President Joe Biden stumped for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York Sunday night – just two days before the midterm elections – at a last-minute stop in a state typically safe for Democrats.
Hochul, who ascended to become the state’s first woman governor in August 2021 following then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, is locked in a tight race with Republican challenger Lee Zeldin, a congressman from Long Island.
The President leaned heavily into what he called the risks to democracy. He painted Hochul’s opponent as an election denier, saying he and others were “not only trying to deny your vote, they’re trying to deny your right to have your vote counted.”
“We all know it in our bones that our democracy is at risk,” Biden said. “If you all show up and vote, democracy is sustained.”
Biden sought to sharpen the contrast between Hochul and Zeldin on several other fronts as well, highlighting Hochul’s “immediate action to protect patients” in the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade and painting Zeldin as “all talk” when it comes to combatting crime – an issue that has loomed large in this race.
Biden’s visit to stump for Hochul and other high profile Democrats’ recent rallies for the party’s candidates up and down the ticket underscore the worries among Democratic leaders that a potential GOP wave could extend deep into what’s been one of the country’s bluest states. No Republican has won statewide here since George Pataki secured a third term as governor in 2002.
People in the crowd cheer as President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Sunday evening. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
In remarks introducing Biden on Sunday, Hochul addressed questions about why she and other candidates need late-campaign boosts from the President.
“A lot of you were saying, why is President Biden coming to New York so much?,” Hochul said.
“He’s here tonight because he knows there’s no place better in the entire United States of America than New York,” Hochul said. “Who doesn’t want to come to New York? Of course, he’s here in New York. Of course, he’s here. This is the greatest place to be. So don’t question why someone comes to New York, everybody wants to come to New York.
