SYRACUSE, New York — Gov. Kathy Hochul won the support of New York’s Democratic Party for her reelection campaign, trouncing Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado at the party’s convention on Friday.
Delgado says he’s still pursuing a run in the June primary.
But Hochul’s landslide win — capturing support from 85 percent of party members — capped off a week in which she rolled out the support of everybody from state legislative leaders to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to the state’s entire Democratic congressional delegation. New polling shows she’s more popular than ever and could win by landslide margins in June and November if her opponents don’t gain momentum.
All of that leaves the governor in a position of unprecedented strength after a tenure where critics have often derided her weaknesses. Hochul’s strength and combativeness were at the center of her messaging as she formally kicked off her reelection bid.
Delegates were given shirts with Hochul’s likeness and the phrase “One Tough Mother.” The placards delegates held up had the phrase, “Your Family, My Fight.”
“Anyone who dares stand in our way, here’s your warning,” Hochul said at the conclusion of her acceptance speech. “Whether you’re in Washington or Nassau County, you don’t want to mess with the badass women of New York.”
The Nassau reference was to likely GOP gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman, the county’s executive. Hochul attacked Blakeman’s willingness to work with federal immigration enforcement officers as well as his creation of an armed citizen deputy program.
“There’s at least one person in this state who agrees with having a lawless secret police, wreaking havoc in our streets,” she said. “He literally created an armed taxpayer-funded militia of fellow MAGA loyalists.”
Hochul cited a list of accomplishments in her first 54 months in office.
“Children sitting down to a school meal — a free school meal,” Hochul said. “You know what else kids are doing in school? They’re talking to each other, they’re looking up from their cellphones. They’re learning all because of our nation-leading cell phone ban.”
But the bulk of her speech was spent in general election mode with a focus on the White House and Blakeman.
“Donald Trump’s Republican Party is nothing more than a personality cult, where truth is subjective, dissent is crushed, and the American people have become the enemy,” Hochul said. “They promised to lower costs on day one. Still waiting, right? What did they do instead? They jacked up the prices with the reckless tariffs and who’s paying the price? The middle class and our farmers; they’re getting screwed.”
Delgado is planning to continue pursuing his primary bid. He brushed off Hochul’s endorsements from progressive icons Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “The machinery wants to work as a collective,” he said.
“Everywhere I go in the state, the people that I talk to — not folks that are inside of politics, that are inside of what we do, but actually the millions of people that are out there in New York — they are and still remain hungry for a change,” Delgado said.
Friday’s convention was brief — about four-and-a-half hours, compared to a schedule three-day affair for Blakeman and the GOP next week. There weren’t any prominent names like Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden dropping by, as happened at conventions of yesteryear. But all of that meant more of the focus was on Hochul and her ticket.
“She’s solidified herself,” Bronx Democratic Chair Jamaal Bailey said. “She has proven herself, she’s a known quantity, and this is the leader of our party in our state. We should be supporting her to make sure she can fight another four years to make New York even better.”
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