Bruce Blakeman

Bruce Blakeman is a graduate of Arizona State University and California Western School of Law. He is an attorney admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court and the courts of New York and New Jersey, and he has served as executive director of the New York Police Chiefs Benevolent Association. He is a former presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature and a former commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He served as a Hempstead town councilman from 2015 to 2021. He was elected Nassau County Executive on November 2, 2021 and reelected in November 2025. He announced his campaign for governor on December 9, 2025. On February 11, 2026 the state Republican committee unanimously designated him its nominee for governor, with Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood as the nominee for lieutenant governor, and he was unopposed in the June Republican primary. He faces Governor Kathy Hochul, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary, on November 3.