Voter Guide 2026: Long Island election voting guide 

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LILauraGillen11326_2026-11-03-05-40-29

The raptor morning. Another one of the races that we're watching the 4th Congressional District covering parts of Hempstead, Rockville Center, and Long Beach. Democratic Congresswoman Laura Gillen is facing a challenge from the Hempstead receiver of taxes, Republican Janine Driscoll. Congresswoman Gillen was not able to join us live on the show this morning. We interviewed her yesterday. For voters out there today, do you think that you have done enough? Do you think you've got your message across to be able to take this, uh, this election day? Uh, look, I'm really proud of the campaign that we've built. We've been talking to voters throughout the district, not just at election time, but throughout my first term in Congress. Um, I, I promised the voters of this district that I would not be focused on partisan politics and fighting. I'd be focused on keeping my head down, working across the aisle where possible to get things done and deliver for this district, and I've done just that. I've brought over $60 million back to the district and. Community project funding and other funding to clean up our water, to improve schools and libraries, to, uh, protect houses of worship, to improve our infrastructure, and, uh, we turned over $4 million back into taxpayers' pockets, and I was made able in the least productive Congress other than the one before, which is under Republican control, um, able to get my very first bill as a freshman member in the minority. Party, I was able to get my very first bill passed in the House of Representatives. I'm an effective member and I'm looking forward to going back and serving the residents of this district. Congresswoman, it seems that Republicans on the national level have targeted your race and the neighboring race, the 3rd, with Congressman Swazzi in a year where they figure to suffer many losses, at least that's the historical trend. What does that say to you about your race and what are the stakes here in the 4th district? Look, this is a this is a purple seat. It's a seat that's always going to attract some attention, you know, I flipped it against the odds last cycle. I'm going to hold it this cycle, but I think, you know, with Bruce Blakeman at the top of the ticket, they thought there could be some down ballot momentum in this race, but I don't think they're going to see that as in fact the case. Lastly, just, just one quick thing that you can tell undecided voters about the difference between you and your candidate that may matter. I've always, whether it was in local government or now in federal government, I've always had a good government agenda. I always have focused on making sure that I'm doing the best thing I can for the residents of this district. In contrast, my opponent said she wants to be in Congress to support the president 100% of the time when we're seeing everything that he promised us lower prices, nope, skyrocketing prices, no more forever wars. A war that was started with no objective, no end in sight, no plan, no goals, that's making gas prices and everything else go up. Um, he's made our country less safe. Um, he's made life more expensive and more difficult, and they people are being crushed. I'm going to Congress again, not to follow a partisan agenda, but to focus on the problems that we need solved in this Congress. That's bringing down the cost of living, making sure we try to get that salted. back, which is one of the first bills that I introduced as well with uh Andrew Garbarino and uh focusing on the things that matter most of them, we need to rein in AI. There's serious problems. This Congress has been the least productive, second least productive Congress. I hope, I hope to go back in the majority where we're actually getting things done for the American people. All right, Congresswoman Laura Gillen, thank you so much for the time. We appreciate it. Thanks, Laura. Thank you.

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LICHRISGALLANT11326_2026-11-03-05-40-33

Morning. See what voters have to say today. Another one of the races that we're watching the first congressional district covering the East End all the way into Melville. Political newcomer Democrat Chris Gallant is challenging Republican Congressman Nick Lalota, and Chris Gallant joins us live now. Chris, good morning. Thanks for joining us. Let's talk about the state of the race right now. Obviously for you to win this thing, you've got to flip voters who voted for Lalota two years ago. What's your message to them this morning? Good morning. Thanks for having me on. And yes, the, the excitement is real, you know, we've been running this campaign now for about 15 months, and the message is that we want change. I mean, everybody's really upset with the fact that we're in the middle of a forever war. We're spending billions of dollars on it. Life is not more affordable here. Our faith in our government has gone to an all-time low. Right now. Congress has its lowest approval rating ever. We need effective leaders that are going to show up in our districts, and they're going to actually communicate with their constituents, and I think this gives us an opportunity to do just that. And I'm excited to hopefully bring that effective change here to our community. Chris, this district has historically elected both Republicans and Democrats. If you get elected and you switch some of those voters, how are you going to bipartisanly work for the issues specifically for Long Islanders? Well, throughout this entire campaign I've been, as I say, build bridges, not walls, and so I've been fostering relationships with both Democrats and Republicans alike, our local elected leaders, all politics is local politics. And so in order to be effective we have to be able to communicate with our local leaders here and figure out what on the federal level we can bring to our communities, how we can best be effective in that in that role, and that's how I plan to do it. I mean, You know, I would, I'm, I'm, I've got a lot of friends that are Republicans. I've got a lot of people who are Republican and that said they're going to be voting for me this year because they see that I have the ability to build those bridges and, you know, when we talk about How we can best be effective. I mean, right now we're seeing Congress just not working with one another. We're seeing them not communicate and so we have to communicate. It's the only way we're gonna be successful. Chris, lastly, what have you learned during this process being new to politics and how do you think it would help you serve in Congress? I think my background in my military career and my background as a union leader, my background as a firefighter, it makes me a very diverse candidate. It makes me very able to again communicate across party lines, and I think throughout this entire process it's given me the ability to really foster great relationships, and I think that's how we're going to be successful this year. Democratic candidate Chris Gallant, thanks so much for joining us on the show this election day. Thanks for having me. Have a good morning.

