Congress
Republican Bruce Blakeman planning to enter race for New York governor
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.”
Rep. Max Miller issued a subpoena to his former father-in-law and fellow Ohio Republican, Sen. Bernie Moreno, in the latest escalation of a long-running family legal drama.
Pamela MacAdams, an attorney for Miller, reported to the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Monday that three subpoenas were served in Miller’s divorce case, according to court records. A person with knowledge of the subpoenas granted anonymity to comment on them said that two were sent to Moreno and his wife, Bridget.
Their daughter, Emily Moreno, was married to Miller, and the two remain embroiled in a nasty legal battle.
Spokespeople for Miller, Emily Moreno and Bernie Moreno did not immediately return requests for comment. TMZ first reported on the subpoenas.
Miller is seeking reelection in a competitive district, and his campaign has been marred by accusations of domestic abuse against Emily Moreno and their daughter. Miller has repeatedly denied the allegations and chose to remain in the race despite other Republican lawmakers pressuring him to withdraw his campaign.
The House Ethics Committee, which began an inquiry into Miller after Miller asked to be investigated, is currently in a preelection blackout period. During that period, which will continue through the midterms, the Ethics Committee doesn’t take any action against sitting members who could return next Congress.
Congress
Trump declares $1B canceled in ‘pocket rescission’ in another affront to Congress’ funding power
President Donald Trump informed congressional leaders Friday that he has unilaterally canceled almost $1 billion without Congress’ consent — employing a budget maneuver many lawmakers consider illegal.
In a move that will almost certainly set up an ugly government funding battle after the midterms, Trump has again claimed the power to execute a so-called “pocket rescission” to nix money Congress has already enacted. The money his administration will claw back is for for immigration services, support to foreign countries, education programs, health research efforts and assistance for businesses owned by minorities.
By law, the president is allowed to send Congress a request to rescind federal funding, then withhold that money for 45 days while lawmakers consider whether to approve, reject or ignore it. Trump administration officials also argue they have the power to cancel funding without any congressional action by sending Congress a rescission request with less than 45 days left in the fiscal year. The argument is that the money automatically gets canceled on Sept. 30, when funding lapses at the end of the fiscal year.
Last year, Trump canceled $4.9 billion in foreign aid.
The Senate’s top Republican appropriator, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, immediately blasted the move as illegal, saying in a statement Friday night that “any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.”
“This move shows that OMB intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation of appropriations that were approved on a bipartisan basis and signed into law,” Collins added, pledging to work with other lawmakers “to address these illegal actions.”
Collins and other appropriators have already been on high alert in recent days, pressing multiple agencies about funding officials have yet to spend ahead of the expiration date.
Democrats are finally catching on to how to talk to young male voters in the lead-up to the midterms, but the party can still up its game, one battleground senator and potential 2028er said Friday.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) has been one of his party’s most outspoken critics on its handling of outreach to young men, who swung right and helped deliver the White House and both chambers of Congress to Republicans in 2024.
The party is now “definitely moving in the right direction,” Gallego said Friday.
“Like back in the day, I was like the only one,” putting out positions on men, Gallego said at a Washington event on young American men. “Now, like, it seems like everyone every week is coming out with a new position, new idea, which is great.”
Gallego has criticized Democrat’s failure to highlight mens’ struggles and their tendency to over-police mens’ ideas. But there are signs the political winds have shifted in his party’s favor.
A new Cygnal poll released with the event of men ages 18-30 who say they’re the most determined to vote revealed Democrats’ generic ballot lead over Republicans at 57%-40%, Blue Light News reported. The poll also said nearly 40 percent of respondents said they feel their lives are off track.
“We need to take the opportunity to invest in that portion of this country, to say that we care about them and actually try to change the trajectory of what’s happening with men in this country,” Gallego said at the symposium.
Still, the path for specific legislation targeting the needs of this demographic faces an incredibly tight calendar this Congress and is uncertain in the political landscape of next year.
A proposal from Gallego and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) to establish a men’s health office within the Department of Health and Human Services, for example, has not advanced. Nor has bipartisan legislation from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also spoke at the event, targeting education outcomes, college investment transparency and dyslexic student support.
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