Nicole Malliotakis takes a longshot

A young, female, Republican from Staten Island, Nicole Malliotakis has a lot of demographic challenges to make up in her run for mayor of New York City. But the four-term assemblywoman is already making a splash as arguably the most prominent challenger to Bill de Blasio's reelection. Malliotakis joined the New York Slant podcast on Monday, May 8, where she said she would be better than de Blasio at building relationships.

“The Governor and I have not always seen eye-to-eye, but… we put aside all our differences after Hurricane Sandy when my district was devastated. The Governor did the right thing by the people of my district,” she said. “All those things have to be priority, not the petty stuff.”

She also said that being a Republican would help her build relationships in Washington.

“I don’t agree with the President. You know, Marco Rubio was my choice for president,” Malliotakis said. “But nonetheless, I feel that I will be able to be best positioned to advocate for the resources that New York City needs and help them understand the impact that some of the policies may have. In not a hostile way, but in a diplomatic way.”

Malliotakis also talked about how she would change the city's immigration policies, why voters in the five boroughs could go for a Republican, and even broke into Spanish talking about the Puerto Rican day parade.

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