Rabbi Yosef Hamra, the brother of the last chief rabbi of Syria, who now lives in Brooklyn, was invited to offer a blessing to Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa during a meeting between al-Sharaa and a variety of Syrian diaspora activists in Washington on Sunday.

The moment produced a striking visual — a handshake between a kippah-wearing rabbi and the new president of Syria, a former Islamist terrorist affiliated with Al-Qaida and ISIS.

“Syrian Jews coming up and sitting down with the president — this is really history,” Henry Hamra, who leads the Jewish Heritage in Syria Foundation with his father, told Jewish Insider. “A lot of people from over here, from our community, were very, very emotional about it. It’s a beautiful thing, and my father was so touched and it was a great moment.”

Hamra said that al-Sharaa had thanked his father for the blessing and said that he would “love to see you again in Syria. And I think it’s happening very soon.”

He said that al-Sharaa had also, during the meeting, expressed a commitment to religious inclusion and pluralism.

“The Jewish community in Syria is exactly the same thing as every community,” Hamra said. “That’s what the president said — there’s no difference between the Syrian Jewish and the Syrian Christian and the Syrian Muslim. We’re all in this together … that’s what he was emphasizing also. And he spoke about all the religions — that everything is the same, the Kurds, the Alawites, everybody is the same.”

Forces aligned with al-Sharaa’s government have carried out massacres targeting the Alawite, Druze and other minority communities.

“We should get ourselves together and try to rebuild again [in] Syria,” Hamra said.

He said the members of Jewish Heritage in Syria also had the opportunity to discuss with both Syrian leaders and U.S. Syria envoy Tom Barrack the work they are doing to support sanctions relief and restore Jewish antiquities and religious sites in Syria. The Jewish group was invited to the meeting by the Syrian Foreign Ministry.

Hamra said that he had invited Barrack to tour Jewish sites in Syria, and Barrack expressed an interest, sharing his personal phone number with Hamra.

“I think the government [is] very, very open for us to start the process of building up, and that’s a great thing,” Hamra said.

Mouaz Moustafa, a Syrian-American activist who leads the Syrian Emergency Task Force, which has been working with JHS in advocating for the repeal of sanctions on Syria under the Caesar Act, said it was “inspirational” and moving to see the meeting between al-Sharaa and Rabbi Hamra.

Henry Hamra, who fled Syria in 1992 at age 15, also recently ran for the Syrian parliament on a platform focused on advocating for sanctions relief, though he was not successful.

Hamra reiterated to JI his desire to see the repeal of the Caesar Act sanctions.

“My goal is to help the Syrian people who suffered a lot, and I think they should have another chance to live in freedom again,” he said. Moustafa, Hamra and Hamra’s father have argued that any restoration work on Syria’s ancient synagogues will be impossible until all sanctions are lifted.

Opponents of the sanctions relief effort say that keeping the sanctions in place is necessary to maintain U.S. leverage and ensure accountability on American priorities like protecting minority groups from further attacks.

The majority Satmar faction in Brooklyn, which represents the largest Hasidic voting bloc in New York City, is backing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor, lending what is likely to be a major boost to his campaign in the final days of the increasingly competitive Democratic primary.

The Zaloynim Satmar faction based in Williamsburg, led by Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, announced on Tuesday that it is ranking Cuomo as its top pick in the June 24 primary, as recent polls have shown a tightening race between the former governor and Zohran Mamdani, a far-left state assemblyman from Queens.

The endorsement is slated to run on Wednesday in Der Yid, a Yiddish paper aligned with the faction — which ranked Adrienne Adams, the speaker of the City Council, as its second pick for mayor, followed by Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn.

Cuomo also notched a key endorsement on Monday from the rival Aroynim Satmar faction led by Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, which is a smaller but politically influential community. The group likewise ranked Adrienne Adams as its second pick in the primary to replace embattled Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent.

Because Hasidic communities typically vote in blocs based on rabbinic support, the endorsements could collectively turn out more than 6,000 votes, experts estimate, which could make the difference in a close race.

