Congress

Republican Bruce Blakeman planning to enter race for New York governor

Published

11 months ago

December 8, 2025

ALBANY, New York — Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is preparing to enter the race for New York governor as soon as Tuesday, according to two people with direct knowledge of his plans.

Blakeman’s decision to seek the Republican nomination is a major snag in Rep. Elise Stefanik’s efforts to secure GOP backing in her challenge to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is running for a second full term next year.

The looming primary has the makings of a battle royale between two ardent supporters of President Donald Trump — a generational fight pitting an ascendent woman in the Republican Party against a stalwart GOP officeholder who has been on the periphery of the Empire State’s political scene for decades.

Blakeman, who last month won reelection in the suburbs east of New York City, has said Trump has not discouraged him from seeking statewide office. The president offered no preference Monday when reporters asked about Blakeman and Stefanik, appearing to signal that he doesn’t mind them competing.

“He’s great and she’s great,” Trump said at the White House. “They’re both great people.”

Hochul more overtly welcomed the competition.

“If there’s a Republican primary, it makes it much more entertaining for me,” Hochul said about Blakeman’s launch. “Let them go at it. Let’s see how they out-MAGA each other.”

Hochul has reason to be reassured. Republican Lee Zeldin competed in a four-candidate primary in 2022 and eventually came within 6 points of unseating her. Some New York Republicans grumble that Zeldin lost time he could have used to focus on Hochul and was drained of resources as a result.

The people who spoke with Blue Light News about Blakeman’s announcement were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. A Blakeman spokesperson declined to comment on the pending launch.

The county executive has downplayed the problems a primary would pose.

“You gotta be sharp. You gotta be on your game if you want to win this,” he said when he was beginning to explore his bid. “There’s not a large margin of error for Republicans. So I think it sharpens both candidates if there is a primary in many circumstances as long as you can keep it from not degrading into namecalling and things of that nature, which I would never do.”

Hochul, who faces her own primary challenge against Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, led Stefanik 52 percent to 27 percent in a Siena University poll last month. In their bid to defeat the governor, Republicans plan to leverage New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s ascendance to City Hall — tying the moderate Hochul to the 34-year-old democratic socialist who is unpopular in the suburban counties.

The suburbs will be key to Blakeman’s campaign.

While he’s not well known statewide, the Nassau County executive hails from vote-rich Long Island, which has trended toward Republicans in recent elections. He identifies as a “pro-choice Republican” — a position that stands to complicate his ability to win over GOP voters in a closed party primary. Republicans, though, are hungry to win after being shut out of statewide office in New York for the last 20 years, and a less rigid stance on abortion rights may win over moderate voters.

Blakeman is also a Trump-allied Republican who revels in culture wars and has twice won a purple county where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans. Nassau County is home to two critical House battlegrounds, and Republicans are eager to flip the seats held by Reps. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen in an effort to retain the majority in Washington.

“Even before the election, a lot of community leaders, business leaders, political leaders asked me if I would get into the race because they feel that I would have the best chance to beat Kathy Hochul because of my attraction to crossover Democrats and independent voters,” Blakeman said last month after he won reelection.

He has taken a conservative line on trans athletes, masking in public and is eager to have local law enforcement coordinate with federal immigration enforcement efforts.

He also enjoys a warm relationship with The New York Post, the influential conservative tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch. Blakeman this year announced the Post would become the “official newspaper” of Nassau County.

But Blakeman will face an immediate fundraising crunch. Stefanik, an aggressive fundraiser, formally entered the race for governor in November, but she has been effectively a candidate since the summer after Rep. Mike Lawler bowed out to run for reelection in his swing House seat. Stefanik has made early inroads with Republicans statewide, funding an effort to boost the party’s local-level candidates in the November elections.

Trump likely will loom large in the race. Democrats are poised to tether the president to whoever emerges as the GOP nominee. And Trump’s May endorsement of Lawler’s House reelection bid almost certainly influenced the Hudson Valley Republican’s decision to forgo a gubernatorial run. If Trump decides to favor Stefanik or Blakeman, it is almost certain to have an impact on whether one or the other remains in the running.

