Rep. Lee Zeldin's gubernatorial bid on Wednesday won the backing of Carl Paladino, the Republican nominee for governor in 2010 and ally of former President Donald Trump. 

The endorsement was announced by Zeldin's campaign a day after Andrew Giuliani formally entered the race for governor on the Republican side, joining former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino. 

Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has ties to Trump as well as his father was a prominent supporter of Trump over the last five years and has served as his attorney. 

Paladino challenged then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in the 2010 gubernatorial election. He defeated the preferred GOP candidate of choice by party officials, former Rep. Rick Lazio, in a Republican primary, riding the crest of a tea party wave. 

“The Democrats controlling Albany are doing everything they can to destroy our state," Paladino said in a statement "Enough! They have stripped us of our freedoms and attacked our wallets while Cuomo has gotten rich off the suffering of New Yorkers, lining his pockets with over $5 million in book deal blood money. We need someone who is going to serve New Yorkers, not self-serve and self-praise like this while New Yorkers die."

Paladino said Zeldin's campaign is the "one last chance to save our state" from the incumbent Democrat. 

Paladino is a controversial figure in his own right. In 2016, Paladino made racist comments about the Obamas to a Buffalo-area newsweekly. He later claimed to have sent the comments to the weekly by mistake. But the comments were condemned by a spokeswoman for Trump's presidential transition team and eventually set in motion his ouster from the Buffalo school board.