1. From 2011 to 2014, Zeldin served as a member of the New York State Senate from the 3rd Senate district.
72 Facts About Lee Zeldin
1. 2.
Lee Zeldin defeated three challengers in the Republican primary, becoming the nominee of the Republican Party and the Conservative Party.
3.
Lee Zeldin lost the election to incumbent governor Kathy Hochul while receiving the highest percentage of the vote for a Republican gubernatorial nominee since 2002 and the highest raw vote total for a Republican gubernatorial nominee since 1970.
4.
In November 2024, Lee Zeldin was nominated for Administrator of the EPA as part of the second administration of President Donald Trump.
5.
Lee Zeldin was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in on January 29,2025.
6.
Under his tenure at the EPA, Lee Zeldin has sought to re-frame the purpose of the agency and push for substantial deregulation of environmental and public health protections.
7.
Lee Zeldin was born in East Meadow, New York, the son of Merrill Schwartz and David Lee Zeldin.
8.
Lee Zeldin was raised in Suffolk County, New York, and graduated from William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach, New York, in 1998.
9.
Lee Zeldin received a bachelor's degree in political science from the SUNY University at Albany in 2001.
10.
Lee Zeldin received a Juris Doctor from Albany Law School in May 2003.
11.
Lee Zeldin received an Army ROTC commission as a second lieutenant, and served in the United States Army from 2003 to 2007, first in the Military Intelligence Corps.
12.
In 2007, Lee Zeldin became an attorney for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
13.
Lee Zeldin operated it full-time until he was elected to New York's 3rd State Senate district in 2010.
14.
In 2010, Zeldin ran in the New York State Senate's 3rd District, challenging Democratic incumbent Brian X Foley.
15.
In December 2011, Lee Zeldin supported a $250 million cut to the MTA payroll tax.
16.
Lee Zeldin did not vote on the NY SAFE Act, a gun control bill that passed the New York State Senate on January 14,2013, and later became law.
17.
Lee Zeldin missed the vote because he was in Virginia on Army Reserve duty.
18.
In February 2014, Lee Zeldin introduced a bill that sought to halt implementation of the Common Core curriculum for three years.
19.
In March 2014, Lee Zeldin voted against the New York Dream Act, which would allow undocumented students who meet in-state tuition requirements to obtain financial aid to study at the university level.
20.
In 2008, Lee Zeldin challenged incumbent representative Tim Bishop in New York's 1st congressional district.
21.
On October 6,2013, Lee Zeldin announced he would again seek the Republican nomination to run against Bishop.
22.
In February 2015, the National Republican Congressional Committee announced that Lee Zeldin was one of 12 members in the Patriot Program, a program designed to help protect vulnerable Republican incumbents in the 2016 election.
23.
Amid the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lee Zeldin was one of 963 Americans the Russian Foreign Ministry banned from entering Russia.
24.
Lee Zeldin visited every county in New York State twice during his campaign.
25.
Lee Zeldin's preferred pick for lieutenant governor, retired NYPD Deputy Inspector Alison Esposito, ran unopposed and received the state party's designation.
26.
Lee Zeldin faced Rob Astorino, Andrew Giuliani, and Harry Wilson in the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary and was declared the winner on June 29,2022.
27.
On July 21,2022, Lee Zeldin was attacked at a campaign event in Perinton, New York.
28.
Monroe County district attorney Sandra Doorley, who is a co-chair of Lee Zeldin's campaign, recused herself from the case because she was at the event.
29.
Lee Zeldin received the highest percentage of the vote for a Republican gubernatorial nominee since 2002 and the highest raw vote total for a Republican gubernatorial nominee since 1970.
30.
In November 2024, CNN reported that Lee Zeldin was Trump's nominee for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
31.
Lee Zeldin's confirmation hearing was held on January 16,2025.
32.
In March 2025, Lee Zeldin presented what he described as the "largest deregulatory announcement in US history" wherein he reframed the purpose of the EPA towards deregulation and energy production in lieu of public health and environmental protections.
33.
Lee Zeldin announced plans to repeal dozens of major environmental regulations, including protections for wetlands, limits on pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks, and the endangerment finding, the legal basis for regulation of greenhouse gases.
34.
In February 2025, Lee Zeldin, working with the FBI, charged nonprofit and state government agencies that had legally received funding from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund with conspiracy to defraud the United States.
35.
Lee Zeldin said that he would allow coal-burning power plants to apply for exemptions for coal ash pollution.
36.
On September 18,2015, Lee Zeldin voted for the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015, a bill that would defund the nonprofit organization Planned Parenthood for one year unless the organization agreed not to provide abortion services.