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LINickLaLota11326_2026-11-03-06-18-49

Staying on this election day. Now another one of the races that we're watching, the first congressional district covering the entire East End all the way into Melville. The incumbent is Republican Nick Lalota. He's facing a challenge from political newcomer Democrat Chris Gallant. Congressman Lalota joins us now. Congressman Lalota, thanks so much for coming into the studio early. One last day, one last morning before people Make their votes. What's one last thing that you want to say to Long Islanders? Well, I think Long Islanders are going to be happy that maybe the text messages will start to stop. Maybe they'll get their TV commercials back, but also they'll have a good opportunity to put our state and our country in a good direction. Of course, at the state level, my friend Bruce Blakeman is running for governor. He's running on a common sense platform. The promises that Kathy Hochle is making to deliver more affordability to New York State just haven't come true. If they came true, New York State wouldn't have the worst tax climate. It wouldn't have more people leaving it than any other state and wouldn't have the 3rd highest utility rates of any state in the nation. And that's the reason why so many Long Islanders are frustrated. Yes, we gave Zelden a lot of our votes 4 years ago. I expect here on Long Island voters will do the same for Blakeman. Now Congressman, early voting in both Nassau and Suffolk County has favored Democrats. That's not altogether surprising. That's typically the trend. But, uh, what are you telling your folks, your supporters about the importance of getting out today? Weather won't be an issue, but perhaps there could be an enthusiasm gap. In a midterm election, I think that Long Islanders are fired up to hear their voices heard in our great republic here. Yes, about a third of the voters, we think, cast their ballots early. I did as well. Over 100,000 ballots were cast in my district already, but we expect 320-330 ballots cast overall in my district. There's still a lot of time left on the clock, about 15 hours. Election day voting ahead of us. Yes, the weather is good, but any day is a great day to participate in our democracy. Just real quickly, I know we touched upon it, but just affordability. So many Long Islanders are wanting someone to make life easier for them, to make things a little back to normal in their house, concentrating on gas and groceries, and that's really it. What can you say to them? Yes, that's been the theme of my campaign, Erin, to pay less to DC but get more in return. And we Long Island Republicans Garburino and me can brag that we brought the average middle class family a $3000 tax cut, cutting tax on tips, overtime, Social Security, the quadrupling of the state and local tax deduction that even Newsday doesn't usually write good stuff about Republicans, said that it's a $3000 tax cut for middle class Long Islanders that's coupled with all the money that I brought home, not just big money for folks like the, the hardworking folks at Brookhaven National Lab. And the VA medical center, but tens of millions of dollars to help local governments, county, town, and village pave their roads, buy new police cars, get, get new infrastructure, help with their water quality. This is part of my Payless to DC, get more back from DC campaign which addresses. Affordability, quality of life, and things that we Long Islanders want. We want to be different, uh, from New York City. They're going on this Mondami socialist path path. We want to be different here in Long Island. My record stands, uh, for that. All right, Congressman Nick Lalota, thanks again for coming in the studio this morning. Thanks, Congressman. Thanks guys.

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LIMikeLiPetri11326_2026-11-03-06-45-06

Voters. Another one of the races that we are watching the 3rd congressional district covering much of the North Shore of Nassau County, including Great Neck, Hicksville, and even Huntington in Suffolk County. Former state assemblyman and Republican Mike LePetri is challenging Democrat incumbent Tom Swazzi, and Mike LePetri joins us live now on the morning show. Mike, good to see you. Thanks for being here. Let's talk about the state of the race here. I spoke to the RNC chairman Joe Gruders yesterday. He says this is one of the races Republicans have the best chance to flip in New York. State. Why do you think that is and what do you need to do to get it done? Well, it really comes down to it's a time for change. Unfortunately, my opponent has 30 years in office where at every level of government he has raised our taxes. He has sold us out the Democratic leadership so he can continue making millions of dollars trading stocks while in Congress. That's why he voted no to lifting the salt tax cap, voted no to rejecting socialism and the DSA, voted no to banning congressional stock trading. Keeping boys out of girls' sports and voter ID. So it really comes down to choosing someone like myself who's here for public service while my opponents about self-service. I did it already as a New York State Assemblyman. I'm going to do it again as our congressman. I don't care if it's a Democrat idea or Republican idea. If it helps us, I'm for it. If it hurts us, I'm against it. You know, Mike, you just heard from someone that we interviewed at a poll site this morning saying it's about affordability. It's about gas prices. It's about putting food on my table. What can you do to make sure Long Islanders have that? Well, let's be clear, I mean, my opponent was somebody that completely loses all credibility on affordability because every level of government he has supported and done and done raising our taxes. So he's somebody who's raised our taxes at every level, somebody that voted no to the largest tax cut in history that puts more money in our pocket. And don't forget under Joe Biden when it was 4 years of high gas prices due to poor Democrat energy policies, my opponents said nothing. That's why most importantly what I want to do is continue continue on that buildup of the largest tax cut in history by making sure we can write off child care, baby formula, diapers, etc. All those make that tax deductible, so all those monies help us raise families instead of raising taxes like my opponent wants to do. Mike, lastly, this is a rematch. It's you and Swazi again from 2 years ago. It was close then. Do you think it will be close today? I think it's going to be even better than 2 years ago because we'll be winning it. We'll be exceeding 50%. Every vote is going to make a difference to make sure these radical leftists, these anti-Semites, these socialists do not take the majority. We need to have common sense. This seat right here is going to determine the fate of the majority, and we're going to make sure Republicans in charge. Republican congressional candidate Mike LePetri, thanks so much for joining us and coming into the studio this morning. Thank you.

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