NY-GOV: How Laura Loomer and a Sheriff Upended G.O.P. Plans for the N.Y. Ticket [View all]

New York’s Republican convention this week was supposed to be a crowning moment for Bruce Blakeman, the party’s presumptive nominee for governor.

Instead, he spent its opening day on Monday batting away criticism from a prominent right-wing provocateur and scrambling to find a running mate after a sheriff he had tapped for the job withdrew hours before their first planned joint appearance.

By Monday afternoon, Mr. Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, was in recovery mode. His campaign said that Todd Hood, a different sheriff from upstate New York, would stand for nomination with him on Wednesday.

Still, the unusually public saga cast an embarrassing shadow over the start of the proceeding — one that served to remind Republicans of their party’s thin bench and dimming electoral prospects in New York.





https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/nyregion/bruce-blakeman-new-york-governor.html