New York state hasn’t supported a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan’s major upsets in 1980 and 1984, but that’s likely to change, state Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox said in an interview with Fox News Digital on Monday.
Cox said Biden’s presidency increasingly shows similarities to Carter’s presidency, adding that while New York is a blue state, it is truly “blue-collar blue, not West Side Manhattan blue.”
On that point, Cox said that while there are some progressive strongholds in the state, New Yorkers are generally “pragmatic” and that he feels a real sense of deja vu ahead of the election, when the state stunned the nation on Election Day last time.
“New York has a lot of independent businesses. They’re going to look at this and think, ‘Are we going to take a risk?’ [it]?'” Cox said, underscoring his belief that Trump could win the 28 electoral votes.
Olbermann infuriates liberals by objecting to CNN chanting “Burn it” after Biden’s debate performance
Donald Trump speaks at a press conference at Trump Tower. (AP/Julia Nickinson)
“The people of New York want to know what’s going on in the foreign arena, [Biden]”
Cox said he had reached his conclusion before Biden’s disastrous debate performance, but added that the debates underscored his point.
“This shows once again that Biden is out of step with what the American people want, probably due to his poor health, but Carter was also out of step in his ill health speeches,” Cox said.
“It’s not exactly the same, but it shows that they don’t understand what the American people are going through, whereas President Trump does. And this leads to another very interesting similarity.”
State Democratic officials back Biden as Democratic chairman urges Republicans to oust Trump
Cox noted that Reagan’s comment, “Are we better off than we were four years ago,” turned the tide against Carter, drawing a parallel with Trump’s use of rallies to remind people of his accomplishments over the past four years and saying that message would resonate again in New York.
Cox said the state’s Hispanic and African-American voters are leaning in Trump’s favor, and he said he attended the former president’s recent Bronx rally and saw that embodied in the large crowd that gathered at Crotona Park.
In 1980, New Yorkers were feeling the strain of “stagflation” under the Carter administration and the sluggish GDP in a city that was and still is the business capital of the world, said Cox, who is also the son-in-law of the other president at the time, Richard Nixon.
Click here to get the FOX News app
“It was ‘The economy matters, idiot,’ then, and it’s ‘The economy matters, idiot,’ now,” Cox said.
Former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin came very close to defeating Gov. Kathy Hauckle by New York state standards, but still fell short.
Zeldin also thrived on his tough-on-crime message, but unlike the state’s last Republican governor, George Pataki, he had to spend money prematurely in a costly primary.
When asked why 2024 will be different in that respect from 2020, when Biden won New York by double-digit margins, Cox returned to the pragmatism he sees in New Yorkers.
He also said New York Democrats tend to support more populist candidates, pointing out that New York City Mayor Eric Adams defeated more progressive opponents in the primary before defeating Republican candidate Curtis Suriawa.
Click here to get the FOX News app
In making his case for a possible Trump victory, Cox pointed out that statehood began in what is now New York City.
“Go back to New Amsterdam. Why did people leave the Netherlands and come to the United States? Because Amsterdam was an open city that judged people on their merits. Yes, they smoked too much, drank too much and all that stuff. But Amsterdam was a vibrant, international city that was judged on its merits,” he said.
“New York inherited that.”
That would favor Trump, Cox added, as New Yorkers would be more likely to judge both Trump and Biden on their merits after enduring four years of each president.
No Republican has held federal office in the state since 1998, when Sen. Al D’Amato predeceased Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Fox News Digital reached out to several New York Democrats for comment, but Hoekl’s office could not immediately be reached.
