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Former New York Republican gubernatorial candidate and Congressman Lee Zeldin said that while former President Donald Trump had a sweeping presidential victory, the GOP has to strategize and learn how to keep independent voters who voted for the 45th president this year. 

“There are issues that transcend blind partisan loyalty and that’s something that we need to understand as conservatives that there are all sorts of people who are voting Republican for the first time,” Zeldin said on the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. “That doesn’t mean that they are a Republican,” he continued. “It just means that this time they feel like the best decision for them, their families [and] this country is to vote a different way. Now you have to deliver on those promises and work.”

The election was called for Trump early Wednesday morning after he won the swing states of Pennsylvania and Georgia. Since then, he has also won Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada, winning the popular vote and the electoral college.

Zeldin was named Monday to be President-elect Trump’s EPA administrator. 

When it comes to voters who identify as independent, Trump did better with them than Harris, according to exit polls from news outlets. According to a CNN exit poll, Trump had an 11 point lead with independent voters in Georgia. Zeldin explained that the Republicans should analyze how best to keep winning the votes of independent and low propensity voters.

According to a Gallup poll conducted earlier this year, independent voters make up 43% of U.S. voters.

“I saw a post that Bernie Sanders put out with a lot of truth in it of how the Democratic Party has lost a lot of traditional, reliable voting blocks for themselves,” Zeldin said. “They lost it and President Trump and the Republican Party earned it. We need to continue to grow on that progress.”

Sen. Sanders is self-described as a Democratic-socialist and often talks about the struggles of the working men and women in the U.S. He accused the Democrats of “abandoning working class people,” which he says cost them the election.

Zeldin explained if Republicans want to keep getting votes from low propensity voters and independents, they actually have to deliver on promises. 

“You’re out there talking about upward economic mobility. Let’s deliver it,” he said. “You want to make life more affordable? Bring down inflation. Let’s get it done.” Other issues he said that the next Trump administration needed to deliver on were safer neighborhoods, energy independence and more effective foreign policy.

Something else Zeldin pointed out was that politicians, specifically Republicans, need to go into communities on off election years and actually talk to voters. 

“Hopefully these people who voted for us for the first time can get to the point where they can be ambassadors and they can help recruit others to be able to have that undercurrent of support at the barber shop, like we saw President Trump showing up at one in the Bronx,” he said. 

He added that with the 2026 midterms coming up, the GOP could get a head start by talking to communities. 

“Let’s support these great candidates in 2026 that can be earned with the two years that are ahead,” Zeldin said.