Most of my blog posts have focused on the national election. This is not a surprise given the dire state of the country under Trump. But I have not forgotten about my own district. How could I when my representative is Congressman Lee Zeldin? Anyone who has read my book knows that Zeldin, a right-wing, Tea Party Republican, is one of Trump’s biggest defenders. We were crushed when we were not part of the blue wave in 2018 as Zeldin won reelection by a slim margin. He has not gotten better since then. So, this blog post, possibly the last one before the election, is about Lee Zeldin.
It has been more difficult this year to get-out-the-vote than in 2018 because of COVID. We cannot go door-to-door and I have missed the experience of canvassing and speaking directly to voters. But just as we have with the national campaign, we have used the tools available to us – social media, fundraising, postcards, phone calls, text messages – in support of our Democratic nominee, Stony Brook University professor Nancy Goroff. Former chair of the Chemistry Department, if she beats Zeldin she will be the first woman in Congress with a Ph.D. in the sciences.
The message must be getting through because the race is close. The only polling data I have seen has them in a statistical tie, with Zeldin ahead 49%-48% https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/new-york/. If this is correct, the margin is closer than what Zeldin won by in 2018 when he defeated Perry Gershon by only 4% and dramatically closer than his 16% winning margin in 2016. Trump won Suffolk County in 2016 by 4% (the presidential race is categorized by county, not congressional district) [more].
