NEW YORK — Ex-President Bill Clinton joined New York Gov. Kathy Hochul during a whirlwind final weekend of campaigning Saturday, urging New Yorkers to vote Democratic in her tight race against GOP challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y.
Hochul appeared with Clinton and New York City Mayor Eric Adams at BKLYN Studios in Downtown Brooklyn on a day where she also stumped in Manhattan and Queens, with Tuesday’s election looming in the tight race between the two candidates.
Clinton pumped up the crowd with a few shots at Zeldin’s resume.
“He looks like a nice suburban dad,” Clinton said of the Long Island Republican. “But when it came to keeping our kids safe and getting drug prices down and rebuilding modern infrastructure ... he always found a reason to say no. So that’s the reason you should say no to Lee Zeldin.”
Clinton, wearing sneakers and without a tie, addressed the crowd of vocal supporters and received a thank-you from Hochul after his 27-minute speech. Her race against Zeldin, the congressman and an ally of ex-President Donald Trump, has grown increasingly tight as the race reaches its final days.
Zeldin has campaigned on rising violent crime in the city as he seeks to become the state’s first GOP governor elected in two decades.
“The whole election could come down to how big the turnout is in Brooklyn,” Clinton told the audience of local residents.
Hochul, asked about the possibility of losing to a Republican in typically blue-state New York, said her campaign had grabbed the momentum with three days until the election
“The tide has shifted,” she said. “I’m feeling the energy. I’m feeling mobilized. But yes, anything can happen in any election, any time ... Any election can go a different way — that’s why I’m out here.”
The governor earlier did some retail politicking and baby-holding at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket in Brooklyn.
Adams offered words of support for Hochul, who recently teamed with him on a plan to slash the alarming crime rate in the city’s subways.
“We have a governor that’s authentic,” said Adams. “That’s real. And she’s one of us. She doesn’t come from some ivory tower somewhere.
“You have an authentic governor here that is committed to to uplifting the people of this city and state ... This is the governor we need in the state of New York right now.”
A smiling Adams offered a final thought on the Democratic incumbent: “Kathy Hochul is the right woman for the job.”
Hochul, who took office in August 2021 after ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, aims to land a full term in the job inherited from her ousted predecessor and brushed aside the polls suggesting an upset.
“I love being underestimated,” she said at the event with Clinton. “Because then when we win, it sends a message to everybody else.”
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