It’s NOT Joe Biden’s collapse that’s making New York a ‘battleground,’ but antisemitism, migrants and crime
New York Democrats are in full “the sky is falling” panic mode — as exemplified by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine fretting: “I truly believe we’re a battleground state now.”
Both Politico and Axios reported on the panic last week, as state leaders are begging the Biden campaign to spend here to bolster down-ballot Democrats.
It’s also likely why less-progressive Empire State Dems are the ones saying Biden should step aside.
Rochester Rep. Joe Morelle reportedly said the question on the prez’s ability to continue to serve is “the challenge. I don’t think he’s met that challenge yet.”
Rep. Pat Ryan, who in 2022 barely won his Hudson Valley swing district, sighed: “Joe Biden is a patriot but is no longer the best candidate to defeat Trump.”
President Biden’s stock is in freefall here. The Siena poll showed him with only a 12-point lead over Trump in February, dropping to just eight points in June.
But it’s simply not fallout from Joe’s condition; it’s crime, the migrant influx and raging antisemitism — issues that national and state Democrats won’t confront.
And the New York voter revolt began long before that Trump-Biden debate.
In the 2022 midterm elections, Dems lost four suburban swing districts, while Gov. Hochul beat her GOP challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin by a mere six points — two years after Biden won the state by 23 points.
Crime was the chief issue that year; then the illegal-migrant crisis metastasized.
It’s worst in the city, but a real worry in the ‘burbs — especially since gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua have proved eager to strike there, not to mention the millions of commuters who spend their days in the city.
Then came Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7 attack and the war in Gaza — and a huge uptick in antisemitism, including violent attacks, raging “pro-Palestine” demonstrations and campuses shut down by kids acting on what they learned in class and the outside-agitator pros.
Jews are told to use back entrances at their temples, warned not to wear anything ID’ing them as Jews or advised to hide when rabid antisemites are out for blood.
No surprise that a full 44% of New York Jewish voters feel unsafe, but the progressives who dominate the New York Democratic Party (and the Biden administration) plainly don’t care.
And it’s not just Jews, but many non-radical voters who resent it.
Post-Oct. 7 concerns plainly drove George Latimer’s Democratic-primary win over Rep. Jamaal Bowman, but it’s also driving many voters away from the Dems completely.
Who could blame them when Democrats like Mark Levine won’t demand law and order to quell the violence and to punish the Jew-haters, while the likes of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg keep dropping charges against law-breaking protesters?
Fear of a suburban voter revolt is likely behind Gov. Hochul’s 11th-hour decision to “pause” congestion-pricing; she’s generally tried to address worries on crime and migrants, too.
But her hands are too often tied by the progressives who dominate the Legislature.
It’s no longer unimaginable that New York could vote for Queens native Trump this November, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ hopes of retaking those swing seats are fading.
No wonder New York Democrats are trembling four months ahead of Election Day.