The dual Satmar backing, highly coveted in New York City races, caps off a string of endorsements Cuomo has accumulated from Orthodox leaders in recent days. Last Friday, he claimed a major endorsement from the Bobov sect, the largest Hasidic bloc in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn that could deliver more than 4,000 votes, according to experts.

The former governor has also recently won support from the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance; the Crown Jewish United and the Crown Heights PAC; and the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition.

Still, there have been a few holdouts who remain bitter over Cuomo’s COVID-era restrictions, which many voters recall as discriminatory, according to one Jewish activist familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive subject.

On Monday, a large coalition of Hasidic sects and institutions in Borough Park broke from the Bobov leadership and announced it was ranking Adrienne Adams as its first choice, followed by Myrie, whose district includes the Hasidic enclave of Crown Heights.

The coalition did not publicly provide a reason for its decision to exclude Cuomo from its ranking. But the Jewish activist, who was privately briefed on its thinking, said that some Hasidic leaders continue to harbor lingering resentment toward Cuomo over his COVID policies, which the former governor has sought to address in a recent series of meetings to mend relationships with a community his campaign regards as crucial to securing the nomination.

“People didn’t find his apology sincere,” the Jewish activist said of Cuomo’s outreach.

The group was also organized by allies of Eric Adams, whose team has privately urged Orthodox leaders not to rank Cuomo first or to exclude him entirely from their endorsement slates, believing that Adams will be best poised to win the general election with Mamdani as the nominee, according to multiple people familiar with the behind-the-scenes push to influence the primary.

One source familiar with the effort said Adams has personally intervened, asking Moishe Indig, a leader of the Aroynim Satmar faction, to include Mamdani in an endorsement slate.

Indig did not respond to a request for comment on the effort, which was reported earlier by The New York Times. 

Most Orthodox leaders have chosen to ignore the lobbying effort led by Adams’ deputy chief of staff, Menashe Shapiro, according to sources, even as the mayor has built close ties to the Jewish community and has recently been highlighting his new efforts to oppose antisemitism, which Cuomo has called “the most important issue” in the race.

A spokesperson for Adams, Kayla Mamelek, said in a statement on Tuesday that the mayor “has always stood with New York City’s Jewish communities — not only working to uplift and empower them, but confronting the disturbing rise in antisemitism in recent years.”

Even as Cuomo has rolled out a range of Orthodox endorsements, Adams’ team is hopeful that Jewish leaders will ultimately reverse course and back the mayor in the general election, according to sources. 

But Cuomo’s advisors as well as Jewish leaders have dismissed that expectation as wishful thinking given the mayor’s precarious standing with voters after he convinced the Trump administration to dismiss his federal corruption charges as part of an alleged quid pro quo.

A recent poll showed that Adams would lose the general election by double digits in hypothetical matchups against both Mamdani and Cuomo, whose comfortable lead in the primary has been dwindling in recent weeks.

Mamdani’s insurgent bid has raised alarms among Jewish leaders who have been troubled by his fierce opposition to Israel amid rising antisemitism fueled by the ongoing war in Gaza.

“Mr. Cuomo’s leading opponent is a self-identified socialist who has expressed views and taken actions deeply offensive and worrisome to our community,” the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition said in its endorsement on Monday, citing Mamdani’s support for anti-Israel boycott campaigns and his refusal to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. “These positions are not only controversial, they are outright dangerous.”

Mamdani has condemned antisemitism and said he strives to show his disagreements on Israel are “still based on a shared sense of humanity,” as he put it at a recent town hall hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York.

The democratic socialist has engaged in some direct outreach to the Orthodox community, meeting for an interview with Satmar leaders that was recently published in a popular Yiddish women’s magazine, among other efforts.

Indig, the Aroynim Satmar leader, has met with Mamdani and told the Times he was still weighing if he would add the assemblyman to his endorsement slate, suggesting that Adams’ recent outreach could pay off in the primary.

Indig, who backed Adams last cycle and is a part of his Jewish advisory council, prefers the mayor over Cuomo, said a person familiar with his thinking. He has indicated he will support Adams in the general election.

Unlike other Hasidic sects, the Satmar community is theologically anti-Zionist, opposing Israel on the grounds that the messiah has yet to arrive to usher in the creation of a Jewish state, and does not view Israel as a top issue.