“I spoke to President Trump on election night. He congratulated me,” Blakeman said in November. “I told him I wanted to sit down and talk to him. And he said he was willing to sit down and talk about it. He didn’t discourage me.”

Congress

‘Lisa is Lisa’: Murkowski endorses a Democrat as she faces 2028 dilemma

Published

3 hours ago

October 28, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski endorsed a Democrat for governor this week as she ponders her own reelection decision. Amid speculation about her retirement, political operatives and longtime watchers say it’s not necessarily a clue as to what she’s thinking.

Murkowski backed Democratic candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins to lead her home state Tuesday, saying that he would “serve all Alaskans, regardless of party.”

Her decision is a break with her party, which has three candidates in the four-way ranked choice general election next week. President Donald Trump has backed GOP candidate Bernadette Wilson to succeed outgoing GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

It could be read by some as an indication that Murkowski might be contemplating retirement rather than seeking reelection in 2028 — or positioning herself to win by appealing across the aisle, as she has done in the past. Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the senator and could rally Alaska Republicans to oust her.

But back home, her move to endorse a Democrat who is promising to work productively with state legislators of both parties is being viewed as further evidence of her well-known independent streak rather than tea leaves to be read about her own race.

“It’s certainly no surprise. Lisa is Lisa. She doesn’t make decisions based on party,” said Art Hackney, a GOP operative in Alaska running a super PAC for Sen. Dan Sullivan. “She’s looked at the four candidates and decided JKT is the best choice.”

Longtime Alaska political aide and journalist Larry Persily also said in an interview that he does not think Murkowski’s endorsement is a “signal for 2028.”

He called the move “the indication of her frustration with the current [Dunleavy] administration,” adding that she “doesn’t want to see anything close to a repeat. I think it’s a realization that her voice matters in Alaska.”

She hasn’t made a decision about running for reelection and has said little publicly about her thinking. Spokespeople for Murkowski did not respond to a question Wednesday about her endorsement or her 2028 decision.

It’s not the first time Murkowski has endorsed a Democrat. While she is backing Sullivan in his current battleground Senate race, she previously backed his Democratic rival, then-Rep. Mary Peltola, in the at-large House race. Murkowski’s father, former U.S. senator and former Gov. Frank Murkowski, is also backing Kreiss-Tomkins.

Further evidence of Lisa Murkowski’s independence was on display this week surrounding the 2026 Senate race — and allegations that Democrats schemed to put a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot to confuse voters.

After the Justice Department filed a lawsuit last week to block certification, citing the two Sullivans on the ballot, Murkowski pushed back in a statement, saying “Alaskans don’t need any help voting for their preferred candidates.”

Then, after the New York Times published evidence Wednesday that Peltola’s campaign and national Democratic operatives had knowledge of the plans, Murkowski spoke out again to say Peltola and her campaign needed to share the “honest truth” about “a pattern of lies and coverups and a culture of deception that belongs nowhere in our elections or among our elected officials.”

Trump, meanwhile, has renewed his attacks on Murkowski, calling her the “worst senator” in a Truth Social post over the weekend following her criticism of the DOJ lawsuit.

Murkowski and Trump are also on opposite sides when it comes to Alaska’s ranked choice voting system, which eliminates traditional party primaries. Trump has blasted the state’s system as “corrupt,” pointing to the three Republicans on the ballot in the governor’s race compared to one Democratic candidate.

Alaska is one of only two states that use ranked choice voting statewide, and there is a referendum on this year’s ballot to repeal it. Some have credited the system for helping Murkowski defeat a challenger from her right in 2022.

Though Murkowski votes with her party most of the time, she’s been willing to break with the administration on key foreign and domestic policy questions and has voted against some of Trump’s Cabinet picks, including Todd Blanche’s nomination earlier this year to be attorney general.

