(DailyVantage.com) – There has been an alarming uptick in crime throughout the United States in the last few years. Crime-ridden cities, which are overwhelmingly governed by Democrats, are likely to be the target of Republican ad campaigns heading into the 2024 elections.
New York City is a case in point. According to NYPD statistics, there has been a 44% increase in “major crimes” in Midtown South alone.
Staten Island, by far the reddest borough in New York City, has experienced a 14% uptick in crime from last year.
Republicans have latched on to the crime issue as a political winner for 2024. Last week Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to declare a presidential bid sometime soon, met with former Congressman and New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin in Staten Island for a pro-law enforcement rally.
Zeldin, who made crime a pillar of his campaign for Governor against Democrat Kathy Hochul, told the exuberant Staten Island crowd that “we want streets that have law-abiding New Yorkers in charge of them as opposed to the criminals.”
In the blue state of New York, Zeldin’s messaging on crime resonated with voters. Zeldin lost by just five-percentage points, a remarkably close race for the overwhelmingly liberal state.
And while Zeldin ultimately came up short, New York experienced a red wave on the Congressional level. Mike Lawler, Marcus Molinaro, Nicole Malliotakis, and – the now embattled – George Santos effectively gave Republicans the majority in the House with their upset wins.
Going after Democrats on crime turned out to be a successful tactic.
John Reinish, a Democratic strategist from New York, believes that Democratic candidates need to wake up and smell the coffee in regards to crime: “Democrats have learned that they need to take that issue very seriously and, I hope, get ahead of it.”
The crime problem, if ignored by Democrats, might just be the death knell of the party in 2024.
Copyright 2023, DailyVantage.com
