NEW YORK >> U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for New York governor, said Friday he wasn’t immediately alarmed when a stranger joined him onstage during a campaign rally because the man wore a hat indicating that, like Zeldin, he’d served in the military.

Then Zeldin noticed the man was clutching a pointed weapon, headed straight toward the congressman’s neck.

“You’re done,” the man said.

At that moment, Zeldin said, “regardless of whatever’s on your hat, this was not a normal situation and there needed to be action taken,” recounting the Thursday evening attack in western New York.

Zeldin grabbed the man’s wrist, and the two tussled to the ground as other people jumped in to help. The episode left Zeldin with a minor scrape. Photos of the pointed object used in the attack suggest it’s a cat-shaped keychain meant to be worn on the knuckles for self defense.

The man, identified as 43-year-old David Jakubonis, has been charged with attempted assault for attacking Zeldin as he addressed a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in the town of Perinton, outside Rochester. The attacker had climbed onto the low stage as the congressman addressed a crowd of dozens, flanked by bales of hay and American flags.

Zeldin is seeking unseat incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul this November, and has focused his campaign on calling for a crackdown on crime. An Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, he has represented eastern Long Island in Congress since 2015.

But he faces an uphill battle against Hochul. He is a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump.