NY-02: King's retirement sets up fight for Long Island swing seat
Republican U.S. Rep. Peter King’s impending retirement after nearly three decades as the aggrieved voice of bridge and tunnel New Yorkers has set off a scramble for control of his suburban Long Island swing district, with outside groups pouring in millions of dollars.
King’s chosen successor, State Assemblyman Andrew Garbarino, faces Democrat Jackie Gordon, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who moved to the U.S. from the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica when she was 7. Green Party candidate Harry Berger could split the vote, which is expected to go to one of the two major party candidates.
Republicans are fighting mightily to keep the seat, situated in an increasingly diverse swath of the island’s South Shore. President Donald Trump narrowly took the district in 2016.
Democrats see a rare opportunity to pick up a seat that had been out of reach while King was on the ballot.
“This is a true suburban swing district that hasn’t been because of a Republican incumbent who drew support from across the aisle,” said Lawrence Levy, the Executive Dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University. “Now that Pete King is gone, it reverts back to its true purple state.”
King, who thrived on popular issues for white suburbanites — like promises to investigate Islamic extremism in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and a crackdown on MS-13 gang violence — has been out front in the effort to keep the seat in Republican hands.
He’s been campaigning door-to-door with Garbarino in the bedroom communities where the retiring lawmaker has long been a favorite of white, blue-collar voters — including police officers who embrace their “back the blue” message.
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-race-and-ethnicity-donald-trump-new-york-peter-king-63a91e662ac2a50b68f72b5339c04f6b