Could New York actually turn red?

Republican Bruce Blakeman is within striking distance of Gov. Kathy Hochul — and is running ahead of where Lee Zeldin stood at the same point four years ago — according to a stunning new Siena College poll.

Hochul leads the Nassau County executive by just 10 points among likely voters, 49% to 39%, as the race for governor barrels toward the Nov. 3 election.

That’s closer than Zeldin was in August 2022, when Hochul held a 14-point advantage, 53% to 39%.

And that race ended up being a nail-biter.

Hochul ultimately defeated Zeldin by just six points, 53% to 47%, in one of the strongest Republican statewide performances in New York in years.

The new numbers are particularly striking because Hochul is dramatically underperforming other Democrats running statewide.

Attorney General Letitia James leads Republican Saritha Komatireddy by 18 points, 54% to 36%, while Comptroller Tom DiNapoli holds a whopping 23-point advantage over Republican Joseph Hernandez, 55% to 32%.

Hochul is being propped up by massive margins among women, Black voters and New York City residents.

She leads Blakeman by 19 points among women, 56% to 37%, while male voters are essentially split. Among Black voters, Blakeman trails by a staggering 60 points.

And in deep-blue New York City, Hochul crushes Blakeman 64% to 19%.

But outside the five boroughs, the picture changes dramatically.

Blakeman leads Hochul by eight points in the suburbs, 49% to 41%, while the two candidates are deadlocked upstate.

The numbers offer a jolt of optimism for Republicans hoping Blakeman can replicate — and potentially surpass — Zeldin’s surprisingly strong 2022 showing and pull off what would be a political earthquake: putting a Republican back in the governor’s mansion in deep-blue New York.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)