Will, Grace … and MAGA? Dem activist Debra Messing backs Trump-endorsed Republican for NY governor

BS BULLETIN:

Longtime Democratic activist Debra Messing is backing Republican Bruce Blakeman over Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Messing delivered a remarkably blunt assessment of New York: “It’s not the city I love anymore.”
Blakeman has President Donald Trump’s endorsement — making Messing’s political crossover considerably harder to miss.

Debra Messing has spent years making her feelings about Donald Trump and Republicans exceptionally clear.

Apparently New York finally found her limit.

The “Will & Grace” actress and longtime Democratic supporter has endorsed Republican Bruce Blakeman for governor over incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul, delivering an unusually harsh assessment of what she says has happened to the city she loves.

Messing told Blakeman at a Manhattan fundraiser:

“I am so grateful you are running. You are what we need more than anything.”

And she was just getting started.

“The decline in this city over the last four years has been so exponential and devastating — economically, socially and on every level. And obviously, we’ve lost so much business here. People are leaving.”

Then came the line Democrats probably won’t be putting in the next New York tourism commercial:

“I was born here. This is the city I love and it’s not the city that I love anymore.”

Messing told Blakeman she believes “with all my heart that you are the answer,” describing him as the candidate focused on affordability.

She specifically complained about utility costs and congestion pricing and said New Yorkers are struggling with the basic expense of living in the city.

“It’s just too expensive to live in New York City.”

That would be notable coming from almost any prominent Hollywood Democrat. Coming from Messing, it qualifies as a genuine political plot twist.

She campaigned for Hillary Clinton in 2016, supported Democrats down the ballot in 2020 and has been one of Hollywood’s more outspoken Trump critics. In 2019, she even called for publication of the names of people attending a Trump fundraiser in Beverly Hills.

Now she is endorsing a Republican whom Trump himself endorsed.

Messing’s move also comes after her increasingly vocal criticism of New York’s political direction and of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Her advocacy on Israel and antisemitism has likewise put her at odds with parts of the progressive left.

Blakeman wasted no time embracing the crossover endorsement, thanking Messing for what he called her “courage to speak out.”

His campaign later boiled the pitch down rather neatly:

“Party loyalty doesn’t pay the utility bill or fight crime.”

Hochul’s campaign had a rather different interpretation. A campaign spokesman touted the governor’s grassroots support and portrayed Blakeman as a “MAGA all the way” candidate aligned with Trump.

That argument now has one particularly awkward footnote: one of Trump’s longtime celebrity antagonists just walked across the aisle to endorse him anyway.

The reaction online was predictably volcanic. Critics of Messing accused her of abandoning her previous politics, while others focused on the sheer improbability of one of Hollywood’s most recognizable anti-Trump voices supporting a Trump-endorsed Republican.

Whatever voters ultimately make of the endorsement, Messing didn’t leave much room for ambiguity about why she made it.

She thinks New York has changed dramatically for the worse — and she’s willing to cross party lines over it.

MY QUICK TAKE

There is an old political warning sign that matters more than a thousand consultant-produced television commercials: when somebody who normally wouldn’t be caught dead supporting your opponent decides to do it publicly.

Messing isn’t announcing some grand conversion to Republicanism. In fact, that’s what makes this interesting.

She’s essentially saying: I still know who I am politically. I’m voting for this guy anyway.

And Democrats can’t dismiss the criticism as something cooked up at a MAGA rally when the woman delivering it once wanted the names of Trump fundraiser attendees made public.

Politics does occasionally produce comedy without professional assistance.