Joins the field
Former Republican Westchester County executive touts ability to reach across aisle
Rob Astorino to run in GOP primary for governor./
Rob Astorino, the former Westchester County executive and 2014 GOP candidate for governor, said Tuesday that he’s running in the Republican primary for the 2022 governor’s race.
Although there’s a long way to the primary — which will take place in June of 2022 — Astorino is late at being early.
He had publicly flirted with jumping in the race for weeks, appearing before GOP party leaders last month to discuss his potential candidacy.
He joins U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin of Long Island as a candidate, who jumped into the race early, and Lewis County Sheriff Mike Carpinelli. Several prominent Republicans are still considering runs, including Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, who was defeated by Cuomo in 2018. Many had speculated that U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-schuylerville, was also considering a run for governor, but she has refocused her attention recently on ascending to the number three spot in U.S. House leadership — a vote which could occur as early as Wednesday evening.
Zeldin has raised millions of dollars and gobbled up enough endorsements from Conservative party leaders in the state to earn designation from that party. State GOP Party Chair Nick Langworthy referred to Zeldin as “the front-runner” last month.
“We’re still in the first inning of the first game of a doubleheader. And there’s some in the establishment who don’t want anybody to take the field,” Astorino said in a Tuesday phone interview with the Times Union. “I love being the underdog, if that’s the case, because it’s more exciting to win that way. But again, we are at the very first step in a long process. The convention, the primary, the election, it’s not this year, it’s next year.”
Astorino’s pitch is that New York is heading in exactly the wrong direction under Cuomo, whom he contends is corrupt, divisive and abusive.
Astorino wants to lower taxes to make New York a more affordable place to live, and to make the state more business-friendly. He said that his experience winning two races as Westchester County executive demonstrate an ability to win in Democraticleaning areas of the state where Republicans will need to succeed to compete statewide against the Democrats. He also said his record as county executive shows his ability to work across the aisle and achieve bipartisan policy wins. He has worked for CNN the last few years, he said, so he has experience communicating with a more left-leaning audience. If Zeldin wins the primary, Astorino said he will support him, and that he expects that Zeldin would do the same thing. But, Astorino said, he feels his experience as county executive in Westchester sets him up to be more electable in 2022 than Zeldin.
Support for former President Donald J. Trump and his unsupported claims of election fraud in 2020, as well as his actions during the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol have become a dividing line in the Republican party. U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, of Wyoming, was a rising Republican star whose leadership position in the House is being challenged because of her unwillingness to back Trump’s election claims. Stefanik — a loyal defender of Trump — is seeking to succeed Cheney. The extent of support for the former president will be an important issue for New York Republican gubernatorial candidates, who will need to walk a tight line between garnering support from the Republican base without alienating Democratic and independent voters in the state who have deep antipathy toward Trump.
Astorino is a longtime friend of Trump, who owns property in Westchester County. Astorino said he stays in touch with the former president and with members of his family.
“My style is very different than his, clearly,” Astorino said, adding that he supports a majority of Trump’s policies. “I think most people, even his biggest supporters, wished he wouldn’t tweet as much as he did ... but Cuomo is the last person who should be screaming about Donald Trump. I mean look in the mirror. I think we can do much better in New York.”
Zeldin voted Jan. 6 along with Stefanik to reject electoral college results, a step that Astorino said he would not have taken.
“People are going to have to judge whether the Jan. 6 vote that Lee took is right or wrong. I would not have voted that way on that day, but I do think there are issues in the election that are worth examining because there were irregularities. I know that,” Astorino said. “Whether or not the election would have been overturned, I don’t know that. But obviously I recognize Joe Biden as the president.”