Hempstead Town Councilman Bruce Blakeman will run against Democratic incumbent Nassau Executive Laura Curran this November.

The 65-year-old Republican from Atlantic Beach served as the first presiding officer in the Nassau Legislature in the 1990s. He was also a commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey during 9/11.

Blakeman says if elected he will lower taxes, bring more businesses to Nassau and get more people vaccinated against COVID-19.

"Now with the Town of Hempstead acquiring a mobile unit to do testing in the mobile unit, and when we finally get vaccinations, we will be doing vaccinations in the mobile unit," says Blakeman. "These are the things we need to do. Providing PPE for businesses who couldn't acquire PPE. Either they couldn't get access to it or it wasn't affordable."

In a statement, New York State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs says, "Bruce Blakeman is another career politician who would take us backwards ... it was Bruce Blakeman who was the presiding officer of the Legislature when Nassau’s finances crumbled, requiring the state to impose the NIFA control board. And it was Bruce Blakeman who led the legislature in creating the Assessment mess in the first place, sticking taxpayers with the bill."