A story that has been largely ignored by the mainstream media, mainly because it does not play into promulgated narratives about Trump’s negative impact on Republican politics, is the GOP’s success in the state of New York.
Recent elections have shown that Trump’s effect on his home state has been stellar, with the Party consistently trending in the right direction. Former U.S. Congressman Lee Zeldin gave incumbent Governor Kathy Hochul a scare in a far closer race than pundits believed it would be. The story is set in the suburbs where Republicans are making massive inroads in Long Island. After winning four Congressional seats in 2022, the recent results in 2023 proved it was no fluke.
Republicans did continue to make gains in the politically crucial suburbs on Long Island. In Nassau County and Suffolk County elections – massive counties populated by millions of residents – Republicans won pivotal races in the county legislature and retook the Suffolk County executive post for the first time in two decades. A Republican even won a city council race in the Bronx, a result that would have been considered utterly unthinkable before Trump came down the golden escalator.
“We’re talking about a big movement, and we’re talking about this movement starting in a very blue state,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said in an interview. “There is a message for the Democratic Party, and the message is: You’re too extreme, you’re too far left, you’re too woke.”
New York is turning red in large part due to the immigration crisis that is at their doorstep. Tens of thousands of migrants are overwhelming social services, creating additional crime, and putting Democrat ideology to the test. It is easy to recite flowery platitudes when things are relatively stable, but when the cracks appear in the façade, insipid jargon is not enough to satiate angry voters. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is even copying the rhetoric of President Trump as he supposedly cracks down on migrant social services and talks about how budget cuts are imminent.
"Well, let’s be clear. What we’re going to have to do is extremely painful," Adams said. "We’re going to have to see how do we deliver services to our agencies, all without the resources we normally have."
It didn’t have to be this way. Democrats could have built the wall or, at the very least, enforced existing laws at the border. But because of their radical ideology, they forced ICE and border security to look the other way. The worst border crisis in our nation’s history is the result, with sanctuary jurisdictions like New York City shouldering the burden of putting social justice ahead of national security. Now, even the most gilded New York suburbanites understand their safety is in jeopardy and are finally ready to make an electoral change.
As expected, Democrats are working diligently to get ahead of the problems with their extensive political machine and vast institutional power, and a recent incomprehensible court ruling by the New York Court of Appeals is the start of that. After losing House seats in last year’s elections, Democrats sued to redraw the lines and enforce a gerrymander more suitable to their political ambitions. This was after the so-called Independent Redistricting Commission was unable to draw maps, and Democrats drew illegal maps designed to disenfranchise Republicans and an independent expert was tasked by the court to bail out the process.
The tedious process must begin again, putting campaigns in jeopardy while Democrats twist arms behind the scenes, hoping they can game the process to win back seats. The U.S. Supreme Court and its conservative majority must be willing to step in and restore order to this process. Keep the fair maps in place so New Yorkers are not forced to scramble to create new maps when the current ones are drafted reasonably. Democrats cannot coherently argue about the unfairness of the existing maps. This naked power grab puts the electoral system under undue strain. The deadline for the new maps is in February, with far more legal wrangling expected before then. It will be a mad scramble, and within this haze of confusion, Democrats hope to game the process in their favor.
As seen with the avalanche of unaccountable mail-in ballots in 2020 influencing the results of that election, Democrats will effectively use chaos in their favor. That, not solving problems or living up to their campaign promises, is what they excel most at delivering. Democrats are shameless in exploiting crises of their creation to their favor. The Supreme Court must drive a stake through the heart of this Democrat gerrymander so politicians can focus on real issues rather than having their fate held hostage to a corrupt process. When the focus is on issues like immigration and the economy, Republicans will win in 2024, and the Democrats know it.