The Times Is for Gershon

The New York Times has endorsed Perry Gershon in his campaign to unseat Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District. 

An editorial published on Saturday identified six Democratic candidates in New York and New Jersey who it said could help “restore good sense in Congress.” 

The paper cited Mr. Gershon’s support for both Medicare for All, a campaign to enact universal health care, and the Affordable Care Act, which Mr. Zeldin has voted to gut, in its endorsement. Mr. Gershon, a Democrat, and Mr. Zeldin, a Republican, also differ on immigration, the editorial noted, with Mr. Gershon supporting protection for so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. The Times was critical of Mr. Zeldin’s support for withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement of 2015, a policy President Trump announced last year. 

The editorial also criticized Mr. Zeldin’s embrace of Sebastian Gorka, a Hungarian immigrant and former deputy assistant to Mr. Trump who has worn a pin from Vitezi Rend, a Hungarian group that the U.S. State Department labeled as having been “under the direction of the Nazi Government of Germany” during World War II; and of Stephen Bannon, who The Times wrote “has been connected with some of the most extreme right-wing groups in Europe and the United States.” Mr. Gorka denies membership in Vitezi Rend, though the group has claimed him as a member. 

Some lifelong Republicans, the editorial stated, have called for a Democratic victory in the Nov. 6 midterm elections so that the Republican Party does not control all three branches of government and both Houses of Congress. While a majority of prognosticators predict a Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives, the Senate is seen as likely to maintain its Republican margin.