Cover photo: Lee Zeldin (left inset), Congressman LaLota and Chairman Garcia (Credit – Matt Meduri)
To endcap what has been one of the most surreal election cycles that most have not seen in their lifetimes, the Suffolk County Republican Party hosted their annual Hangar Rally at Brookhaven’s Calabro Airport in Shirley to help deliver the final push as the election cycle comes to a close.
Suffolk GOP Chairman Jesse Garcia (R-Ridge) was joined by a host of elected officials and candidates at Tuesday night’s rally.
“In early voting here in Suffolk County, Republicans and Conservatives have outpaced Democrats by more than 10,000 in just four days to vote for this team,” Garcia told supporters.
“Suffolk County is the second-largest county in the country where Republicans are coming out to vote early and in person.” Garcia told supporters.
The early vote totals, which are tabulated by party registration, not the actual vote itself, across the country are often seen as a barometer for Election Day results. Democrats traditionally lead this category heavily, but Republicans currently lead early vote totals in Suffolk and in each of the premier presidential battleground states. The logic here is that if Republicans are ahead in early voting, then the Election Day product might be even more fortuitous for them.
“Seven days does not mean that we just sit on our laurels because we’re winning our early voting,” Garcia cautioned supporters, adding that “Democrats hire people to come in from the city to try to get their voters out.”
“Not us; we have you,” Garcia said to attendees, urging all to bring friends, family members, and community organizations to the polls to back Suffolk’s GOP team.
Garcia noted that, in just the last few years, Republicans flipped control of the County Legislature, which they had not controlled for sixteen years, the District Attorney’s office, which they had not controlled for twenty, and the County Executive’s office, which they had not controlled for twenty.
“How are our borders doing? How’s our economy doing? How’s inflation doing? How’s the world’s situation?” asked County Executive Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches). “We need to change the course and direction of this country. And that’s why in the early voting, our party is leading. It offers hope and it offers change for a safer, more affordable world.”
Former Congressman and 2022 gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) attended the rally immediately after leaving a roundtable with former President Donald Trump (R-FL) in a suburb of Philadelphia. Zeldin said that he turned down an invite to rally with the President in Allentown, as there was “nowhere more important” for him to be than in Suffolk County for their annual get-out-the-vote (GOTV) Hangar Rally.
“There are a lot of people who didn’t vote for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020, but they’re going to vote for him in 2024. They want the conservative solution to have safer streets. They want the Republican solution to be able to afford to survive, to have a secure border, to have a president who ends foreign wars instead of starting new ones. Now is the time for us to win over people who have never voted Republican in Suffolk ever before,” said Zeldin.
Zeldin gestured to a large American flag hanging behind the stage and candidates, saying, “That flag is our love of this country. It’s for our kids, our rule of law, whether it’s about parental rights, family, or values.”
The rally was also geared towards whipping support for President Trump, U.S. Senate Candidate Mike Sapraicone (R-Floral Park) (pictured above), as well as Assembly challengers, Stephen Kiely (R-Mattituck) in the First District, Aamir Sultan (R-Dix Hills) in the Tenth, and Joe Cardinale (R-Amityville) in the Eleventh.
“I’ve been all over the state for the last eight months, and everywhere I go, nobody knows who she [Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D)] is,” said Sapraicone. “That’s because she’s become a Washington politician who doesn’t care about us anymore.”
“We’ve got a fork in the road. To the left, is Kamala Harris (D-CA), open borders, and four more years of disastrous policies,” said Congressman Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport). “The road to the right is lower inflation, secure borders, safer communities, getting our national respect back on the world stage, and President Trump and Republican policy.”
Garbarino (pictured above) reported that the travels of Speaker Mike Johnson (R, LA-04) reveal a level of support not seen for President Trump nationwide since 2016.
Senator Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) noted the differences between Trump and Harris, stating that Trump is a “businessman” who “loves this country,” while contrasting Harris has someone who “doesn’t love this country” and referenced her work in California and how it has “trickled down” to the current state of disrepair.
“That seems to be emblematic of what our parties have become,” said Palumbo. “We’re the party that cares about the future, not about handouts.”
Palumbo also stressed the importance of voting in local elections, as those elected officials often make the most differences in their constituents’ lives than others higher up on the ballot usually do.
“Think about what has happened since we [Republicans] lost the Senate in 2018. Our state budget has increased by $78 billion and we have become the highest-taxed state in the nation since we became a one-party-rule state,” said Palumbo, adding his optimism that the party is likely to pick up enough seats to break the Senate supermajority.
Speaking for the Assembly delegation was Assemblyman Doug Smith (R-Holbrook), who is seeking his fourth full term this year.
“We did in 2016; we sent a strong message to Washington. We’ve sent that message to Albany. We’re here for the future, for our families, for our neighbors. We don’t want New York to continue being the greatest exporter of our friends and family,” said Smith. “This is what’s at stake; this is our ‘why,’” he added, referencing the prime impetus that leads many to take up elected office.
“We have communities who are failing. We have hard-working, tax-paying, middle-class families, who are having a hard time putting food on their table, keeping their lights on, while we are giving $5 billion to people who come over the border illegally, some of them for nefarious purposes, to come here to commit crimes,” said Assemblyman Ed Flood (R-Port Jefferson Station) (pictured above). “The one-party Democratic control makes sure we can’t even work with federal immigration officials to get people who have committed these heinous crimes out of our country.”
Flood added that Democratic opponents in key Suffolk races have changed their platforms to be in more line with the Republican message.
“They’re moving to the right because they know their policies don’t work,” said Flood. “They’re saying they’re against bail reform while the people backing their races are the ones who enacted it. They’re saying they want to bring tax relief to the people, but they’re in control of the purse strings.”
“What we have in Suffolk County is so rare: Good, hard-working, red-blooded, patriotic Americans willing to take time out of their own days to knock on doors, make phone calls, plant lawn signs to protect our awesome community,” said Congressman Nick LaLota (R, NY-01) (pictured above). “Two years ago, New York shocked the world when we flipped six [congressional] seats that President Biden carried just two years earlier. The nation is watching us. The nation cares about what happens on Long Island with these congressional districts. The nation is relying upon us to put this great country back on the right track.”
Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick (R-St. James) called Proposition One a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and offered his assessment of the controversial referendum placed before New Yorkers this year.
“The language is intentionally vague to create an environment for lawsuits. There are people on the left who want to give illegal aliens taxpayer-funded benefits and the right to vote,” said Fitzpatrick, which he and many others believe will be facilitated by the proposition’s addition of “national origin” as a protected class, should the initiative pass.
“Parents will not have the ability to govern the raising of their children because Prop 1 will allow children to make these decisions without the input of their parents,” said Fitzpatrick. “It doesn’t mention abortion, but it mentions pregnancy, which means a lawsuit is going to be filed challenging Catholic hospitals to try and force them to do abortions.”
Fitzpatrick added that the legislation was crafted over two sessions in Albany, but Democrats intentionally put it on the ballot this year to ensure its passage with turnout concurrent to the presidential election. He asserted that Democrats’ championing of this bill as a ballot initiative puts responsibility on the voters and makes it much more difficult to reverse, as it will be a constitutional amendment if it passes.
All electeds and candidates hailed Chairman Garcia for his leadership over the last few cycles, asserting that “he only wins,” and thanking him for his support and tenacity in growing Suffolk’s Republican brand.
The well-attended rally, while a yearly tradition for the Suffolk GOP, served as a much more poignant picture for the direction of the state and nation that will be decided in just less than a week’s time.
