(Joshua Paladino, Headline USA) New York Attorney General Letitia James trailed her Republican opponent, Michael Henry, by 1.2 percent in the Trafalgar Group’s most recent poll, Liberty Nation News reported.
Henry, a commercial litigation lawyer, garnered 42.2 percent support in the poll from late August and early September, while James, the Democratic incumbent, earned 43 percent support. Nearly 13 percent of “likely voters” said they remain undecided.
The same poll showed Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, leading Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., by 4 percent in the gubernatorial election.
After seeing the poll results, Henry encouraged his supporters.
“This is a winnable race,” he wrote on Twitter. “We have to keep our energy high & keep telling our neighbors and friends to vote in November.”
The Trafalgar Group pollsters acknowledged the state’s deep Democratic loyalties by surveying mostly Democrats. Of the survey’s participants, 53.6 percent were Democrats, 27.5 percent were Republicans, and 18.9 percent declared no party affiliation or a third-party affiliation.
With these disadvantages built in against Henry, he managed a small lead, though it fell within the poll’s 2.9 percent margin of error.
But a potential tossup race in a statewide midterm election shows immense progress for Republicans, who lost the 2020 presidential election in the state by more than 20 points.
A Federalist Society member with vast legal experience, Henry won the Republican nomination in an uncontested primary as an unknown figure with no prior political experience.
His campaign focuses on three pressing issues in New York: crime, corruption and “COVID Justice.”
He has pledged, if elected, to reverse “bail reform,” which he believes has created a “revolving door for violent and recidivist criminals.”
During her tenure, James focused on two issues: so-called criminal justice reform, meaning the elimination of cash bail and the release of violent criminals, and investigating Donald Trump for alleged tax crimes.
Henry criticized James for failing to investigate and prosecute the politicians and bureaucrats who forced COVID-positive patients to return to nursing homes and spread the illness to other high-risk elderly folks.
“As Michael Henry traveled across the state, he met people personally affected by COVID’s biggest tragedy and Andrew Cuomo’s reported cover-up of death toll numbers,” his campaign page stated. “While the current Attorney General released a report after mounting public pressure, she failed to launch a criminal investigation into the matter.”
