Long Island Democrats Eye Congressional Seats Held By Republicans King, Zeldin

MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – Election Day is 10 months away, but local Democrats are already lining up to try to take back Congress.

On Long Island, two Republican seats are considered at-risk, with a large field of challengers, CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported.

An opening salvo in the midterm elections – Democrat DuWayne Gregory taking on Peter King, the formidable 13-term Long Island Republican.

"They're embarrassed, quite frankly, that he's not standing up to Donald Trump," Gregory said. "You've got to start district-by-district before we take back the country."

The presiding officer of the Suffolk County Legislature lost to King last time but believes President Donald Trump-pushback now makes the seat flipable. It's also targeted by the National Democratic Committee.

"If we take a look at what's happened around the country, no Republican is safe," said Dr. David Kilmnick, CEO of the LGBT Network.

Nine candidates are challenging Long Island's two Republican Congressmen. Lee Zeldin is in what's also considered a swing district.

But Republican strategist Michael Dawidziak says don't count on Trump resistance to win Congressional seats.

"Doing this campaign to take back America I think is the absolute wrong thing for them to be doing," he said. "Don't worry about national politics, worry about your district."

Democratic leaders say they are laser-focused on district issues, like tax reform.

"You can't just saw you voted against the tax reform. You have to show exactly what you did to stop it," said Richard Schaffer, Suffolk County Democratic Committee Chairman. "And the fact that you couldn't stop it means that we don't need to send you to Washington."

But will unpopular tax reform overshadow King's popularity?

"I think he has been around longer than the president and I think he's stood for his principles many, many years, and hopefully he will continue to do that," one man said.

"He has that clout, he has seniority. Why is he not leveraging that?" wondered a woman.

New presidents almost always take a hit in their first midterm elections, especially when their party controls Congress. But will this year's hit take out popular incumbents?

King says he takes every election seriously.

"My goal is to be independent and to fight for all the people of Long Island and not worry about party labels," he said.

Democrats need 24 seats to win the House majority.

New York's Second Congressional District is evenly split between Republicans, Democrats and Independents.