Legislator Bridget Fleming, pledging to put Long Island first, launches run for Congress

County Legislator Bridget Fleming is making a second run for the Democratic nomination in New York’s First Congressional District.

The Noyac resident announced her candidacy Monday afternoon on the shore of Patchogue Lake, flanked by party leaders, elected officials, labor union representatives and other supporters.

Though she must first secure her own party’s nomination — which in the past two election cycles came only after protracted primary campaigns — Fleming took direct aim yesterday at incumbent Republican Lee Zeldin, even though the NY-01 seat may be open in the 2022 election. Zeldin, elected to a fourth term in November, is seeking the Republican Party nomination for governor.

“I started seriously considering this run on the evening of Jan. 6, when I sat in my district office with my legislative team, and we watched in horror as Lee Zeldin solidified his membership in the sedition caucus, voting to challenge the results of a presidential election, even after the Capitol was overtaken by rioters in what could only be described as an act of domestic terrorism and treachery,” Fleming said.

“For me, it was a last straw,” she said. “We Long Islanders can no longer be represented by a congressman so entrenched in personal ideology, that he was literally willing to throw Democracy out the shattered windows of the Capitol,” Fleming said.

Fleming said Zeldin has long put “party ahead of people and blind loyalty ahead of building Long Island communities.”

Acknowledging Zeldin’s active campaign for the statehouse, which he began exploring in February as Gov. Andrew Cuomo became mired in scandals, Fleming said while “the state of play has changed quite a bit… we need to say once and for all that we as a district deserve better.”

She pledged to “put Long Island families first” by focusing on issues that are important to local residents, including reinstating the federal deduction for state and local taxes, which was capped at $10,000 by Congress in 2017 and disproportionately impacted taxpayers in places with high state and local property taxes, including New York. The previously unlimited deduction was added by Republicans to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to help offset the cost of over $1 trillion in tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

Fleming said her focus in Washington will be “getting us out of the pandemic in a way that ensures our small businesses survive, and that our communities thrive.”

The legislator said her campaign would not be about party ideology but rather about Long Island’s future — protecting the environment, securing the coastlines and improving infrastructure.

Nevertheless, Fleming said, “I’m a proud Democrat. I’m proud to stand for our Democratic ideals. We believe that everyone should have the chance to get ahead. We believe in the right to affordable and accessible health care, to a tax system that doesn’t just benefit those at the top, in the right of a woman to make decisions about what happens to her own body and the right of our seniors to collect Social Security and to benefit from Medicare because after all, they spent their lives paying into it.”

Fleming is the first candidate to announce for the Democratic nomination in NY-01. She sought the nomination in 2020, but finished third in the party primary election, behind Nancy Goroff and the party’s 2018 nominee, Perry Gershon. Goroff went on to lose to Zeldin in November.

Gathered around her for yesterday’s announcement was Suffolk County Democratic Party Chairman Rich Schaffer, Suffolk County Presiding Officer Rob Calarco and Democratic Party leaders from most of the towns that lie within the First Congressional District.

Shaffer said the county committee has not yet taken a vote but Fleming has his support as an individual. The county chairman said Fleming is a well-rounded candidate “who can bridge the gap in our party between the progressive branch and someone who can sit down and talk with the veterans at the Selden VFW hall. That’s the candidate we need,” Shaffer said. Fleming’s legislative district is a microcosm of the First Congressional District, he said. “That’s why we think she’ll be a stellar candidate.”

Fleming said she will continue her re-election campaign in the county’s Second Legislative District, which she has represented since 2016. Prior to her election to the County Legislature, she served as a council member in the Town of Southampton.

Fleming, 61, is a former prosecutor who spent 10 years in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. She holds a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College. She has lived in Noyac since 2000 with her husband Bob Agoglia, a general contractor, and their son Jai.