New York Representative Lee Zeldin will now become the Republican Party’s “presumed” gubernatorial nominee following his overwhelming win in a straw poll.

Zeldin is in his fourth consecutive term representing New York’s 1st Congression district and won 85% of a Monday straw poll while 2014 gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino received 5%.

According to The Washington Examiner:

State party Chairman Nick Langworthy said the congressman will now be considered the “presumed nominee,” according to Politico, and the move will provide him with nearly a year and a half to fund-raise ahead of the general election.

“The rule of fire supremacy in the military, the way I’m trained, is that for every one bullet fired at you, fire three back,” Zeldin, a veteran of Iraq and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, said.

“The political [equivalent] for me is that you fire 50,000 back,” he added. “I put together a coalition of tens of thousands of people for a race like this to absolutely ensure that we are crushing it on November 8, 2022. And any enrollment or anything that is standing in our way between now and November 8, 2022, we do everything in our power to move through it effectively.”

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The GOP nominee will take on the beleaguered incumbent, Andrew Cuomo, who is looking to serve his fourth term as governor. Over the past few months, he has faced accusations of inappropriate behavior from a number of different women that vary from crude remarks to inappropriate touching.

Despite initial poll numbers, Astorino and Andrew Giuliani say they will continue their respective campaigns.