Representative Lee Zeldin is exploring a run for governor of New York, he said on Tuesday amid mounting trouble for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, whose actions with respect to deaths from Covid-19 infection in nursing homes was recently compounded by multiple accusations of sexual harassment.
"After receiving many messages of encouragement in recent days and weeks and after discussing it at length with my wife and daughters, I announced that I am actively exploring a run for governor of New York against Andrew Cuomo in 2022," Mr. Zeldin said in a statement provided by a spokeswoman. "As a proud New Yorker, I just can't sit back and watch Cuomo's attacks on our freedoms, our wallets, and our safety. After his nursing home cover-up, bullying, abuse, and harassment have come more to light in recent days and weeks, it's clearer now more than ever that he's been in the governor's office too long and it's time for Cuomo to go."
At a telephone town hall on Tuesday night, Mr. Zeldin said that Mr. Cuomo is seeking a fourth term in 2022. "I support term limits for the office of governor -- two terms, eight years. We are long past that point. I personally believe that the governor should go . . . but the governor doesn't agree with any of us, and he doesn't appear to be going anywhere, and he's looking to serve a fourth term."
The congressman also asserted his support for term limits in Congress. "Six, eight, 10, 12 years -- if there was a vote in front of me, I would be voting for term limits," he said during the telephone town hall event.
A former state senator, Mr. Zeldin is in his seventh year in the House of Representatives, having been re-elected to a fourth term in November. He emerged as one of former President Trump's most zealous supporters and, hours after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol building by Mr. Trump's supporters, objected to the vote to certify the results of the presidential election.
