Something strange happened last weekend when Rep. Lee Zeldin brought the Republican New York gubernatorial campaign to Hasidic Brooklyn.
A prominent underdog, Mr. Zeldin was greeted like a rock star. The crowd cheered. Yiddish campaign his posters littered the streets. “Mr. Lee Zeldin, you got my vote,” yelled a paramedic from an ambulance engraved with Hebrew characters.
Zeldin, one of only two Jewish Republicans in Congress, has long been a staunch supporter of Israel and a regular at Republican Jewish Coalition events. But in recent weeks, it has been actively working to keep pace with Orthodox Jewish concerns about rising hate crimes and state attempts to regulate private religious schools known as yeshiva.
“It’s not just on our streets, but even in our schools where we’re being targeted,” he said during a visit to Borough Park on Sunday.
With less than 50 days to go before Election Day, Mr. Zeldin’s outreach to the Jewish people will continue in suburban Manhattan boroughs where English is often a second language and voters seem highly motivated by education. At the heart of the coordinated and overlooked efforts to bring such enclaves to court are the congestion charges, threats to public safety, and a leftward shift among their longtime Democrats. .
Zeldin has run some of his most powerful campaigns outside of New York City, including recent visits to Sunset Park in Brooklyn and Asian-American neighborhoods in Flushing, Queens. Russian-speaking community around Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. A conservative Hispanic church in the Bronx. Pro-Zeldin Super PAC provides backing with foreign language advertising and outreach on WeChat and WhatsApp.
Whether he can move enough votes to destabilize the Democratic New York City firewall remains to be seen. % difference, but other polls suggest the competition could be tougher.
No Republican gubernatorial candidate in 20 years has won more than 30% of the city vote, Zeldin’s benchmark. Even then, defeating Mr. Hochul would require a crushing victory in upstate and increasingly diverse New York suburbs.
But for New York Republicans trapped in the political wilderness since the election of former President Donald J. Trump, the promise of a long-term realignment between the key Asian and Jewish voting blocs is daunting, even if the party is elected in November. It’s intriguing, even if you have to wait until later. Occur.
“These are free-agent voters,” said Chapin Fay, a former adviser to Zeldin, who heads one of the super PACs.
A recent Emerson College poll found that Hochul had a lead among voters who identified as Asian, compared with a 37-point lead among Hispanics and a 60-point lead among African Americans. , was only 10 points away.
“It’s hard to get into the group I’m in without seeing Zeldin news articles, flyers, or Republican literature on WeChat,” said Yiatin Chu, president of the nonpartisan Asian Wave Alliance. A political club formed to help organize voters.
Chu has never voted for the Republican Party. But after Mr. Zeldin met with a group of Asian leaders last year, he made fighting anti-Asian violence a priority and blocked changes to admission procedures at elite public schools, which are home to many Asian-Americans. Deaf, she was convinced.
Rep. Grace Meng, the state’s only Asian-American congressman, began sounding the alarm last year about aggressive Republican outreach in Queens.
But given her outspoken support for abortion rights, taking aggressive steps to combat gun violence, and distanced herself from former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s unpopular education policies, Mr. Hochul predicted that he would do well there.
Regarding Mr. Zeldin’s contact, it is said that it is “a little late”.
The Democrats have large investments in many of the same communities, as well as a more credible part of the party base that could offset Mr. Zeldin’s interests.
Hochol said he would spend six figures on ads aimed at Jewish voters in his campaign, and another $1 million on Spanish-language ads. Many will accuse Zeldin of opposing her abortion rights and supporting Trump, while promoting her work on gun control and mental health.
While Zeldin is optimistic about Orthodox Jewish groups, Hasidic voters typically account for less than 2 percent of the statewide voter turnout, with other religious Jewish groups, including modern Orthodox, an additional 2-3. Some estimates put it at 10%. Hochol also made a series of cold calls last week seeking to strengthen ties with prominent Jewish allies, but overall wins Jewish voters and scores higher among non-orthodox voters. is expected.
“From Borough Park to the South Bronx, Gov. Ho-Chol has built a broad coalition of New Yorkers who support her campaign through her effective leadership and ability to get things done.
Still, Mr. Zeldin may have good reason to think he can turn a profit.
In south Brooklyn, immigrants from Russia and Ukraine, many of whom are Jews, helped convert seats on the city council to Republicans last year. Many immigrants fleeing the former Soviet Union voted hard for Mr. Trump, even moderates like Mayor Eric Adams and Mr. are also increasingly rejecting Democrats.
“Even if they’re centrist Democrats, they’re going to pick Republicans at this point,” said Inna Belnikov, a Democrat-turned-Republican who won a seat on the council.
Republicans also think opposing the state’s new congestion pricing plan, which would make commuting to Manhattan more expensive for middle-class New Yorkers during a period of rapid inflation, would help boost voter turnout. .
For now, the race for votes appears to be strongest in New York’s politically influential and burgeoning Hasidic community, which has rapidly shifted to the right in recent years.
Although they are not exceptionally large, these groups tend to vote when other voters do not, and vote as a block. And now they may be some of the state’s most aspiring voters.
Hasidic Jews have been a particularly visible target of an increase in anti-Semitic violence. And in recent weeks, government intervention against Hasidic yeshivas has been framed as an existential threat to the community.
Earlier this month, The New York Times found that about 100 Hasidic boys’ schools, while receiving large amounts of tax money, systematically deny their students basic secular education and regularly use corporal punishment. Days later, the state school board passed long-awaited rules to regulate secular learning in private schools.
“New York State declares war on its ultra-Orthodox population,” cried the front page of the Yiddish-language newspaper Der Blatt.
Mr. Hochol has kept quiet about the yeshiva, but Mr. Zeldin was trying to capitalize on the issue.
In recent days he has criss-crossed the Hasidic region, declaring that he will protect the yeshiva from the government he wants to run. emphasizing and emphasizing the defense of Israel in parliament. (Zeldin also targets modern Orthodox Jewish voters, who often vote Republican.)
Advertisements in English and Yiddish appeared early last week, amplifying Zeldin’s defense of yeshiva. “They both want our support,” it read, referring to the two candidates. is my only reliable friend.”
Earlier this summer, Mr. Zeldin visited summer camp In the Catskills with Hasidic leader Joel Rosenfeld. As he sat in front of a hand-painted sign that read “Make New York Great Again,” Zeldin listened as a group of boys sang in unison.
“A governor who listens, a governor who cares, that’s Rep. Lee Zeldin,” they sang, raising their voices into the finale. “Rep. Lee Zeldin, a leader who understands our needs and demands!”
Zeldin started the day Sunday by visiting the tomb of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schnarsson, a respected leader of the Lubawitcher group of Hasidic Jews.
Later, in Williamsburg, he visited the book-lined apartment of a religious leader of a minor Hasidic sect, citing statistics on anti-Semitic violence and saying the state should be more concerned with public school struggles than yeshiva. suggested.
All of this has fueled speculation about whether he will win support from the Hasidic groups that back Hochol in the primary.
However, Hasidic leaders have maintained a very pragmatic trend in local elections, supporting the ruling Democratic Party and calling on their supporters to do the same. , could be dangerous for Hasidic leaders who rely on Democrats to serve communities with the highest poverty rates in New York.
Still, some religious leaders either support Mr. Zeldin or simply You may decide to remain neutral.
Hasidic leader Moishe Indig, whose group has yet to endorse the election campaign, said in a statement: