Nassau County Republicans romped at the polls Tuesday partly because a strategy to tie local Democrats to Zohran Mamdani “clearly worked” because his socialist agenda has “no allure in the suburbs,” insiders claimed.
Mamdani’s progressive policies fueled his victory in the city Tuesday as Democratic candidates won in high-profile races in New Jersey and elsewhere — but those policies were ballot poison just over the border on Long Island, insiders said.
“We sent the message that there is a big red line between New York City and [Nassau County],” John Ferretti, who was elected as Hempstead’s town supervisor, said on Election Day.
The GOP held onto the top countywide seats as well as the top seat in Hempstead after a campaign where they features local candidates alongside Mamdani.
“It clearly worked,” one Democratic insider said.
US Rep. Tom Suozzi (D), who didn’t endorse Mamdani, agreed.
“Mamdani’s campaign message may have worked in New York City, but it did not work in my district in Queens and was used against candidates on Long Island,” he said.
Republican insiders echoed the sentiment, and claimed that Mamdani’s policies “have no allure in the suburbs.”
But political analyst John Tomlin said local Democrats partly needed to own the losses because voters were simply not energized around their message — especially against a popular, well-liked, suburban, Trump-backed candidate like incumbent County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
“Voters are looking for something affirmative to support — they’re not going to be motivated if you’re only argument is ‘I’m not the other guy,’ and it’s a lesson Democrats need to learn from the race against Trump and this race in Nassau,” said Tomlin, founder of Taconic Strategies.
Democrats, he added, failed to offer a compelling vision beyond opposition, which he said is a recurring lesson they have so far refused to learn.
Republicans, meanwhile, leaned into hyperlocal issues like property taxes, public safety, and immigration, which has proven to be a formula that’s repeatedly been effective in Nassau’s swingy electorate, he detailed.
“Bruce Blakeman is popular, Nassau has a strong Republican community, and a very well orchestrated Republican machine that knows how to churn out the vote,” Tomlin said.
