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WAUKESHA, Wis. — Lee Zeldin may not be repping the Empire State in Congress anymore, but after zigzagging the country making swing-state stops on the Team Trump Bus Tour, he has a message for New Yorkers: Though they live in a deep-blue state, their votes will truly count this November.
The ex-rep was stumping for former President Donald Trump in heavily Republican Waukesha County when The Post caught up with him last month.
“Just like New Yorkers are hoping for Republicans to get out the vote in swing states, the swing states —they’re hoping New Yorkers get out to the polls because the pathway to the majority in the House runs through New York,” Zeldin said.
Of the presidential race in the swing states he’s been visiting?
“It’s close,” Zeldin said demurely. “I’m someone who operates like we’re 2 points behind no matter what the polls say.”
That’s a wise modus operandi for the Republican who came within 6 points of unseating Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022.
Since then, Zeldin has rallied around Trump, endorsing the fellow New Yorker early in the primary campaign, despite previously saying he wanted a robust GOP primary.
Zeldin talked strategy in an interview with The Post after his Waukesha speech, which emphasized the country is watching Wisconsin, and the boots on the ground in battleground states should be trained on turning out low-propensity voters.
“We don’t want to go back to one-party Democratic rule,” he said.”The Democrats could have control of the House, Senate and White House if voters decide to stay home.”
He told The Post that when it comes to issues, Trump has the clear advantage.
“Undecided voters care about the border, the economy and crime. President Trump is on the right side of those issues versus Kamala Harris.”
Still, the campaign is reportedly focusing more on attorneys and poll workers and outsourcing its ground game.
“Every day the ground game continues to get stronger,” Zeldin insisted. “There are a lot of door knocks occurring now in battleground states that weren’t happening a few months back.”
He added the campaign has had even more signups for volunteer attorneys and poll workers recently.
In his speech that evening, Zeldin addressed another common GOP concern: early voting.
“The rules are the rules,” he told the Waukesha crowd, while conceding he’s no fan of the state’s early-voting laws and unmanned ballot drop boxes.
“Ballots have started to go out in the swing states. November 5 is not an election day. It’s the last day to vote. It’s election season now,” he told The Post.
“We New Yorkers watch the swing states like all eyes are on them, and the swing states mean everything. And on the ground in swing states they’re hoping New Yorkers will get out and vote.”
Seven of New York’s 26 congressional seats are in competitive races, according to the Cook Political Report.
The Team Trump Bus Tour stop took place in the Republican stronghold of Waukesha County, where Trump won 59.7% to Joe Biden’s 38.9% in 2020.
Recent polling from the New York Times and Sienna College shows the race between Trump and Harris has tightened in the battleground state, with Harris at 49% to Trump’s 47%.
Zeldin slammed the VP for her part in the past three-and-a-half years in his speech and promised his Republican crowd a new way forward. In doing so, he even borrowed some of the veep’s favorite turns of phrase.
“Kamala, we will be unburned by what has been,” Zeldin told the laughing crowd, before continuing to riff on one of her campaign slogans.
“We are not going back, we are going forward with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.”