Enter stage right.
Anti-Trump “Will & Grace” actress Debra Messing is snubbing Democratic incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul and instead backing Republican Bruce Blakeman’s gubernatorial campaign.
It’s quite a sea change for Messing, who once stumped for Hillary Clinton for president and donated to far-left actress Cynthia Nixon’s campaign for governor in 2018 and has been, at least until recently, a staunch critic of Blakeman-boosting President Trump.
Blakeman Campaign
But Brooklyn-native Messing, who even appears in a video with Blakeman, has complained about what she claims is a decline in her hometown’s conditions.
“I am so grateful you are running. You are what we need more than anything,” she told Blakeman during a recent Manhattan fundraiser for the candidate hosted by dietician Tanya Zuckerbrot.
“The decline in this city over the last four years has been so exponential and devastating — economically, socially and on every level. And obviously, we’ve lost so much business here. People are leaving,” said Messing, an NYU alum.
Messing called the Big Apple the “city I love” but said, “It’s not the city I love anymore.”
She looked at Blakeman and said, “I believe in all my heart that you are the answer. You are the affordable campaign, candidate.
“People are just really struggling. They need their utilities to be lower,” Messing said.
The actress also alluded to the $9 congestion pricing toll to enter Manhattan.
“It’s just too expensive to live in New York City, and I love the fact that is at the top of your mind,” Messing told the Republican candidate.
Messing, who is Jewish, has publicly expressed her outrage over Hamas’s murderous Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The actress put up signs in Manhattan bearing the names and information of hostages being held by the Palestinian terrorists and begged “far-left students” to “leave the posters up” amid some being torn down.
She also is no fan of left-wing anti-Israel Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Messing endorsed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor in his failed bid against Mamdani. She has blasted Mamdani as an “American-hating jihadist,” nicknaming him “Osama bin Mamdani.”
Blakeman meanwhile is a staunch supporter of Israel, while Hochul has taken heat for some of her alleged wishy-washy stances on Jewish issues.
