As we learned over the weekend, there may be some strangeness unfolding in the New York governor’s race, where Republican state representative Lee Zeldin is hoping to unseat the unelected Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul. The most recent poll in that race showed Zeldin within four points of Hochul in a race that should have been an absolute slam dunk for her. That strong showing apparently attracted the attention of another famous former New Yorker. Former President Donald Trump showed up for a fundraiser in New Jersey this weekend in support of Zeldin and his presence clearly drew some high-dollar donors. Zeldin walked away with $1.5 million in campaign contributions. Will it be enough to make a difference and get him any closer to his long-shot dream of occupying the Governor’s mansion? (Fox News)

Former President Donald Trump reportedly helped New York’s Republican candidate for governor, Rep. Lee Zeldin, raise an additional $1.5 million for his campaign to oust incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul.

At a reception hosted Sunday at the Chera real estate family’s home in New Jersey, Trump advocated for Zeldin, who has been inching closer to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s predecessor in the polls in recent days with the general election still nine weeks away in November.

The New York Post reported that the event earned Zeldin a $1.5 million boost in campaign cash.

Trump spoke warmly of Zeldin, describing how he had been a leading voice of support as Trump fended off “all of these maniacs” who were coming after him in New York. (That was an unsubtle reference to the various fishing expeditions against him launched by New York’s Democratic Attorney General.) The money that Zeldin took in will nearly double what he reportedly had when he filed his last campaign finance statement. Meanwhile, Kathy Hochul is sitting on nearly ten times as much.

As I wrote previously, it’s still far too early for anyone to get overly excited about this race. That one poll may still turn out to be an outlier. And even if it’s accurate down to the last percentage point, it still showed Zeldin losing outside the margin of error, though not by much.

But part of me can’t help but wonder if Kathy Hochul’s hubris and refusal to accept reality might not finally be catching up with her. It takes a certain type of personality to simply tell 5.4 million people to move out of your state when you’re in the middle of an election. And her refusal to implement any substantive measures to bring down New York’s spiraling crime rates can’t be sitting well with many people.

Whether Zeldin wins or not, he could have a larger impact on the rest of the ballot. Every member of Congress from New York, along with the state legislature will be potentially on the chopping block. The long-delayed new district maps have created many more competitive areas around the state. And if voters are experiencing fatigue with Kathy Hochul to the point where Zeldin can make things close, those other races could start tilting to the right.

With enough of a shove, it’s not entirely impossible that we could wake up on November 9th and be talking about New York as a purple state rather than being among the bluest of the blue. I’m not saying it’s likely of course. But if it’s even somewhere in the realm of possibility, we might be seeing a tidal shift. If New York were somehow up for grabs in 2024 and it wound up going to the GOP, the Democrats could basically just abandon their hopes for any sort of victory on the national front.