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Long Island’s Rep. Lee Zeldin was the hands-down choice for the nomination — but gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Giuliani stole the show at the state Republican Party convention Tuesday, delivering a fiery speech and showing the moxie that made his father, Rudy Giuliani, the two-term mayor of New York City.
Giuliani, 36, who served as a White House aide to Donald Trump, was the only candidate to publicly stand by the former president at the state convention — or even mention his name.
He also was the only Republican speaker to champion school choice, particularly vowing to double the number of charter schools in New York if he is elected governor.
Entering the stage to cheers as Frank Sinatra’s rendition of “New York, New York” played, Giuliani said, “It is an honor today to address the convention of the party of Lincoln, of the party of Teddy Roosevelt, of the party of Reagan, of the party of George Pataki, the party of Donald J. Trump.”
“Last and certainly not in my heart and certainly not least, the party of Rudy Giuliani,” he said to applause. “Before I begin my speech, I want to address you as a son, first and foremost.”
He praised his father’s leadership of the city following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and — perhaps more controversially — Rudy’s role as Trump’s personal lawyer in trying to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, claiming voter fraud. A New York judicial panel suspended the 77-year-old Rudy Giuliani’s law license for making “false and misleading statements” regarding the 2020 election vote count.
“I am, as a son, more proud of him today than I’ve ever been because he recently took on a battle that wasn’t popular in the media. Rudy Giuliani stood up for the good of democracy … stood up for the United States of America,” Andrew Giuliani said.
Giuliani also mocked Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul as “Crime Wave Kathy,” accusing her of ignoring rising crime and the need to toughen the controversial bail law.
“We need a governor in Albany who isn’t going to get blown around by the political winds. … Standing up for the police means standing up for each and every one of not just the 2.9 million registered Republicans, but the 19.5 million New Yorkers all around this great state,” he said.
Giuliani also championed charter schools and accused Hochul of being beholden to the anti-charter teachers’ union.
“The truth is we have a teachers’ union and a governor that is completely behold to the teachers’ union in New York,” he said.
“We need to make sure at the very end of my first term in Albany that charter school cap is doubled and is over 1,000, and I pledged to do that today because it should not be just children like myself, children that had parents that had the means to send them to private school, that get the opportunity to have the best education. It should be every single child in the great state of New York,” he said.
Some Republicans present at the convention in Garden City said Giuliani stole the show.
“Andrew knocked it out of the park,” said GOP consultant Rob Cole, who served as a top aide to former three-term Republican Gov. George Pataki.
Afterward, Zeldin was voted the party leadership’s nominee.
Former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and businessman Harry Wilson also spoke, and like Giuliani, said they would collect petitions to get on the ballot to challenge Zeldin in the primary. They needed at least 25 percent support to automatically get on the ballot and all three failed to meet that threshold.
Cole, the GOP consultant, said Wilson also did well. “He sounded like a governor. He gave a sound, thoughtful speech,” he said.
Astorino vowed a competitive primary, not a coronation for Zeldin.
“This needs to be about the 2.9 million Republican voters, not a ballroom of county chairs,” he said after his speech.
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