President Trump’s approval rating has sunk to the lowest point of his term. His net approval in the Silver Bulletin ratings sits at minus 22.7 percentage points, worse than at the same point in his first term and worse than Joe Biden’s minus 8.8 points at the same stage.
Jeanine Driscoll, the Republican nominee challenging Rep. Laura Gillen (D) in Nassau County, is staking her campaign on unbroken fealty to Trump anyway.
Driscoll has pledged to “stand with the President 100% of the time” and said she has a “real issue” with Republicans who break with him, she said on 77 WABC’s Sid and Friends in the Morning.
In a separate video, Driscoll also praised Trump’s “wonderful agenda that really is helping us” and said her “number one priority is to make sure that the president’s agenda continues and that [he] is not impeached.” She said she feels she is “giving back” and wants “to help the president.”
The vow binds her to Trump’s agenda in a Long Island district that Kamala Harris carried by less than two points in 2024. As of Sept. 30, all four major handicappers rated the race in Democrats’ favor: Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball each call it “Lean Democratic,” Decision Desk “Likely Democratic,” and Inside Elections “Tilt Democratic.”
Driscoll, who was first elected as Hempstead Town’s receiver of taxes since 2019 and was reelected in 2023, entered the race in April after a 34-year legal career and a stint as an associate village justice.
The endorsement
Trump endorsed Driscoll on July 13, granting her what he called his “Complete and Total Endorsement.” It was one of seven House endorsements he issued that day, The Hill reported.
Driscoll responded that evening in a post on X, writing, “I am honored to have your support.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson issued a joint endorsement from Republican leadership the same day.
In an interview with Breitbart, Driscoll said her core motivation for running is preventing the president and the Republican Party from losing the midterms, and that she has supported Trump since 2016 and “never wavered.”
She has also argued that Gillen’s moderate posture is a pretense, telling Breitbart the Democratic Party has no moderates remaining. That claim contrasts with a Newsday report from September 2025, which found that Gillen ranked as the third-most conservative of 213 House Democrats—“more conservative than 99% of Democrats”—based on her first 271 votes.
Measured against the full House, Newsday reported, she is “the very definition of ‘centrist,’” according to UCLA’s Voteview. Gillen voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed the House 218-214 on July 3, 2025, with no Democratic support.
What would the race mean for New Yorkers?
Driscoll has praised provisions of that law, including its tax breaks on tips and overtime, according to Breitbart.
About 450,000 New Yorkers became ineligible for Essential Plan coverage on July 1, after the law eliminated premium tax credits for most lawfully present immigrants and cut roughly half the program’s federal funding, according to New York state officials.
Roughly 24,940 NY-04 residents could lose health coverage by 2034, according to a Joint Economic Committee analysis by congressional Democrats using nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office national estimates allocated across districts. The district could also lose 933 hospital jobs, or 1,731 when suppliers and other local businesses are counted, according to an analysis by New York’s hospital associations based on versions of the bill still moving through Congress in June 2025.
The law will cut almost $13 billion a year from New York’s health care system statewide, including the elimination of more than half of the Essential Plan’s federal funding, or $7.5 billion, putting coverage at risk for some 730,000 lawfully present noncitizens, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said.
Driscoll has told Breitbart she would weigh legislation by its effect on constituents of either party and expressed interest in the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.
Driscoll’s campaign did not respond to Courier New York’s request for comment.
