Long before Bruce Blakeman emerged as New York’s gubernatorial candidate for change, the future Nassau County executive was a college student assigned to drive Nancy Reagan.
Blakeman’s first serious political role came as a volunteer on Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, a position that unexpectedly brought him close to the fiercely protective woman who would soon become first lady.
“She liked and trusted me,” Blakeman told The Post in a recent interview. “She was worried about her husband’s safety. She was very, very protective of her Ronnie.”
Driving “Fancy Nancy” to fundraisers was hardly glamorous, but the assignment taught Blakeman the importance of loyalty, discretion and political access. It also hinted at a lifelong pull toward the spotlight.
“I got involved in politics at age 7. On Halloween, I went door-to-door with two bags — one to collect candy and another to give out literature for my dad’s campaign,” he said.
“People loved it,” he recalled, “when homeowners saw a boy volunteering for his dad’s campaign instead of just getting treats.”
Now 71, the longtime public servant is pursuing New York’s highest office, hoping to become the state’s first Republican governor in more than two decades on November 3.
Blakeman is widely viewed as the underdog in his effort to unseat incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. But taking on long odds is familiar territory for the risk-taker.
Three years after winning a seat on the Hempstead Town Board in 1993, the Long Island native made another bold move. Rather than seek re-election, he ran for the newly created Nassau County Legislature in a district drawn for a Democrat.
He won the race and went on to become the Legislature’s first presiding officer.
“I took a risk,” he said. “I was up for re-election [for the Hempstead Board]. Instead, I ran for the Nassau County Legislature in a district drawn for a Democrat and I won.”
It was an early demonstration of Blakeman’s willingness to prove his doubters wrong.
Former US Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, a major force in Nassau County Republican politics who has known Blakeman for 40 years, remembers him as both fearless and intensely driven.
“Bruce was always a hard worker. He never stopped working,” D’Amato said.
“He’s never afraid to take on a project. If you needed him to do something, he did it.”
Politics was part of Blakeman’s upbringing. His father, Robert Blakeman, served as a Republican state assemblyman in the 1960s.
“My father was ‘Mr. Valley Stream,’” Bruce Blakeman said of his dad, an influential attorney and World War II veteran whom he called an inspiration and a pillar of the community. Robert Blakeman died in 2018 at age 92.
The elder Blakeman loved drafting and debating legislation, but he had little interest in the handshaking and street campaigning that came with elections. His son, by contrast, thrives on knocking on doors and meeting voters face-to-face.
Blakeman attributes his outgoing personality to his mother, Betty, who served in the Women’s Army Corps during World War II.
“My mom was a big personality. Anyone who met my mother remembered her for her strong personality and beauty,” he said. “Her love and compassion continue to guide me in everything I do.”
One of five siblings, Blakeman’s parents instilled in him a strong work ethic and he had jobs during summers as a busboy, janitor, dishwasher and bartender.
As a 12 year old boy, he loved taking the Long Island Rail Road into Manhattan on his own or with his friends.
“We’d roam around the city all day. I was always fascinated by the city,” Blakeman said.
The 6’1″ Blakeman excelled at basketball at Valley Stream High School, where he was a shooting guard and small forward, boasting, “I could play above the rim. I could dunk easily.”
His basketball career ended when he broke his ankle during the first day of practice his senior year and he later went off to college, first to Arizona State University — where he met first wife Nancy Shevell — and then to California Western Law School in San Diego.
“It was exciting to be in different places,” Blakeman said. “But I always gravitated back to New York.”
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In his 20s, the young Republican became involved in presidential politics and backed Gerald Ford for re-election in 1976.
But at the GOP convention that year, he said he was inspired by rival Reagan’s speech, and volunteered on his 1980 presidential campaign while still in law school.
Reagan’s campaign assigned Blakeman the sensitive task of serving as the personal driver and assistant for Nancy Reagan, who had many influential friends in New York society, he said.
”Nancy was very kind, very thoughtful. People often underestimated her,” Blakeman recalled, saying he mostly drove her to campaign fundraisers.
After law school, Blakeman returned to New York, worked at his father’s law firm and soon got into Nassau County politics.
But Blakeman had statewide ambitions and even once flirted with running for New York City mayor.
He was the Republican candidate for state comptroller in 1998, but lost to Democratic incumbent Carl McCall. He lost his seat in the Nassau County legislature the following year in a pair of political setbacks.
Three years later, then-Gov. George Pataki, the last Republican to hold statewide office, appointed Blakeman a commissioner to the state Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
It was just months before terrorists hijacked planes and toppled the World Trade Center owned by the PA on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people and devastating downtown Manhattan.
Blakeman got to work assisting the city and region’s recovery as a PA commissioner serving on several key committees.
It was personal for Blakeman.
“My nephew, court officer Tommy Jurgens, was murdered while administering first aid in Tower 2. The building fell on him,” he said.
His body was never recovered; only his gun and badge.
Blakeman served on the PA’s World Trade Center and Security committees and was involved in the redevelopment plans for the Freedom Tower and Lower Manhattan.
He also attended many funerals of people killed in the attack.
“I gave eulogies on behalf of the governor. It was a horrible time, a dark time,” Blakeman said.
But Blakeman still had the thirst for political office.
He made unsuccessful runs for the US Senate in 2010 when he lost in a Republican primary and was defeated by Democrat Kathleen Rice in a race for a Long Island congressional seat in 2014.
In his personal life, however, things were more rosy as the divorcé found love a second time with Segal Magori, now a Nassau County Family Court judge, who he married in 2015.
His political career got a boost a few years later when, in 2021, he defeated Democratic incumbent Laura Curran for the Nassau County executive in what many observers viewed as an upset.
“That was a race nobody thought I would win,” Blakeman said.
He won re-election as county executive handily last year and shortly thereafter announced his bid for governor.
Blakeman said his Jewish faith is very important to him, and that he was disgusted with what he claims is antisemitism raging within the ranks of the Democratic Party.
“I have a strong belief in God. You’re more likely to be productive and less likely to get into trouble if you have faith,” he said.
D’Amato said Blakeman’s tenacity and resilience make him formidable.
“He lost a couple of races but he never gave up,” D’Amato said.
Blakeman is still staring down the naysayers.
“People don’t think I can win the race for governor. I’m going to win,” he said.
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