Some Senate Republicans have privately questioned if Murkowski will run for reelection and, if she does, whether Trump will recruit another Republican to run against her. Murkowski defeated a Trump-backed challenger in 2022 after already pulling off a legendary electoral feat in 2010 by losing the GOP primary then winning the general election via a write-in campaign.

Heading into a 2028 race, Dunleavy has garnered months of speculation as a potential Senate candidate. But he has been dogged by low approval ratings and poor relations with other Alaska Republicans.

Murkowski said this week she has “found fault with the Dunleavy administration” and that it had “federal money on the table.”

After Fox News reported last year Dunleavy would challenge Murkowski, a spokesperson for the governor said in a statement that Dunleavy was “focused on moving Alaska forward during the remainder of his second term.” Spokespeople for Dunleavy did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday about Murkowski’s fresh criticism of his administration.

National Republican political operatives who were granted anonymity to speak candidly speculated that Dunleavy could be more interested in a potential Cabinet spot than a Senate seat if he decides to stay in politics.

Trump has repeatedly praised Dunleavy, including at a Sept. 30 White House event where he said he was a “great governor and a friend of mine.”

Congress

TV station says it is ‘pulling’ GOP ad attacking Pennsylvania House candidate

Published

5 hours ago

October 28, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A Harrisburg-area television station said it is “pulling” a controversial advertisement attacking Pennsylvania House candidate Janelle Stelson, who is locked in one of the country’s tightest House races.

The ad was sponsored by No Going Back, a group affiliated with the President Donald Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. super PAC. The ad raised an unsubstantiated public nudity allegation which Stelson — a longtime local broadcast journalist — denies. The PAC has spent $295,000 on the ad, which has aired on multiple local stations since Oct. 25, according data from ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Stelson is facing Republican Rep. Scott Perry in the south-central Pennsylvania district. The No Going Back ad, and a similar spot from Perry’s campaign, have sparked significant local attention in the days before the election.

“We will continue to pursue every possible legal avenue to combat these verifiably false attacks that fail to meet the already miserably low standard of ethics Scott Perry has set for himself,” Stelson campaign manager Alma Baker said in a statement. “Perry should take the rest of his lying ads off the air.”

In a letter sent to stations airing the ad this week, lawyers for Stelson’s campaign and House Democrats’ campaign arm called the ad “false and defamatory” and demanded that it be taken down.

In a Wednesday morning email reviewed by Blue Light News, the general sales manager for ABC affiliate WHTM, Michael Nurse, informed lawyers that the station was “pulling the ad in question out of rotation as soon as we can” and noting the station did not receive a response from the advertising agency that placed the order.

In another email reviewed by Blue Light News, a representative for WGAL — the Harrisburg NBC affiliate where Stelson worked for over 25 years — said that they are “not airing” the ad.

Reached by phone, Nurse declined to comment. Other WHTM officials as well as spokespeople for WGAL did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the Perry campaign referred a reporter to No Going Back PAC to answer questions about the ad. When reached for comment, a spokesperson for MAGA, Inc. shared two Oct. 28 letters from the super PAC’s attorney, Andrew Murphy, to local station managers and cable system operators saying “ad is true and must remain in rotation.”

While it is typical for officials to litigate campaign ads, it is highly unusual that television stations actually pull them down. A spokesperson for the DCCC said this is the first time this cycle that a campaign ad has been pulled by a station.

Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.

Congress

Pelosi in London

Published

9 hours ago

October 28, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

LONDON — Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was spotted at the U.K. House of Common Wednesday, watch Britain’s new leader, Andy Burnham, at Prime Minister’s Questions. Perched up in the special galleries near political journalists, she studied the order of questions intently in between chatting to a top editor from the Daily Express.

Sadly for Pelosi, she didn’t have the best seat in the house — she was facing Opposition Leader Kemi Badenoch over the top of Burnham’s head — and she left midway through the main event of the day, Chancellor John Healey’s budget speech.