Polling has found that Mamdani holds virtually no support in the Orthodox community, while Cuomo is favored by a sizable number of voters whom he is counting on to propel him to victory in the primary. 

The Bobov sect, a major Hasidic voting bloc in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, is endorsing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York City, a representative for the community confirmed to Jewish Insider on Friday. 

“Leaders of the Bobov community announced their endorsement of former Governor Andrew Cuomo as the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City in the upcoming primary election,” Joel Rosenfeld, a Bobov representative, said in a statement shared with JI. “After thorough discussions and meetings with numerous candidates, community leaders have concluded that Cuomo is the strongest advocate for the community’s values and the needs of New York City.”

Cuomo has been consolidating support from the Orthodox community ahead of the June 24 Democratic primary, where he is facing competition from a top rival, far-left Queens state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, whose sharp criticism of Israel has fueled concerns among Jewish voters.

“The primary election features several candidates, including some from the far-left socialist spectrum who have expressed hostility toward the Jewish community and are performing competitively in recent polls,” Rosenfeld said. “This election is critical, and we cannot afford to let those who oppose our values lead our city. We urge every eligible voter to take a few minutes to vote and support a candidate who will champion our community’s interests.”

Earlier this week, Cuomo also picked up an endorsement from an influential Orthodox coalition in Far Rockaway, Queens, and he is expected to win support from the majority Satmar faction in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, early next week, according to a person familiar with the plans.

The Orthodox community represents a key voting bloc and could help tip the scales of what has become an increasingly competitive primary. The Bobov endorsement alone could turn out more than 4,000 votes, according to a Jewish community activist who said that “as goes Bobov so goes Borough Park.”

In a statement shared with JI, Cuomo said he was “so grateful to have the support of Bobov, which is a powerful statement of my continued commitment to the Orthodox community.”

“Bobov cares deeply about keeping their community and families safe, making sure that there are police and appropriate resources in Borough Park and beyond,” Cuomo continued. “I’m honored to have their support and want to thank Joel Rosenfeld for being an ally and a friend. Standing up to hate could not be more important in this election and I’m proud to partner with Bobov to do just that in this election and at City Hall.”

Cuomo has been courting Orthodox leaders in recent weeks as he has sought to mend relationships in the community that deteriorated over restrictions he implemented during the COVID pandemic, which many voters still recall as discriminatory. 

“During meetings with Cuomo, community leaders candidly addressed challenges faced during the COVID-19 period, when the community felt unfairly targeted,” Rosenfeld said in his statement on Friday. “Cuomo expressed deep regret for the distress caused, acknowledging past mistakes and committing to prevent such issues in the future. He pledged to maintain an open line of communication with community leaders and to appoint Orthodox Jewish advisors to his administration to ensure culturally sensitive decision-making.”

The Bobov community also ranked Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn, as its second choice for mayor, followed by Adrienne Adams, the speaker of the City Council, in third.

Leon Goldenberg, a prominent Orthodox Jewish leader in Brooklyn, is endorsing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for New York City mayor, he confirmed exclusively to Jewish Insider on Friday.

“I am fully endorsing Gov. Cuomo,” Goldenberg said. “I think he’s the best candidate by far. He’s accomplished for the city and the state. We need somebody who’s going to get things accomplished and who’s going to fight antisemitism as a major issue.”

Goldenberg, who is an executive board member of the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition, said that he was backing Cuomo in his personal capacity, but he anticipated his group would also endorse the former governor after the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which concludes on Tuesday evening.

His early endorsement is among the first major signs of formal Orthodox support for Cuomo with just over three weeks until the June 24 Democratic primary. The former governor has in recent weeks engaged in proactive outreach to Orthodox leaders who represent sizable voting blocs that could prove crucial in the increasingly competitive race.

While polling has shown Cuomo leading the crowded primary field, his comfortable margin has narrowed as Zohran Mamdani, a far-left state assemblyman in Queens, has recently come within eight points of the former governor in the final round of ranked-choice voting, according to an independent survey released earlier this week.

Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel who is the only candidate in the primary to publicly back the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, has voiced rhetoric that has raised alarms among many Jewish leaders as his campaign continues to surge. 

