NY businessman, big GOP donor to challenge Kirsten Gillibrand for US Senate seat

A New York businessman and big Republican donor has thrown his hat in the ring to take on longtime US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) — whom he dismissed as an “intellectual nothing” — next year.

“She’s done nothing,” 51-year-old Josh Eisen told The Post. “She does nothing daring, nothing courageous and I strongly believe that she’s an intellectual nothing.”

“She’s anti-business. She’s anti-people. She’s not for anything,” the Westchester County entrepreneur said.

“She’s been there for three terms and all the pain and the challenges that people talk about are not really addressed.”

Eisen — a one-time House candidate who recently made headlines for being one of the donors who says he was scammed by Rep. George Santos (R-NY) — says he wants to address the migrant crisis with humanity while the Dems have failed to take meaningful action on the federal level.

“For me, the migrants, it’s a very simple issue. We have people who are suffering. They are hungry and cold. We are giving them tents,” he said.

His solution to the crisis, along with poverty and homelessness, is to enlist communities to step up and help rather than continuing to put the cost on the shoulders of the government.

Eisen, who owns professional services companies primarily focused on background checks, also believes his business experience allows him to find “very practical” fixes to problems that have plagued the state and country — by reducing government involvement.

“It all comes back to making government just that much smaller, and giving communities and individual people the freedom to operate and thrive,” Eisen said.

“I think that most Republicans speak about the issues but just point to the problem,” he said, adding, “I want to talk about poverty, homeless and fix it in a Republican way.”

As an example, he says, rather than the city running the long-troubled Section 8 housing, the residents should be in control.

“This is something that we need to address and that is really an example of a Republican solution to a problem created by radical left-wing Democrats and a problem that they perpetuate year in, year out with the maintenance of NYCHA,” he said. “They’re sick and tired of NYCHA, and they’re sick and tired of NYCHA lying to them and hustling them.”

While NYCHA is run by the city, it receives nearly $3 billion in federal funding each year, which he believes gives him an avenue to address its issues.

On the international side, he wants to take a hard look at the billions of dollars the government is doling out overseas.

“[The government] appropriated almost $20 billion for humanitarian aid in Ukraine. Do we have an accounting of that aid?” he said, claiming that those funds had not been put to good use.

“All the humanitarian aid never went out there,” he claimed.

Gillibrand campaign spokesman Evan Lukaske defended the senator’s track record, saying she “has delivered real results for New York families, bringing home hundreds of millions in funding for projects that will boost the economy, passing anti-gun trafficking legislation that has taken more than a thousand illegal guns off the street and securing health benefits for 9/11 first responders and veterans.”

“Senator Gillibrand is excited to run on her strong record and she is confident New Yorkers will re-elect her,” he added.

Eisen’s previous attempt at public office came in 2020, when he tried to succeed the retiring Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) in the 17th Congressional District, a Democratic stronghold in Rockland and northern Westchester counties.

The campaign flamed out after a series of incendiary emails, in which he harassed his business partner and used racial slurs, emerged during a prolonged legal battle in civil court.

Eisen says that’s behind him, writing it off as a mere “business dispute that got out of hand because of lawyers” when asked.

The case has since been settled out of court privately, and he remains in business with one of the partners who brought the lawsuit. He described the friends as “family” and noted he has since bought other businesses with the partner.

“There’s no reason it should be an issue,” he said, adding, “Now somebody wants to keep bringing it up, what they’re just trying to get away from my real message and my real message is that I’m a different kind of Republican.”

With plans to raise $30 million, Eisen said he learned from his last failed attempt for office and hopes to take advantage of the recent swell of GOP support in the state, specifically the younger vote.

“I’m gonna plan to build a serious infrastructure with a statewide campaign that certainly will outlast my candidacy and, if I win, it’ll be there,” he said, adding that he has already brought on staffers for former New York Gov. George Pataki.