his wife Diana Zeldin (left) after arriving at Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, N.Y., Friday, Aug. 9, 2019. (Susan Walsh/)
But Zeldin has badly trailed Gov. Hochul in campaign cash, and he may see a Jersey Shore appearance with Trump — safely beyond state lines — as a chance to start to catch up with his Democratic rival.
Zeldin has served as a loyal ally of Trump, and voted to overturn the 2020 election won by President Biden.
The vote has been viewed as a potential black mark for Zeldin as he seeks the highest office in deep-blue New York. In a Siena College poll published this month, 63% of New York voters said they disapprove of Trump.
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) is pictured during a press conference at the Port Authority in Manhattan, New York on Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/)
Hochul, who took her post after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned, led Zeldin by 14 percentage points in the Siena survey.
Hochul’s campaign quickly attacked Zeldin over the planned Trump rendezvous after a notice advertising the event began to circulate on social media Tuesday.
“Zeldin continues to shamelessly support Trump’s far-right MAGA agenda,” Brian Lenzmeier, Hochul’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “The stakes this November could not be more clear: Lee Zeldin is too extreme and too dangerous for New York.”
Democrats outnumber Republicans in New York by more than two to one. Evan Stavisky, a Democratic political consultant, called the fund-raiser “political malpractice.”
“If Lee Zeldin thinks the way to win a blue state like New York is to get even closer to Donald Trump, then he’s out of touch,” Stavisky said. “If he thinks that nobody’s going to notice because it’s in New Jersey, then he’s clueless.”
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally Friday, Aug. 5, 2022, in Waukesha, Wisc. (Morry Gash/)
Zeldin’s campaign did not provide comment on the fund-raiser beyond confirming in an unsigned email that the event had been scheduled. Trump spends his summers in New Jersey.
The former president did not make an endorsement in the competitive Republican primary that Zeldin won in June. The Long Island Republican topped Andrew Giuliani — the son of Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani — in the primary.
During the race, Zeldin was chased by anti-Trump protests.
A spokeswoman for Trump, Liz Harrington, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the planned fund-raiser.
Trump, who has recently laid the groundwork for an extremely early entry into the 2024 White House race, has been buffeted by scandal across the summer.
Last week, the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Fla., recovering top secret documents, according to an unsealed search warrant.
In July, the House panel probing Jan. 6 presented testimony indicating Trump watched the violence at the Capitol live on TV but snubbed a flurry of appeals from his allies and family to intervene.
And in June, a former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, testified in an explosive House hearing that Trump had pushed to relax security checks at his rally before the deadly Capitol attack.
Trump has never given up his claims that he won the 2020 election, falsehoods that fed the attack on the citadel of American democracy.
Steven Cohen, a professor of public affairs at Columbia University, said that steering completely clear of Trump would be hard for any Republican candidate for governor in New York.
But he added that the fund-raiser could make Zeldin’s outreach to the center challenging.
“Strategically, I don’t think it makes much sense,” Cohen said. “It surprises me a little, because I thought Zeldin actually wanted to win.”