Recently, Mamdani faced scrutiny for declining to recognize Israel as a Jewish state while speaking at a town hall last week hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York. He also stirred controversy this week over his comments to a mosque in Queens in which he denounced Israel’s pager attack last year against Hezbollah in Lebanon without mentioning it had been aimed at the terror group’s operatives rather than civilians.

Goldenberg said his lone endorsement of Cuomo was in many ways meant to raise awareness about the stakes of what appears to have become a two-person race. 

“We’re trying to get the message out about how important it is to support Cuomo,” Goldenberg said. “Mamdani, who will do very well in ranked-choice voting where Cuomo will not do as well, is really gaining a lot of ground.”

Cuomo has also notched support from Sam Berger, an Orthodox state assemblyman from Queens who has accused Mamdani of stoking antisemitism. But leading Orthodox groups, whose endorsements can traditionally yield thousands of votes that have helped tipped the scales in close elections, have yet to weigh in on the primary.

In recent weeks, Cuomo has met privately with a range of Orthodox leaders to mend relationships that deteriorated over restrictions he implemented at the height of the COVID pandemic, which many community members still recall as discriminatory.

The former governor has voiced regret for creating “the impression that the community was targeted,” which he said was not his intention, and recognized that he “could have done more” to address concerns at the time.

Though Orthodox leaders have been receptive to his outreach, constituents are still bitter about Cuomo’s COVID record, even as he has expressed contrition, according to people familiar with the conversations.

For his part, Goldenberg, whose group in Flatbush met with Cuomo this month, said that he had been satisfied with Cuomo’s response to criticism during their discussion, but emphasized he is now engaging in outreach to younger voters who may not be closely following the primary. 

Mamdani “is not going to be a friend of the Jews,” Goldenberg told JI. “That’s the message that just has to get out more and more forcefully, especially in the Orthodox community, which is still incensed about COVID.”

Even as Mamdani has also sought to engage with the community, a recent poll showed his support at 0% among Orthodox voters, while faring better with other Jewish denominations. Cuomo, meanwhile, performs strongest in the Orthodox community, claiming 41% of the vote, according to the poll.

In the broader Jewish community, Cuomo, who has frequently touted his support for Israel while calling antisemitism “the most important issue” in the race, is leading the field with a relatively small plurality of the vote, recent polls suggest.

Despite leading all publicly available polls, Cuomo also holds high unfavorability ratings stemming in large part from his resignation as governor amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies.

In a tight race, the Orthodox community could help close the margins for Cuomo, as previous primaries have shown. Mayor Eric Adams, now running as an independent, narrowly won the nomination in 2021 with critical support from Orthodox leaders, whose communities tend to vote as a bloc.

“The Orthodox community can make a difference,” said Goldenberg, whose group endorsed Adams last cycle. “If we come out forcefully.” 

He estimated there are at least 100,000 Orthodox voters in Flatbush alone, but was unable to share a party breakdown. “We have been pushing people to register as Democrats, and have had some success,” he told JI. “We’ll keep pushing it.”

In the meantime, Goldbenberg said he expects other Orthodox leaders will also soon fall behind Cuomo. “I think it really has to happen across the board,” he told JI. “So many others are holding back, but I think we have to get the momentum.”

“Sometimes there’s a choice and you’re wavering until you get near the end,” he said, but dismissed the other candidates as unviable. “There’s no other choice today.”

One Orthodox leader, who spoke anonymously to address private discussions, suggested that “by the end of next week” endorsements would likely begin to roll in. 

A major Satmar faction in Williamsburg, home to the largest Hasidic community in New York City, is currently planning to endorse Cuomo the week after next, according to a community leader familiar with the matter.

“Nothing is final until final,” the community leader clarified on Friday, “but that’s the expectation.”

With his towering 6-foot-10 frame topped by a bundle of impressive dreadlocks, Robert Cornegy, Jr., a New York City councilmember who until recently claimed the title of tallest politician in the world, was hard to miss as he sauntered into Basquiat’s Bottle, a trendy bar and restaurant on a commercial drag in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. 

