Lee Zeldin
Lee ZeldinREUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s lead narrowed to just 4 percentage points over Republican Lee Zeldin in a new Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday, reports Bloomberg.

This is the first time Quinnipiac has polled in the race this year, and the 4-point margin is the closest any independent pollster has found so far.

Two other independent polls this month, conducted by Siena College and Marist College, showed Hochul leading by 11 points and 10 points, respectively. Hochul leads the FiveThirtyEight average of polls by 9.6 percentage points.

Another poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group earlier this month found that if the gubernatorial election were held today, Hochul would win with 44.5% of the vote, compared to 42.8% for Zeldin, with 3.2% of respondents favoring Libertarian Party candidate Larry Sharpe. Nearly ten percent of respondents remain undecided.

Hochul is seeking her first full term in office after she was elevated to the position last year following then-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s resignation in the wake of sexual harassment allegations against him.

Former President Donald Trump on Sunday endorsed Zeldin, who has been ramping up spending on ads attacking Hochul on crime.

Former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who served in that post during Trump’s term in office, recently expressed support for Zeldin, saying that "it's now or never”.

Zeldin, the co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus and one of only two Jewish Republicans in Congress, last month denounced mounting antisemitism experienced by Jews in New York.

Zeldin was the target of an antisemitic death threat in late June.

In July, he was attacked following an upstate campaign event and escaped unharmed. The accused attacker, David Jakubonis, later claimed he had been drinking that day and didn’t know who the congressman was.