‘The Democratic Party Has Become so Radicalized’: Former NYC Assembly Member Dov Hikind Announces Switch to Republican Party

Longtime New York politico and unapologetic pro-Israel advocate Dov Hikind on Thursday announced that he and his wife were registering as Republicans and teased a possible run for elected office.

Hikind in his decades in New York politics has frequently been described as a kingmaker for his influence among New York’s Orthodox Jewish electorate. The 48th Assembly District that he represented from 1983-2018 contains the Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park, one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities in the world.

The lifelong Democrat said that the party no longer reflected his values.

“Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has become so radicalized,” Hikind said alongside his wife Shani in a video posted on Twitter. “People who are moderates or conservative Democrats are not welcomed in the Democratic Party, Shani, and I’ve had enough. The Democratic Party turns its back on its friends, like Israel, the Biden administration, right now in policy after policy. I’m just tired. I’ve had enough.”

Asked if he intended to run for office, Hikind said, “we shall see.”

Despite being a registered Democrat, Hikind has endorsed only Republicans for the presidency since 2004. After not voting for Donald Trump in 2016, Hikind endorsed him in 2020, but has said he would not be endorsing Trump again after the former president hosted antisemitic rapper Kanye West and Holocaust denying alt-right figure Nick Fuentes for a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club in 2022.

Hikind’s switch to the Republican party comes amid political shifts in the New York Orthodox community as a whole. Once reliable ground for the Democratic party, New York City neighborhoods with large Orthodox populations like Borough Park, Crown Heights, and Williamsburg swung hard for Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin in the 2022 election, contributing to the best performance by a Republican candidate for governor in two decades.

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