GOP chooses former NYPD detective to run for Gillibrand’s NY Senate seat at contentious party convention
Republicans picked former NYPD Detective Mike Sapraicone to run as their candidate in a longshot bid to try to unseat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in November.
Sapraicone beat out entrepreneur Josh Eisen and Newsmax personality Cara Castronuova to get the party’s nod during a contentious convention on Thursday.
“We need to stay strong and stay together,” Sapraicone told reporters after the vote. “We have the issues on our side and it’s not just the Republicans and the Conservatives. These are issues for the Americans and New Yorkers and we need to get those people to stand tall and come out and speak their voices.”
Sapraicone walked away with 84% of the convention vote with Eisen and Castronuova each carrying about 8% each.
Winning Thursday’s vote means Sapraicone will appear on the party’s primary ballot in June. Eisen and Castronuova said they will try to get on the ballot as well and let the voters decide in June.
Eisen slammed the convention vote, calling it a rigged process from GOP bigwigs.
Castronuova struck a more conciliatory tone.
“I think it’s a good thing for the party to be unified, but at the same time if there’s a primary, that the candidates expect each other to really showcase Republican values,” Castronuova said.
Sapraicone dismissed his challengers decision to mount a primary as a “poor choice.”
“I don’t think it all reflects the values of the Republican Party,” Eisen told reporters. “The party is not united. I know that firsthand. Young Republicans around the state that are the backbone of the elections that we won are infuriated by the nomination of Sapraicone. They do not like him. They do not want him.
“You know what, those numbers might turn out to be the same after we go spend a lot of money that we need to defeat Gillibrand,” he went on. “If we’re wasting our primary, that’s the American way and I’m OK with that, but I think it’s silly.”
Delegates at the convention were buzzing as word circulated that Sapraicone’s private security company had contributed to Democrats. Board of Elections records show Squad Security chipped in $1,000 for Attorney General Letitia James’ 2022 campaign.
Sapraicone brushed off the criticisms, saying it was a price of doing business in the Empire State.
“I’m a businessman in New York City, in Long Island, in New York State and anybody who does business in this country, this city, donates to both sides of the aisle. I’ve never taken a local contract from a county or city, a state or a country, but I donate,” Sapraicone told reporters.
He also said he’s contributed nearly half a million dollars to Republicans over the years.
Eisen himself has also donated to Democrats, including liberal “Squad” member Jamaal Bowman as he mounted a successful primary challenge against Rep. Elliot Engel in 2020.
The winner of the primary will go on to face Gillibrand in the general election. Gillibrand first took the seat in 2009 when she was picked to fill the Senate seat vacated when President Barack Obama appointed then-Sen. Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State.
