Gov. Kathy Hochul was set to sail to re-election Tuesday — beating back a Republican challenge from Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to win a second, full four-year term.
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Hochul’s victory was called just five minutes after polls closed at 9 p.m. by The Associated Press, and as Mayor Zohran Mamdani heaped praise on the incumbent at New York Democrats’ election night party at the Hilton hotel in Midtown.
Hochul is sure to immediately face pressure from the left-wing of the party — including Mamdani and his DSA comrades — to fulfill their “tax the rich” wishes come January.
The socialist mayor endorsed Hochul and stumped with her in New York City in the final days of the campaign, appearing to give her a late boost with his base.
And in contrast to several months ago, Hochul refused to take a hard line against raising taxes, dodging questions about whether she’d give more to Mamdani next year after bailing him out during his first budget with state goodies that included a pied-a-terre tax on luxury second homes in the Big Apple.
Her opponent, Blakeman, seized on the issue, signing a “no new taxes” pledge on Friday and daring Hochul to do the same.
Throughout the campaign, the Long Island pol and President Trump ally repeatedly hit Hochul over New York’s sky high cost of living and Democratic policies on energy and immigration.
But Blakeman’s message failed to sway the large swaths of independents and disaffected Dem voters needed to carry a state where 48% of registered voters are Democrats.
Polls showed Hochul pulling away from Blakeman in the final few weeks leading up to Election Day, as his most favorable nine-point deficit in a Siena University poll taken in September gave way to a 14-point lead for Hochul in a survey released by the pollster last week.
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But that same poll showed only 41% of New Yorkers indicating they think the Empire State is heading in the “right direction.” That number is virtually unchanged, up from 39%, from when Siena asked it in October 2022, a month before Hochul won her first full term.
That year, Hochul faced a surprisingly fierce challenge from then-Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin, only winning by a narrow six points.
But Blakeman’s campaign struggled to gain similar momentum, lacking name recognition in other parts of the state and continuously being tied to Trump by Hochul.
Hochul geared her re-election platform toward “affordability” after Trump’s 2024 victory smacked Democrats across the face with the reality that voters are fed up with out-of-control cost of living, including in wealthy and expensive liberal states like New York.
Handouts like free “rebate” checks, free school meals and billions of dollars worth of childcare subsidies as well as initiatives like banning phones in schools became the backbone of Hochul’s campaign.
She also jumped on flashpoint front-of-mind issues this year like data centers and the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement initiatives — rolling a quickly slapped together one-year moratorium on new data centers and approving a raft of sanctuary state measures meant to resist ICE.
Many of the scandals of Hochul’s first half decade in the governor’s mansion such as the alleged rigging of a $11 billion homecare program, resignation of her press secretary amid sexual harassment allegations, and many questionably awarded state contracts failed to come back to haunt her on the campaign trail.
The victory also follows four years of undeniably tricky – and notably cringeworthy – political maneuvering by Hochul, who was thrust into power upon the resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo amid a sexual misconduct scandal in 2021.
Hochul — who was widely blamed, including by top members of the party, for Democratic losses in the 2022 midterms — was forced to navigate not only Trump’s return to the presidency, but Mayor Eric Adams’ turbulent four years running the Big Apple, and the rise of Mamdani.
Her uncomfortable, and in some cases divisive, endorsement of Mamdani following his primary victory over Cuomo last year, laid the groundwork for a public-facing detente between the two — and ultimately helped her beat back a left-wing challenge from her estranged Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado.
She ultimately chose former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams as her lieutenant governor running mate.
The four-year term secured by the pair will run through 2030, marking over nine years since she first took office. Should she complete the term, Hochul’s tenure would be roughly as long as Cuomo’s 10 years and eight months in office.
The Buffalo-area native is the the first upstate Democrat to serve as governor since Grover Cleveland in 1885 and the first female governor – or first “mom” governor, as she’s often called herself.
