DeSantis misses planned stop at Zeldin campaign event due to ‘unforeseen tragedy’: report

Those in attendance at a Sunday campaign event for New York gubernatorial hopeful Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., hoped to see Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but the popular Republican ended up canceling.

Zeldin is looking to wrest the governorship from incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, and the $25,000-per-person event was expected to be a big fundraiser. Now the congressman’s team is figuring out another possible opportunity to have DeSantis join them on the campaign trail, the New York Post reported.

“An unforeseen tragedy forced Gov. DeSantis to reschedule his trip to New York,” Zeldin spokeswoman Katie Vincentz told the Post. “While we’re rescheduling with Gov. DeSantis for a later date, tonight’s fundraiser will proceed and is expected to raise almost a million dollars.”

Fox News reached out to the DeSantis campaign for more information, but they did not immediately respond.

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Hochul recently joined the ranks of Democrats outside Florida leveling attacks at DeSantis and his state.

“I just want to say to the 1.77 million Jews who call New York home: Thank you for calling New York home. Don’t go anywhere or to another state. Florida is overrated,” Hochul said when signing a Holocaust education bill earlier this month. “I shouldn’t say this, but look at the governor. It starts at the top down.”

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Hochul’s remark came after California Gov. Gavin Newsom took out a television ad that ran in Florida in July, in which he told Floridians “freedom is under attack” in their state. More recently, Newsom pledged to contribute $100,000 of his campaign’s money to the campaign of DeSantis’ Democratic opponent Charlie Crist.

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DeSantis fired back at Hochul on Friday, telling Fox News’ “Unfiltered with Dan Bongino” that she and Crist “are representative of this leftist mindset that they do believe the conservative half of the country are effectively second-class citizens.”