The Ed Cox-led Republican Party in New York State is like the gang that could not shoot straight. First, there was the nonsensical George Santos ouster, in which a cadre of disgruntled Republican congressmen, including Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler, backed by state party leaders, led the effort to expel the former Congressman from NY-03 because, at bottom, they were jealous of his popularity among the MAGA grassroots and and extraordinary success story relative to their own.
This utterly braindead maneuver forced a special election, in which the Democratic candidate, Tom Suozzi, easily won back his seat. The State Party nominated an unknown, highly incompetent politician by the name of Mazi Pilip, who was a registered Democrat and, even worse, indifferent to President Trump. Pilip, seemingly ignorant of the weaponized justice system occurring in her own backyard with the political prosecution of President Trump by bad-faith actors like Letitia James and Alvin Bragg, blithely opined that “nobody is above the”law”—perhaps the most tone-deaf statement a Republican candidate from New York could possibly make.
Rather than denounce the witch-hunt in bold and emphatic terms – after all, the state is threatening the corporate death penalty against The Trump Organization by penalizing him and his adult sons of close to half a billion dollars in fines – with over $100,000 of additional accrued “interest” every day the President fails to put up the money – for a totally victimless crime. With Letitia James’ blessing, Judge Engoron also assigned an “independent monitor” (who happens to be a Trump-hating, Clinton appointed judge, Barbara Jones) to “oversee” the president’s business activity in the state for the next five years. This is pure communism; even if one believed, wrongly, that President Trump had committed a crime, and that the prosecution against him had no political significance whatsoever, the punishment leveled against him – literally to sap him dry of all cash reserves – is grossly disproportionate to the alleged fraud, an excessive fine squarely in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
After Mazi’s campaign went down in flames, one would think that with a little introspective self-reflection, the Party would adapt to the sentiments of their constituents and finally embrace Donald Trump wholeheartedly. After all, her defeat not only just cost the New York Republican delegation a seat in Congress, but furthermore, it narrowed the Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives to a measly two seats. The foolishness of New York Republicans may well cost the GOP control over the House in November, even with President Trump’s return at the top of the ticket.
The blame for this can be squarely placed on Ed Cox and his lackeys in the House of Representatives – the Trump holdouts and proven losers, like the aforementioned Nick LaLota (NY-01), Anthony D’Esposito (NY-04), Mike Lawler (NY-17), Andrew Garbarino (NY-02) – and several others, who stubbornly refuse to embrace Trump and his policies, time and again spurning his constituents because their Cox-sponsored donors are bedfellows with globalists, and reportedly also, through the Cox network, have links to the Soros family and the Chinese Communist Party, among other left wing causes and groups. These groups effectively serve as controlled or paid opposition, offering the pretext of bipartisanship for New York’s Republican establishment, the right hand of the Uniparty.
And yet, Cox refused — and still refuses — to learn his lesson. Fewer than two weeks after the Pilip debacle when it became time to choose a senate candidate, Cox threw all his political and financial capital weight what was, in effect, another Democrat (given how much he has donated to them) – and Trump hater, in Mike Sapraicone. Sapraicone was chosen by a closed-door “convention” in upstate New York attended by no more than 250 state committee leaders, all of whom were strong-armed by a handful of party bosses into backing their handpicked candidate. The reasons the party leaders – particularly in the most powerful counties, such as Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester – liked Sapraicone are obvious: he hates Trump and has described the leading presidential candidate as a “bully” with a big ego. He has similarly lodged aspersions against key Trump allies, including Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whom Sapraicone also reportedly called “owned” and “corrupt” at a recent private dinner in Westchester.
Sapraicone has donated tens of thousands of dollars in just the past couple of years to some of the worst Democrat politicians in New York, like Letitia James, Andrew Cuomo, and Tom Suozzi, who literally have blood on their hands for all the crime their policies have ushered in and deaths their disastrous lockdowns have caused – directly leading to the highest homicide rates the state has witnessed in years, further adding to a catastrophic illegal migrant crisis that has driven businesses out in droves. New York Democrats have also promoted an unprecedented assault on constitutional rights and the rule of law, enabling a two-tiered system of justice to enter into overdrive that has led to the political persecution of Donald Trump, their main political opponent.
As New York is being run to the ground by incompetent, corrupt, and indeed, evil, Democrats – the Republican Party, which should be nominating fearsome fighters who embrace President Trump’s winning recipe of putting America First over the agenda of the Uniparty and globalists, has proven completely useless. Rather than put their best foot forward, New York Republican leaders remain stuck in their old ways, refusing to change with the times by embracing policies such as restricting immigration, election integrity, law and order, ending the weaponized system of justice, standing up for free speech, and supporting economic nationalism that favors tax cuts and other incentives for American businesses, while closing our doors to China and other foreign competitors.