37.
In January 2020, Zeldin joined a "friend of the court" brief demanding that the US Supreme Court overturn Roe v Wade.
38.
In October 2022, Lee Zeldin said that as governor, he would not change New York's abortion laws.
39.
Lee Zeldin has opposed New York's bail reform, which went into effect on January 1,2020, eliminating cash bail for most misdemeanor and nonviolent felony charges, repeatedly calling for its repeal.
40.
In July 2015, Lee Zeldin attached an amendment to the Student Success Act to allow states to opt out of Common Core without penalty.
41.
On July 15,2015, Lee Zeldin introduced the Exclusive Economic Zone Clarification Act.
42.
Lee Zeldin expressed concern about "other countries that are contributing to very adverse impacts on our climate but not having the level of responsibility that they need to have in stepping up and making a positive change in their own countries".
43.
In January 2016, the New York Post reported that Lee Zeldin was a no-show in 2015 at 12 of 18 House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearings that dealt specifically with ISIL and with Syria.
44.
Lee Zeldin has said that Israel is "America's strongest ally" and that Congress must "protect Israel's right to self-defense".
45.
Lee Zeldin supported the Trump administration's decision to relocate the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May 2018 as part of the United States recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.
46.
Lee Zeldin spoke highly of the Abraham Accords and nominated Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz for a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the agreement.
47.
In 2015, Lee Zeldin co-sponsored two bills in Congress to combat Lyme disease, the Tick-Borne Disease Research and Accountability and Transparency Act of 2015 and the 21st Century Cures Act.
48.
On May 4,2017, Lee Zeldin voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass the American Health Care Act.
49.
Lee Zeldin opposes mask mandates and COVID-19 vaccine mandates for schoolchildren.
50.
Lee Zeldin voted against both the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on July 1,2021, and the Senate amendment to it on November 5,2021.
51.
In July 2022, Lee Zeldin was one of 47 Republican representatives who voted in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify the right to same-sex marriage in federal law.
52.
Lee Zeldin did not vote on its final passage on December 8,2022.
53.
In November 2017, Lee Zeldin said he was unsatisfied with the proposed Republican tax bill.
54.
Lee Zeldin cited his concerns with eliminating the state and local tax deduction.
55.
Lee Zeldin suggested that the removal of the state tax deduction could have been implemented gradually.
56.
Lee Zeldin voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, passed in December 2017.
57.
Lee Zeldin supported the corporate tax cuts in the bill but did not approve of the limit for property tax deductions, preferring a cap of $20,000 or $25,000 to the $10,000 cap in the bill.
58.
On May 3,2016, Lee Zeldin endorsed Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee.
59.
Lee Zeldin had previously indicated that he would support whoever won the Republican nomination.
60.
In 2017, Lee Zeldin supported Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, saying it offered the FBI a chance at a "fresh start" to rebuild trust.
61.
In May 2018, Lee Zeldin called for the criminal prosecution of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
62.
Also that month Lee Zeldin called for creating a special counsel investigation into the FBI and the Department of Justice regarding their investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
63.
Lee Zeldin said the investigations were launched with "insufficient intelligence and biased motivations", with surveillance warrants for Trump campaign staffers obtained in "deeply flawed and questionable" ways.
64.
Lee Zeldin called for an investigation into the FBI's decision to conclude its investigation into the Hillary Clinton email controversy.
65.
On January 6,2021, after a violent, armed mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, inspired by allegations of election fraud, Lee Zeldin voted against certification of Arizona's and Pennsylvania's electoral votes.
66.
Lee Zeldin disavowed the violence and argued with protesters at his Patchogue office who linked his espousal of election fraud conspiracy theories to the Capitol attack and called on him to resign.
67.
In February 2015, Lee Zeldin introduced his first bill to eliminate the dollar limit for loans that the United States Department of Veterans Affairs can guarantee for a veteran.
68.
Lee Zeldin was raised within a mix of Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism, the grandson of Reform and Conservative rabbis, while his wife Diana is Mormon.
69.
Lee Zeldin is a member of B'nai Israel Reform Temple in Oakdale.
70.
Lee Zeldin's great-uncle Isaiah Zeldin was a prominent rabbi who founded the Stephen S Wise Temple in Los Angeles, and his great-grandfather Morris A Zeldin cofounded the UJA-Federation of New York.
71.
On September 18,2021, Lee Zeldin announced that he had been diagnosed with leukemia in November 2020 but had achieved disease remission following treatment.
72.
In 2023, Lee Zeldin launched Leadership America Needs, a PAC aimed at increasing Republican turnout among the young and voters of color.