Cuomo rallies Democratic rank and file

In a midterm election year where the stakes have seemingly never been higher, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo came out swinging as the keynote speaker at the Nassau County Democratic Committee’s $450-a-plate fall dinner held at Woodbury’s Crest Hollow Country Club, Cuomo, who is running for a third term against Republican nominees and current Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, railed against current Republican Party policies.
“This election matters. A Congress to stop the freight train, a Democratic Senate to pass the laws we need to undo the damage they do in Washington,” he said. “[The Republicans are] schizophrenic because normally conservative’s point of view was that government should be limited and leave it to the localities and leave it to states’ rights. These are ultra conservatives who then want to take their point of view and turn it on you. It’s not enough that they believe it. They want their religious values, and their morality, to apply to your body and to apply to your state. And that’s what they’re doing. They are aggressively trying to take their policies and implant them on New York State.”

Before a crowd of more than of 1,000 attendees, Cuomo touted the accomplishments his administration accomplished for New York State that includes paid family leave, free college tuition to SUNY schools and a $100 billion infrastructure push that includes renovations at upstate airports along with nearby LaGuardia and Kennedy and upgrades to the LIRR and Penn Station. Sandwiched between speeches from committee chairman Jay Jacobs and Letitia James, the New York City advocate and Democratic nominee for state attorney general, Cuomo made it clear that the biggest issues voters were facing revolved around policies coming out of Washington, D.C. and being dictated by Donald Trump.

“[This administration is] aggressively trying to take their policies and implant them on New York State. That, my friends, is the threat and there’s only two answers: one, we need a Democratic Congress cause we have to stop this mad man in Washington once and for all. We have to reelect our Democrats and we have to elect Liuba [Grechen Shirley] to the Congress because he has to be stopped in the Congress,” he said. “And then we need a Democratic state senate because our only hope is when they pass their lunacy in Washington that we can undo it by passing different laws in the state of New York. They have a Supreme Court case on Janus where they basically tried to outlaw public employee unions, we passed a law that negated it. On a woman’s right to choose, they can pass a law that overturns Roe v. Wade. [If] they overturn it, we’re going to need to pass a law in the state of New York reinstating it and a Republican Senate will not do it, I know because we tried.”

While focusing on rallying support behind Democratic candidates, Cuomo was also clear that the distaste the Trump Administration has fostered reaches far beyond the governor’s party lines.
“There are going to be a number of Democrats that come to the polls and vote for change. And we’re going to be shocked about all the moderate Republicans who come to the polls and say ‘I’m embarrassed by this president and what they’re doing.’ All the independents who come to the polls and say ‘I’m embarrassed at the direction of my country,’” he said. “This is not a blue wave. This is a red, white and blue wave, because what they’re doing is not just anti-Democratic or anti-New York. It is anti-American to take a baby out of the arms of a mother. It is anti-American to put a child in a cage like an animal. It’s anti-American to discriminate against LGBTQ. It’s anti-American to treat women like second class citizens who can’t make up their own mind, which is exactly what they’re doing. It’s anti-American to spread division and hatred among our people when our nation’s motto is E Pluribus Unum, ‘out of many, one.’ And we believe in unity. It’s anti-American to spread hate when we know the strongest four letter word is still love. It’s a red, white and blue wave November 6, and you’re going to make it happen.”