“This is one of the restaurants that’s kind of central to the community,” Cornegy, 55, told Jewish Insider on a recent Sunday afternoon, settling in at a table in the back while contemplating an order of shrimp and grits.

Cornegy, whose district includes Bedford-Stuyvesant as well as Crown Heights, is now competing for the more high-profile role of Brooklyn borough president — and he has been savoring the opportunity to step away from Zoom, hit the pavement and make a more personal impression on potential voters with just weeks remaining until the June 22 Democratic primary.

“Because I’m such an attraction, I’m used to meeting people and engaging people,” said Cornegy, who wasn’t boasting so much as accurately characterizing his striking height. “I’m on the doors, I’m in the streets, I’m in bars, I’m in restaurants talking to people. When people generally get a chance to speak to me and know me, whether they’re with me or not, they walk away with a solid impression.”

But Cornegy is relying on more than just his memorable presence as he jockeys to succeed Eric Adams, the outgoing borough president and mayoral hopeful. In recent months, Cornegy has established himself as a leading contender in the crowded field of more than a dozen candidates, tying for first place in one poll alongside fellow city councilmember Antonio Reynoso, with Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, who leads in fundraising, not far behind. 

Robert Cornegy in Coney Island (Courtesy)

While Reynoso has pulled in support from a number of leading progressives, Cornegy is carving out a center-left lane, having earned endorsements from several prominent Jewish community leaders as well as influential celebrities including Tracy Morgan and Spike Lee. 

Facing term limits in the City Council, where he has served since 2014, Cornegy believes that he is best qualified to usher his home borough into a post-pandemic era, citing his current role leading the housing and buildings committee as well as his prior experience chairing the small business committee.

“During the pandemic, it became incredibly evident to me that whoever was going to lead this borough had to have a solid understanding for the recovery process of small business and job creation and responsible development,” said Cornegy, who is also chairman of the council’s Democratic Conference. “While we try to fight for affordability in an ever-increasing, unaffordable borough, the person couldn’t be just a ‘no, no, no’ person. It had to be somebody who was willing to fight the hard fight around affordability and who had some acumen within that.”

The borough presidency is largely ceremonial, holding some substantive duties like community board appointments and zoning and land use recommendations. But Cornegy says he is excited by the role because it nevertheless represents a powerful platform. 

“We have the largest bully pulpit probably in the state outside of the mayor of New York and the governor,” he argued, indicating that the primary pillars of his campaign are job growth, affordable housing and public safety — perhaps the issue on which he is most passionate.

The city councilman was an active presence last summer at social justice demonstrations in his district, where a Black Lives Matter mural was painted in bright yellow letters onto a block-length stretch of Fulton Street he helped turn into a pedestrian plaza. But while Cornegy advocates for increased policy accountability, he has distanced himself from efforts to defund or abolish the police. 

“I don’t think it’s mutually exclusive to demand reform and accountability in the criminal justice system — I’m a Black man in America — while still supporting a platform for solid public safety,” said Cornegy. “I don’t think you have to abandon one for the other.”

He says his constituents are largely in agreement with his views. “My community, the community of Bedford-Stuyvesant and northern Crown Heights, has never demanded abolishing or defunding the police,” said Cornegy, who believes that police officers should live in the neighborhoods they work in and advocates for the establishment of a mental health emergency response unit. “They’ve demanded policing in their communities that didn’t violate their civil and human rights, and I think most people would agree with that as a narrative.”

Henry Butler and City Councilman Robert Cornegy speak during “The Last O.G. Season 2” Garden Party For Good at the Hattie Carthan Community Garden in Brooklyn on March 28, 2019 in New York City. 547100 (Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for TBS)

Still, Cornegy has found himself at odds with progressives who support more sweeping reforms. “He’s trying to signal that he understands policing is a problem, but almost every elected official is saying that,” said Alex Vitale, a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and the author of The End of Policing. “He does support some small investments in non-police public safety strategies, but those proposals are very small in scale and don’t reduce the burden of policing.”

Cornegy took issue with such criticism, noting that he is deeply engaged in reform efforts, pointing to his sponsorship of a chokehold criminalization bill as well as his support for ending qualified immunity, which has long protected police officers from wrongdoing. 

