What caused the destruction of the Nassau County GOP? (NY)

[Suburbia]

For decades, since the suburbanization of the late 1940s and 1950s, the Nassau County Republican Party in Long Island had dominated the Island's politics, even sending one of their own, former Sen. Al D'Amato to the U.S. Senate in 1980.

They lost the Nassau County Executive office in November 2017 to Democratic candidate Laura Curran. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) is a rising star.

What happened?

https://theislandnow.com/blog-112/column-nassau-republican-party-r-p/

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/08/nyregion/after-al-li-politics-enters-an-unsettled-new-era.html

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

They still control the County Legislature.

[Young Conservative]

A corruption scandal and unpopular president.

[Hindsight was 2020]

I'm live right on the border with Suffolk so I can say first hand it was a combination of a massive corruption scandal, influx of Hispanic immigrants, suburbans leaving the GOP, and Trump fatigue

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

They also lost it in the 2000's when Suozzi was the executive.


It typically goes Dem in GOP midterms/off years now, and GOP in Dem off years.

To the larger question, it dates back to 1992 when Republicans began to badly bleed in places like this. Republicans were not longer seen as better on the economy among white, secular middle class people in the Northeast and West Coast. And the emphasis on cultural issues further alienated them. Republicans held up okay while Clinton was in office, but once a Republican became President, the bottom began to fall out.

[136or142]

Fighting the New York Islanders.