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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.
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.
But Messing’s endorsement of Blakeman is still quite a turnabout after she drew backlash and was accused of McCarthyism for wanting to shame donors who attended a Beverly Hills fundraiser for Republican Trump in 2019.
“Please print a list of all attendees please. The public has a right to know,” Messing said on X at the time.
Blakeman, in response to her support of his gubernatorial bid, thanked the “iconic” Messing “for your courage to speak out.
“She is trying as hard as she can to save New York and to make sure it’s safe for Jewish people who live in this community and in this state,” he said.
Last week, the Nassau County executive vowed that if elected in November, he’d eliminate taxes on the first $50,000 of income for single filers and on the first $100,000 for married couples.
The average income for married couples in 45 of New York’s 62 counties is under $100,000, meaning many of the disaffected rural communities that feel especially abandoned by Albany would see a massive lift, according to his plan.
