EARLY AND OFTEN 7:00 A.M. Does Lee Zeldin Stand a Chance Against Kathy Hochul?

EARLY AND OFTEN 7:00 A.M. Does Lee Zeldin Stand a Chance Against Kathy Hochul?

After being counted out last year, Republicans flipped the governor’s mansion in Virginia and came extremely close in New Jersey

where Democrat Phil Murphy barely won a second term

This fall, the political environment is expected to be dismal for Democrats of all ideological stripes, even with the repeal of Roe v

 Wade potentially firing up the Democratic base. Inflation is stubbornly high with the average price of gas hovering around $5 a gallon

Joe Biden remains very unpopular. Fear of crime is rampant in Democratic big cities and Republican-run suburbs alike.

At least that is the hope for Lee Zeldin, the Long Island representative who won the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday

He will face off against Governor Kathy Hochul, who easily dispatched her Democratic rivals on the same night

 and is aiming to pull in north of $50 million for the fall. Like recent Republican contenders

he will face incredibly long odds in a state that has a hefty Democratic registration

advantage and a history of rejecting those who have aligned themselves with the right-wing national party.

Zeldin’s close alliance with Donald Trump — he voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election and defended the Capitol insurrection

is almost certainly going to cost him with Democrats and independents

Like other Republicans, Zeldin has already celebrated the overturning of Roe

Breyer makes it official: He’s leaving the Supreme Court on Thursday at noon