He’s back and ready for a rematch.
Former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino was in Albany on Tuesday to officially launch his campaign for governor once again.
“I'm here in Albany to announce that I'm running for governor. We have a state that, like this building behind us with danger signs, it is falling apart and it's been that way for quite a while,” Astorino said pointing to the State Capitol building. “Andrew Cuomo has been an unmitigated disaster. He's corrupt, we know that. But even worse than his corruption is his inability to fix this state in the last 10 years.”
Astorino ran against Gov. Cuomo in 2014. He garnered about 40 percent of the vote, but lost by a margin of around 14 points. This is still closer than either Republican opponent was able to get in both 2010 and 2018.
Astorino won a race for Westchester County executive in 2009, but lost his third term re-election bid in 2017. He also recently ran for state Senate in 2020, but lost that race as well.
Despite these recent failed campaign bids, Astorino said his ability to win over a predominately blue district in Westchester shows his ability to sway Democratic voters across the state.
“The fact that a certain amount of county chairs have thrown their endorsement behind one particular person at this point is literally meaningless to me,” Astorino said. “It’s the Republican voters who are going to make that choice. And again, this process is a very long ways, a year away, before a convention in the primary. So a lot can happen.”
That particular candidate is U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, who has secured 57 percent of the weighted GOP county endorsements to be the Republican nominee. The chair of the New York Republican Party has already named Zeldin as the frontrunner in the race.
According to Zeldin’s campaign, the congressman has raised $2.5 million in his first 10 days.
“It’s a year and a half away and I plan on taking nothing for granted,” Zeldin said. "No county is too large or too small. This is a 62-county strategy. And if everyone everywhere is all in, we're going to win this race.”
Lewis County Sheriff Mike Carpinelli, who was the first person to announce he is running for governor, said he is also still in the race.
“I’m not your mainstream guy,” Sheriff Carpinelli said. “Politicians seem to have forgotten the middle class.”
Still mulling a potential run for governor is Andrew Giuliani, son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, who also ran against Cuomo in 2018.
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik was also thought to be considering a run for governor, but she said her focus right now is securing the number three spot in the House Republican Conference, which could happen sometime this week.
The state GOP plans to meet next sometime next month to narrow down exactly who they will be supporting in the gubernatorial race in an effort to avoid a primary if possible.
However, all three declared candidates say for now, they plan to hang in through June 2022.