There is a reason George Santos, who swung a seat that voted nearly ten points in favor of Biden, to nearly ten points in favor of Santos: and that was because of his boldness to stand for the principles of America First, including his unapologetic support for President Trump and his agenda of placing America’s interests over that of the Ukraine, Taiwan, Mexico, China, or the Middle East. This is also why Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who endorsed President Trump way back in November of 2022, continues to be the most successful (and powerful) member of the New York State Republican delegation – by far. Instead of running away from Donald Trump, as many of her colleagues did (some of whom have either still not endorsed President Trump, or only did so at the eleventh hour – too little, too late), Stefanik threw her weight behind Trump out of the gate, becoming one of his most prolific fundraisers, and as a result has ascended all the way to the third most powerful Republican, not only in New York, but in the entire House.
MAGA is also, emphatically, the reason why Lee Zeldin performed as well as he did in the 2022 gubernatorial race, in which he lost by less than ten points to Kathy Hochul, one of the strongest showings for a Republican in a statewide office race in decades. The reason for Zeldin’s success is hardly due to a charismatic personality or world-renown intellect (he is deficient in both categories): but rather, he read the tea leaves and understood that his party was in a pro-Trump mood. If Zeldin had leaned into Trump even more, and not reportedly told corporate donors behind closed doors that “I never said the results of the 2020 election were illegitimate,” he might have actually won his highly winnable race against one of the most unpopular governors in the country.
And yet, rather than heed the lessons of Santos, Stefanik, and to a lesser extent, Zeldin, Cox and his lackeys have done just the opposite – doubling down in the direction of liberalizing their party, by embracing such initiatives as criminal justice reform or playing the identity politics card. Liberalism is basically dead and gone in America: rather than open borders, mass migration, and woke policies, Americans repeatedly spurn these policies – and instead embrace a crackdown on them all, recognizing them as decadent, outmoded, and fundamentally anti-American.
If Cox et al. were actually smart, he and his cronies would adopt Trump’s rhetoric – decry the two-tiered justice system which punishes Americans for speaking their minds or exercising their constitutional rights, such as to assemble or engage in self-defense, while every illegal, violent felon, and their mother, gets off scot free. Case in point: Nassau County Executive, Joe Cairo, one of Cox’s right-hand-men. Cairo recently attributed Pilip’s loss – not to being an incompetent and stupid candidate, which she was – but to the fact that “Long Island isn’t yet ready for a black woman” (even though they elected George Santos, a Latino who was also the first openly gay Republican ever elected to Congress, by overwhelming margins).
No line better encapsulates just how out of touch Cox and his colleagues are than that.
The bottom line is identity politics should not matter: competence and merit do – which, for the purposes of New York Republican candidates, always equates to supporting Donald Trump (and having a longstanding history of doing so), full stop. In this cycle, the candidates who have embraced President Trump and the MAGA movement he represents – including proclaiming his position on the illegitimacy of the 2020 election – are bound to perform much better than those who run for the hills, following Cox’s chosen lapdogs in the House: the LaLota’s, Garbarino’s, and Lawler’s of the delegation.
So far in this race, two candidates – Cara Castronuova and Josh Eisen – have run circles around Sapraicone’s track record on the issues that matter most, and it is not even close. Whereas Sapraicone hands out more and more money to those who would bankrupt his business and put him behind bars if it were up to them in a pathetic attempt to curry favor, Castronuova and Eisen have stood with President Trump through thick and thin, believing in him every step of the way – even in the darkest hour, such as January 6th, 2021 and its immediate aftermath, when it was inconceivable to many Republicans, except true believers, that President Trump would ever again be positioned to retake the White House, much as he is now.
For these reasons, President Trump has reportedly noticed the corruption in the New York State GOP. The 45th President reportedly convened a private meeting with Cara Castronuova, who placed in an impressive second place finish at last month’s Binghamton convention, despite having a shoestring budget and a motley campaign team, in Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday to discuss the state of affairs of the New York Republican Party. This, despite his earlier endorsement of Sapraicone, which has been contested by some of the most pro-Trump people in New York, and throughout the country, including Mayor Giuliani, Roger Stone, 2022 Gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Giuliani, Sid Rosenberg, former Congressman Peter King, NYYRC President, Gavin Wax, Laura Loomer, and yours truly.
