GOP Congressman Lee Zeldin has been our representative in the 1st District since he won his first election in 2014. As one of Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters, he has figured prominently in my work as a Democratic activist fighting against the Trump agenda. He is a leading figure in my book “The Resistance and Me,” as well as the subject of many of my blog posts on my website.
I have gotten to know the real Zeldin, who this year has abandoned reelection and is running to be governor. I can assure you that Lee Zeldin is far too radical for New York.
While Zeldin has parlayed his avid Trump support into regular appearances on Fox News, beneath the surface of that fame is the empty congressional career of a far-right extremist — and our district has suffered for it.
Zeldin pretends to be a bipartisan moderate, yet he voted with the Trump agenda every time. He voted for the Trump tax bill that capped our state and local taxes. He voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, though I called his office and begged him not to deny my protection for preexisting conditions. He voted against the infrastructure bill, which is bringing valuable funding to New York.
This list of what New Yorkers need that he has voted against goes on and on. He also aligns himself with the most radical right-wing elements on his social media, such as the anti-vaccine and anti-mask movement on Long Island that is attempting to take over our school boards with the lie about teaching critical race theory.
We must never forget that he voted against certifying Joe Biden’s electoral votes — after the attack on the Capitol — and he has yet to repudiate Trump’s “Big Lie” about a stolen election. He claims to support law enforcement, and yet on the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection this year, he was out campaigning rather than attending a memorial at the Capitol to the fallen.
He recently cheered the two Supreme Court decisions that overturned the 100-year-old law in New York against concealed carry of firearms in public and eliminated our constitutional right to abortion.
Democratic representatives in New York are working overtime to protect us from these rulings. It is not hyperbole to state that if Zeldin is elected governor, we will all be less safe, since he would veto any bills from the legislature that would help prevent more gun violence and protect our reproductive rights. Being for more guns and forced birth is not being a supporter of life.
Zeldin is too radical for New York. On Tuesday, November 8, reelect Governor Kathy Hochul.
Your life and your rights depend on it.
Barbara Weber-Floyd
Westhampton Beach
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