“I can go all the way back where we’ve been witnessing this regularly in our communities and trying to find a substantive way for long-term, substantial change, and have been working towards that,” he told JI. “I think that there was a little bit of a disregard for that hard work that some of us have put in.”

Others have appreciated his approach. “Security is a major issue, especially considering all the anitsmeitic incidents,” said Leon Goldenberg, a prominent Orthodox Jewish real estate executive and talk radio host in Midwood who, as a member of the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition, recently endorsed Cornegy.

If elected, Cornegy said he will use the borough president’s office as a “sanctuary” for victims of hate crimes while working to assemble a task force for attacks within Brooklyn. “In order to get a hate crime designation, it takes almost an act of god,” said Cornegy, who adds that he will encourage Brooklyn’s district attorney to act more forcefully on such designations. “This kind of hatred, unchecked, only escalates.”

Cornegy has longstanding ties with Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community thanks in part, he said, to his support for causes like security funding of yeshivas. “My agenda for public safety certainly encompasses the Orthodox community and my narrative around public safety,” he said.

Such relationships, he says, have only accrued over time. “I celebrate the fact that, yes, while I’ve gotten Orthodox support,” Cornegy said, “it has come out of hard work together.” 

Robert Cornegy in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn (Courtesy)

“I’ve worked on behalf of an issue that was germane to a particular demographic, and so that demographic now feels confident that, as a Black man, I could still have Jewish issues or Hispanic issues or Polish issues. I have a Polish contingency,” Cornegy told JI. “But those are all forged out of doing work that positively impacted those communities. So there’s this kind of feeling that, ‘OK, he’s Black, but he has a larger view of what the needs of public communities outside of his own are, and potentially can advocate on our behalf as well.’”

“I would say his claim to fame is he’s really a consensus builder,” said David Greenfield, the CEO of the Met Council and a former city councilman who served alongside Cornegy. “In Brooklyn, which is a big, complicated, complex borough, he’s done a good job bringing people together.”

The son of a Southern Baptist minister who grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Cornegy — now a father of six — played basketball at St. John’s University, went to the Final Four and then played professionally overseas for 15 years. He spent some of that time playing in Israel in the early ’90s — while also living briefly on a kibbutz because he wanted to immerse himself in the culture — an experience he describes as formative. “I played on teams where they were professional athletes and still served in the military,” he recalled. “When I would ask why, there was a level of patriotism that existed that I didn’t even think existed in the United States.” 

“I’m a patriot,” Cornegy said. “I love the United States of America. But I hadn’t seen that before.”

Cornegy described the recent violence between Israel and Hamas as “incredibly disturbing,” adding: “I was there, and I understand protecting your homeland from people who really have to do that on a consistent basis.” 

“Because we’re such a diverse borough, it is always on my mind how to bring peace here, at least, because you’ll see that there are conflicts that are happening on our homeland because of what’s happening there,” Cornegy told JI. “That disturbs me a lot, because for the most part, here in the borough, we kind of live cohesively together, and I’m always thinking about what can I do as the Brooklyn borough president to alleviate some of that pressure that people are experiencing.”

Robert Cornegy at a rally

That impulse was on display, on a smaller scale, at Basquiat’s Bottle in Bedford-Stuyvesant the other day, when a kitchen worker approached Cornegy to thank him for providing a free suit for his graduation not long ago. And although the city councilman only had a glass of water, he still bought a round of drinks for the wait staff — he abstained — rather than leaving the restaurant without having ordered anything.

It was clear that Cornegy was enjoying his status as a kind of community fixture as he campaigns for the opportunity to expand his web of connections.

Cornegy gained some prominence outside of Brooklyn when, having undergone a rigorous vetting process, Guinness World Records deemed him the world’s tallest politician a couple of years ago. But he lost his crown after an insurance commissioner in North Dakota beat him by a centimeter. “A centimeter,” Cornegy emphasized, sounding a note of amused annoyance, “and some obscure elective role that I’ve never even heard of before.”

He didn’t seem too bothered by it, though. “I’m still the people’s champ here in New York,” he said. “I’ll take that.”