Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and her Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman faced off Tuesday night in the only debate of their hotly contested gubernatorial election campaign — trading barbs on affordability, immigration, President Trump, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Polls have consistently shown Hochul leading Blakeman with the Nov. 3 election fewer than three weeks away, but the Nassau County executive is hoping to close the gap after the governor held off Lee Zeldin by just 6.5 percentage points four years ago.
Here’s everything you need to know from The Post’s panel of experts about what happened Tuesday night. Comments have been lightly edited for clarity.
O’Brien O.B. Murray, Campaign strategist
Winner: Blakeman.
“Hochul showed why she doesn’t want to debate; she is out of practice. She was a deer in the headlights from the opening statements and back on her heels for the remainder of the debate.
“After the amazing performance by Republican Saritha Komatireddy in the Attorney General debate Blakeman had to rise to the occasion. He did and this will help his fundraising and energize his base.”
Best moment for Blakeman: “The beginning. He dominated the first 15 minutes talking immigration and high energy costs in New York State. That’s what most viewers would see before they lost interest.”
Worst moment for Blakeman: “When he wanted to continue discussing the high cost of utility bills and cut off the moderator, who was asking Hochul if she would raise income taxes due to pressure from progressive allies.”
Best moment for Hochul: “Anytime she mentioned Trump. She was reminding voters of her message that Blakeman is Trump.”
Worst moment for Hochul: “Anytime she mentioned Trump. She should have had more to say so viewers would vote for her, not against Blakeman.”
Liz Benjamin, Marathon Strategies operative and ex-Spectrum News political anchor
Winner: Tie
“Neither made a fatal error and neither knocked it out of the park. They both had an equal number of cringeworthy moments, verbal stumbles, and snide zingers – some of which landed, while others did not.”
Best moment for Blakeman: “He had her on her back foot with criticisms of how she handled the corrections officers strike. The union has endorsed him, so this makes sense. He also landed some blows by noting she’s on the Cornell board amid criticism of how the school’s leadership handled an alleged gang rape that has garnered national attention.”
Worst moment for Blakeman: “The line ‘Donald Trump is my friend’ is definitely going to end up in an attack ad somewhere. He tried to temper this by noting that the two differ on some key policy matters – like abortion – but the damage was done.”
Best moment for Hochul: “She smoothly deflected Blakeman’s attempt to tie her to Mayor Mamdani, who doesn’t poll well outside of NYC or with Jewish voters, instead invoking Jewish NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom the mayor himself has rejected calls from the left to abandon.”
Worst moment for Hochul: “After the fifth or sixth time she tied him to Trump – understandably, the president is very unpopular in his birth state – it started to give credence to Blakeman’s complaint that the president is all she can talk about.”
Alyssa Cass, Democratic strategist and partner at Slingshot Strategies
Winner: Hochul.
“Blakeman was litigating a case that makes sense for a midterm, just not this one. He seemed stuck in a 2022 time capsule. Hochul was operating in the now.”
Best moment for Blakeman: “Hochul answered the energy question by blaming Trump, the Iran war and stalled federal approvals. Blakeman turned that around with his cleanest attack line of the night, saying: ‘Kathy, Donald Trump didn’t raise utility rates 48 times. You did. Donald Trump didn’t increase our utility bills by 50% since you became governor… You gave $150 back to people in a rebate in an election year… when you’ve raised the average bill $4,000 a year.’”
Worst moment for Blakeman: “Anytime he insisted he had significant policy differences with Trump and named the same two issues.”
Best moment for Hochul: “She make Blakeman look really small and lame when she dismissed his endorsements with an effortless ‘You’ve got two votes, good for you.’”
Worst moment for Hochul: “She dodged whether she’d sign the bill expanding the data center moratorium, and Blakeman jumped on it: ‘You say what you want to do, and then you don’t do it.’”
Rob Ryan, Republican strategist, aide to former Gov. George Pataki
Winner: Blakeman
“Hochul’s performance was better Tuesday night than it was four years ago when she debated Lee Zeldin. For the most part she did well, though Blakeman managed her to flustered her a couple of times.
“At points, the governor showed us her snarky side with swipes at Blakeman which came off as mean-spirited. She seems to have a natural talent for looking straight at the camera while casually twisting the truth.
“Blakeman was confident and well-prepared. He did a great job at hitting Hochul on a litany of vulnerable issues, including repeatedly asking her if she was a board member at Cornell and why she hadn’t called the Gorman family after their daughter was murdered by an illegal alien.
“He definitely came off as the candidate who supports law enforcement. He knew his issues, how to couch them and how to smoothly pivot when needed.”
Best moment for Blakeman: “When he spoke about supporting law enforcement and federal and state laws.”
Worst moment for Blakeman: “The exchange about Nassau County’s auxiliary police force.”
Best moment for Hochul: “When she described the ‘special deputies’ team as Blakeman’s private militia.”
Worst Moment for Hochul: “When she was called out for squandering four years without crafting policy for AI data centers, then kicking the can down the road with a moratorium.”
Shawn Donahue, Assistant political science professor, University at Buffalo
Winner: Tie
“Both of them came prepared with their lines that they wanted to use and issues they wanted to hit on. They had their good moments and stumbles, but it doesn’t feel like this debate will be that memorable. I don’t think I can say that either person won the debate. If you came in predisposed to vote for Hochul, you probably were cheering her on, and vice versa with Blakeman.”
Best moment for Blakeman: “When he tried to separate himself from Trump by pointing out that he was pro-choice on abortion.”
Worst moment for Blakeman: “Having to defend his statements about Trump. Calling him the ‘best president of my lifetime’ probably does not go over well in New York, though he tried to couch it by saying Eisenhower actually was, but Trump still has two more years to go.
Best moment for Hochul: “When Blakeman was making several campaign promises as far as lowering costs and she came back with ‘just like Donald Trump.’”
Worst moment for Hochul: “She was caught off guard a bit by Blakeman noting she was on the Cornell board, and only belatedly recovered by saying she was just an ex officio member.”
