New York City voters, by nominating Zohran Mamdani, missed their chance to stop a far-left candidate, said Jim McLaughlin, a pollster for President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, who described Mamdani as a "radical."
"They missed their opportunity, unfortunately, in this race during the summer, the powers that be needed to expose Mamdani for the radical-leftist positions he's taken," McLaughlin said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
"Most New Yorkers don't realize how radical he is," he added.
McLaughlin said it was especially painful to see his home city embracing what he called Marxist leadership.
"I've lived my entire life in the New York City metropolitan area, and the fact that the bastion of capitalism and freedom, New York City, is going to be governed by a Marxist, it's just terrible," he said.
"It's terrible not just for New York, but also the surrounding areas, New Jersey and Connecticut, and it's the last thing that the voters need after the failures of the last two mayors," McLaughlin added.
Turning to Virginia's political races, McLaughlin said text messages sent in 2022 by Jay Jones, the Democrat nominee for attorney general, in which he spoke about shooting then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his children, were "indefensible."
"Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat running for governor, has gone all in for the Democrat who made these [statements]," he said.
"There's certain things that you say as an elected leader that are just indefensible, [like] wanting to murder not just your political opponents, but their children," McLaughlin added.
Recent polls show the attorney general race narrowing.
"The last two media polls basically had the governor's race getting closer and closer," he said.
"They also have [Attorney General] Jason Miyares up by about five or six points, [so] I think it could be similar to what we saw after the first debate in the presidential race, where it takes some time for all this to come in," said McLaughlin.
Meanwhile, James Johnson, a pollster with JL Partners, told Newsmax on Friday that Republicans have a chance to make inroads in traditionally blue New Jersey, though a win remains unlikely.
"Donald Trump did very well in New Jersey last year," Johnson said. "Although he didn't win the state, he did significantly better than Republican candidates have for a long time. It is possible, but I slightly doubt it. I think the Republican candidate will come close but not quite get over the edge."
Johnson said a strong GOP showing could broaden the party's future electoral map.
"If Republicans do very well in New Jersey, and especially if they win the state, then we'll see people looking at a slightly expanded map for 2026," he said.
"Republicans will start to think, what about New Mexico? What about Minnesota?" Johnson added.
However, he said, "if it's another five-to-ten-point defeat, we'll be back to talking about the classic swing states we've discussed over the last ten years."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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