The neck-and-neck New York gubernatorial campaign is coming to an end with polls closing in the state at 9PM, but Republican Representative Lee Zeldin, who is facing off against Democratic incumbent Governor Kathy Hochul, couldn't let Election Day come to an end without stopping for a New York staple: pizza.
At a pizzeria in Brooklyn's Midwood neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon, Zeldin, alongside a group of reporters and activists, recited the Jewish prayer before eating, led by Flatbush Jewish Community Center chairman Josh Mehlman and Jewish Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, who represents Brooklyn’s District 48.
Zeldin explained to a chorus of laughter that the pizza stop was a sneering to former New York City Democratic Mayor Bill DeBlasio's peculiar way of eating pizza: with a fork and knife, which caused a mini-scandal around the city back in 2014.
.@leezeldin takes a bite at a slice of pizza (after mocking Bill de Blasio) at Midwood stop. @JoshMehlman of FJCC makes a bracha and an activists suggests that in this “zechus” Zeldin will celebrate victory tonight #NYGov pic.twitter.com/evVcEH6Yaf
— Jacob Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) November 8, 2022
A surprisingly tight election in "blue" New York
“The Jewish vote will absolutely determine the election outcome in a way it never has."
FJCC chairman Josh Mehlman
If elected, Zeldin would be the state’s first Republican Jewish governor. New York, considered a deeply blue state, has not elected a Republican governor in 20 years, making it surprising that an Emerson College Polling/Pix11/The Hill survey taken as early voted started last week found that Hochul was leading Zeldin by just 6% with 4% remaining undecided.
Zeldin, one of only two Jewish Republicans in Congress, is a longtime ally of Israel and a regular at Republican Jewish Coalition events. But weeks prior to the midterm election, he shifted to position himself in alliance with the issues most important to haredi voters, primarily defending parochial schools. He has received highly coveted endorsements from majority of the state's ultra Orthodox groups, despite the groups backing other incumbent Democrats. The Orthodox make up as many as 100,000 votes of the 1.8 million cast by Jews in New York State and are thought to often vote as a bloc, which has led politicians to commonly court the haredi leadership in Brooklyn and in Rockland and Orange counties.
In interviews with The Jerusalem Post, Mehlman and Vernikov (the latter is a Democrat turned Republican) have come out strongly for Zeldin.
“My district and even some neighboring districts are for Congressman Zeldin. The Orthodox Jewish community for the most part will vote for Congressman Zeldin,” Vernikov said. “The Asian community and the Russian-speaking former Soviet Union immigrants also, I would say, are 97% going to vote Zeldin. Former Soviet Union immigrants didn’t vote so much in the past. Now they are focused on politics, and I think that’s an outcome from my city council election.” Vernikov said the top priorities for Russian-speaking immigrants and Orthodox Jews are crime and inflation. “There’s a lot of national politics involved; people are upset about the direction of the country, and that progressives are shifting to communism.”
Mehlman told the Post: Early voting turnout in the Flatbush community has been “unprecedented.”
“The Jewish vote will absolutely determine the election outcome in a way it never has,” he said. “We are getting the message out loudly. Zeldin respects our constitutional right to educate our children the way we believe without interference from government entities.”