It is unfortunate that Ed Cox and his crew are so incompetent and out of touch with their voters, and President Trump, especially in a pivotal election year, where the 45th President is now polling within single digits of Biden in the Empire State (a lead that could be much higher with the enthusiastic cooperation of Party leadership). Even if Trump does not win the state outright, a fiercely pro-Trump candidate paired with him on the ballot, like Castronuova, may well prevail – it would be a tragedy to squander this final opportunity with President Trump’s name at the top of the ballot, especially when his name is paired with a mediocre no-name like Sapraicone, who does not understand the political moment, and clearly does not have what it takes to win this year (or any year for that matter).
A Better, Winning Strategy
If New York’s GOP were truly invested in winning, not roleplaying as controlled opposition, here is what they would do: they would first force Sapraicone to drop out of the race. This should happen regardless of whether or not President Trump rescinds his endorsement, which he has done with other candidates, such as Mo Brooks, who have proven insufficiently loyal to him and the MAGA movement.
Next, they should throw their resources, time, and energy behind Castronuova or Eisen – no holds barred. Whoever does not get tapped by the party as the Senate candidate should be the Party-backed candidate to retake NY-03, George Santos’ old seat, in this November’s election against Tom Suozzi. Because they are both deserving (and reasonable) people, a truce should be made between Castronuova and Eisen. The movement can be much stronger, and they can go much further in accomplishing their mutual goal to challenge the regnant, incompetent Cox-led State GOP, by uniting together.
They would be well-advised to ally with other pro-Trump insurgent candidates, challenging the RINO incumbents, particularly on Long Island, who are as incompetent as they are stupid, buying the anti-Trump, pro-Cox kool-aid hook, line, and sinker. If Santos truly mounts a run against the troglodyte LaLota in NY-01, he should have Eisen and Castronuova’s support – and Santos should support them in return, in their shared commitment to remake the Party in the image and likeness of Donald John Trump.
Moreover, two of the most powerful Republicans in the state – Elise Stefanik and Lee Zeldin – should decide where they stand and endorse the MAGA insurgents who have taken to task Ed Cox’s hegemony. It is clear that the party in New York is moving rapidly in the pro-Trump, MAGA direction – the dinosaurs like Cox, Cairo, and Jesse Garcia in Suffolk County who are desperately clinging onto the old, unsuccessful ways will soon have their reckoning. Under their tenure, New York State has descended from one of the best states in the Union to one of the worst, across every metric: crime, cost of living, quality of life, quality of education, corruption, election integrity, you name it.
It is here that the Biden DOJ has been able to most successfully weaponize the justice system and turn it against President Trump. So far, every single Republican in elected office in New York – federal, state, and local – have been stone-cold silent about the egregious abuses of power from Letitia James’ office, and Arthur Engoron’s courtroom. To date, only Stefanik has filed an ethics complaint against Letitia James, an admirable first step for sure, but one that should have had the universal support of the entire Party — federal and state lawmakers, as well as county chairpersons.
If Cox were not bedfellows with the Democrats and Kirsten Gillibrand, he would have supported a party-wide condemnation against the weaponized system of justice against Donald Trump now occurring in his home state. He would have demanded every Republican in the New York State delegation to follow Stefanik’s lead in lodging a legal and media campaign against James, Bragg, Engoron, and Hochul, using every tool in the chest to put an end to this charade for good. The only reason why the Democrats in New York have gotten away with running roughshod around the Constitution and rule of law is because the Republican opposition sits on their hands and does absolutely nothing, full stop.
Many people are quick to attribute this to malice, or a conspiracy involving the Uniparty. But as the saying goes, “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” New York, under Cox’s rule, has basically quashed entrepreneurship of all sorts, but particularly of the Donald Trump variety, that in yesteryear built up this state from the ground and made New York City into the leading metropolis not only of the United States, but of the world.
Today, our Republicans care more about elevating incompetent people to positions of authority, like James and Bragg, out of fealty to BLM and woke movements, so that they are not seen as “racist” by their Democratic betters. Perhaps Cox truly believes in Woke’s catechism, in which case he is patently unqualified to be a standardbear for the Republican Party, that is supposed to, at least on paper, represent the opposition to Left-wing absurdity.
Cox is currently in his second stint as New York State GOP chairman, having previously served from 2009-2019 after stepping aside for a brief, four-year interregnum. His previous stint too was mired by accusations of incompetence and a reluctance to carry out his duties. For example, according to a 2010 article for the NY Daily News, Cox then was hit with accusations that he was not putting his best foot forward by nominating top-quality candidates against Kirsten Gillibrand, who had only been recently elected to the Senate. Now, fourteen years later, history has vindicated those accusations: Gillibrand remains in power, safe as ever, while Cox continues to nominate bottom-of-the-barrel candidates like anti-Trump Sapraicone, who has absolutely no shot of winning against the formidable Democratic incumbent.
