{"id":355147,"date":"2026-09-23T23:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T23:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/355147\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T23:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T23:58:09","slug":"prominent-nyc-democrat-bob-holden-backs-gops-bruce-blakeman-over-hochul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/355147\/","title":{"rendered":"Prominent NYC Democrat Bob Holden backs GOP’s Bruce Blakeman over Hochul"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Democrat who served on the City Council is backing Republican Bruce Blakeman<\/a> over incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul <\/a>in this year\u2019s election, the GOP candidate\u2019s campaign announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Bob Holden, who represented Middle Village and Maspeth on the City Council, said he wants \u201cpublic safety\u201d at a news conference announcing the endorsement.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes anybody think we are safer now? Look at the streets. I was in Manhattan yesterday. It\u2019s mayhem,\u201d said Holden \u2014 adding he got clipped by an e-bike riding in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n

Nassau County Executive and Republican candidate for governor Bruce Blakeman receives an endorsement from Democrat Bob Holden at Middle Village Bagels in Middle Village, Queens on Sept. 23, 2026. James Messerschmidt for NY Post<\/p>\n

Holden said he crossed the aisle to endorse Blakeman over public safety concerns. James Messerschmidt for NY Post<\/p>\n

Holden is a registered Democrat but has caucused with Republican members as part of the City Council\u2019s Common Sense Caucus. Four years ago, Holden endorsed Republican Lee Zeldin over Hochul and he also backed GOP mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa in last year\u2019s election, which was won by socialist Zohran Mamdani.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI never identify, or I haven\u2019t in the last few years,\u00a0with the Democratic Party, with some of their policies \u2014 so this was not a difficult decision,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to do something in New York State and Kathy Hochul<\/a> has to be out of office come January the 1st.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blakeman is currently within single digits of eclipsing Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul with only six weeks left until the Nov. 3 election, a new Sienna poll found.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Holden said he doesn\u2019t identify with the modern Democratic party or support Gov. Kathy Hochul. James Messerschmidt for NY Post<\/p>\n

Hochul campaign brushed off the endorsement. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Dems for Blakeman,\u2019 led by a guy who ran for office as a Republican and 4 years ago endorsed the Republican for governor, is about as real as Bruce Fakeman\u2019s AI slop TV ads, \u201c campaign rep Ryan Radulovacki said in a statement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Democrat who served on the City Council is backing Republican Bruce Blakeman over incumbent Gov. Kathy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1626,154,426,57,46937,9,56,63,65,64,58,82],"class_list":["post-355147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-curtis-sliwa","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-midterm-elections-2026","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}