These facts would lend further credence to last week’s revelations, reported by The Gateway Pundit and other outlets, that Cox is actually aiding and abetting Gillibrand by deliberately putting up the worst possible candidates because he has a financial stake in Gillibrand’s long-term success. Evidence for this theory is found in the fact that Cox is a board member of the company “League of Conservation Voters,” a far-left environmental group that promotes destructive policies like ESG, the Green New Deal, and wind turbines, and has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans and affiliated PACs – including, you guessed it, to Sapraicone’s opponent, Kirsten Gillibrand!
So, whether he is animated by an anti-Trump ideology, a business interest, or pure laziness, Cox has every reason to ensure the worst possible candidates are nominated time and again for statewide races, to ensure the Democrats in control – to whom his businesses support with hundreds of thousands of dollars of political donations – stay in power. That would explain Sapraicone, and prior to him, Mazi Pilip. It would also, oddly enough, explain Santos, who was tapped the candidate in the NY-03 race by Cox acolyte, Nassau County GOP chair Joseph Cairo, perhaps thinking that Santos, an unknown at the time, who had previously lost in 2020 by a 13-point wallop to Suozzi, would be a surefire loser, one who would preserve the Democratic-led status quo. When Santos slipped through the cracks, shocked the world, and actually won, it sent the entire State Party into an anxious frenzy: accordingly, they were quick to mobilize nearly their all House Republican members (particularly those closest to Cox, Cairo, and Garcia), save Stefanik, to expel Santos, no matter the devastating political cost to the overall House majority.
Indeed, with Santos’ threat looming – Santos announced on the night of the State of the Union address that he was planning to primary Nick LaLota in NY-01 – Suffolk County’s Chairman, Jesse Garcia, went out of his way to issue a preemptive statement to denounce Santos’ latest bid, knowing full well that Santos’ return to Congress could be a fatal blow to the Cox-led regime that has brought the Empire State to near-ruin.
Cox, in his previous stint as State Party Chair, was also hit with accusations that he simply did not want the job, and for that reason, put scarcely any effort into vetting candidates for competence and electability. In today’s terms, that would mean candidates who are shamelessly America First and supportive of Donald John Trump. Ironically, if he were making a concerted effort at that, he would be selecting for more Santos-like candidates, rather than running in the opposite direction by choosing IDF fighters married to Ukrainians who could barely speak English, or bigtime Democratic donors who act and speak like buffoons in public.
In 2017, The Daily Beast reported that well over a decade ago, Republican Party leaders were calling for Cox’s resignation – labeling his tenure as “pathetically ineffectual” and the State Party a “sad joke.” The report details how Cox pushed through his son, Chris Cox, to run a longshot congressional bid, who turned out, unsurprisingly, to be an ineffective candidate (the apple does not fall far from the tree). His losing effort only further solidified the Democratic hegemony over the state.
The report also recounts Cox’s then-struggles to court quality Republicans to take down Democratic bigwigs like Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Andrew Cuomo – all of whom remain household names well over a decade later, and two of three of whom still remain in power, their positions as secure as ever because of the same old narrative, as true today as it was then.
So, clearly, Cox’s latest gambit is nothing new: he not only does not know how to win, as proven by his moribund track record, but he actively prefers losing – for which, to him, there is a political and financial upside. Cox profits handsomely off the contributions that fill the coffers of his environmental company, by and large from Democratic or left-leaning donors while retaining his cushy job as chairman of the “controlled opposition” – in which the only job requirement is to do absolutely nothing. (Actually, check that, to do nothing except lose key elections and nominate the worst candidates you can possibly fathom.)
Meanwhile, New York State continues down a rapid managed decline, with productive citizens fleeing the state month by month, replaced by third-world migrants who occupy schools, take up crucial resources that should otherwise be used towards New York’s mounting homelessness crisis, and drain the economy – shifting the costs upon the dwindling pool of middle-class taxpayers, from whom Kathy Hochul and Letitia James profit, to pursue their self-interested political witch-hunts.
Call To Action
New York is a racket, and Ed Cox and his minions are at the front and center of it.
Readers, please consider CALLING Ed Cox’s office and DEMAND that he throw his support and resources behind true America First, Trump-supporting candidates for federal, state, and local office – NOT imposters and frauds like Mike Sapraicone, Mazi Pilip, or any of the RINOs who currently represent Long Island and downstate New York in Congress.
Ed Cox’s office number: (518) 462-2601, and his email: [email protected].
Nassau GOP Chairman, Joe Cairo’s office number: 516-334-5800, and email: [email protected].
Suffolk GOP Chairman, Jesse Garcia’s office number: 631-320-1900, and email: [email protected].
via magatribute