NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) — For New York Governor Kathy Hochul, voters have delivered a second elected term in office — and some vindication.
The Democrat was on track for a forceful reelection victory over Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, leading the challenger by more than 20 points with results still being tabulated on Wednesday. She was even narrowly ahead of Blakeman in Long Island’s Nassau County, which he leads as county executive.
Four years ago, Hochul won the gubernatorial race by a much slimmer margin, topping Republican then-Congressman Lee Zeldin by just 6.4 points. Several New York Democrats lost their House seats at the same time, leading Nancy Pelosi to publicly blame Hochul for the party losing control of the US House of Representatives.
This time, a national wave in which Democrats notched resounding wins across the country helped buoy turnout in New York. Hochul was on track to win 21 of New York’s 62 counties, including those that make up New York City and its heavily populated downstate suburbs.
“Winning an election doesn’t make your rent cheaper or lower your grocery bill,” Hochul said at a victory celebration on Tuesday. “It doesn’t make finding affordable childcare any easier, but that’s what the next four years are for, to finish what we started.”
That kind of dominant performance is what her party has come to expect in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 2 to 1. It is also likely to ease any remaining doubts about her command in a role that she initially inherited by circumstance.
“Last night was the night that Kathy Hochul became governor of New York,” said Evan Roth Smith, a Democratic political consultant and a founder of Slingshot Strategies. “She now inhabits a political world in New York State that is entirely of her own making, and she is thriving in it.”
Hochul, a former Erie County clerk who served a partial House term, was lieutenant governor when Andrew Cuomo resigned as governor in August 2021 amid allegations of sexual harassment. She assumed his office and was elected to a first full term leading the state the following year.
Her initial years at the helm were bumpy. Rising postpandemic crime rates and a surge of migrants across the US’s southern border were a drag on Democrats across the country, as was the declining popularity of President Joe Biden. Hochul’s favorability rating sank to a net negative 20 points in a Siena poll in the fall of 2024.
But soon thereafter, her political fortunes started to shift. Hochul helped Democrats win back three House seats they lost in 2022, a bright spot in an otherwise grim election season for the party. And she emerged as a pragmatic leader willing to resist Donald Trump after his return to the White House — or to work with him when it served New York’s interests.
With Trump’s return, “she had a foil to help articulate a vision,” said Christina Greer, a professor of political science at Fordham University.Hochul also benefited from the election last year of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who polls show is currently among the most popular Democrats in the country.
Their convivial relationship has been mutually beneficial. Hochul was among the first of New York’s establishment Democrats to embrace Mamdani after his mayoral primary victory in June 2025. She was also quick to adopt elements of his agenda, handing him $1.2 billion in funding for universal, free childcare the first week of his mayoralty and enacting a pied-à-terre tax as part of her state budget last spring, allowing Mamdani to claim a victory in his efforts to “tax the rich.”
In return, Mamdani has consistently praised Hochul. He campaigned aggressively for her in recent weeks in parts of the city where voters had turned out in droves to elect him mayor. On Tuesday night, Hochul called out the mayor, saying “I want to say to Mayor Mamdani, thank you for standing with me.”
Mamdani’s base and the increasingly powerful Democratic Socialists of America are hoping Hochul will reward his effort on her behalf by backing new tax increases in her next annual budget proposal, due in early 2027.
“Democratic Socialists are a big part of the voting bloc that is putting her in power,” New York City DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo said in an interview. “She has to reckon with that.”
—With assistance from Cameron Fozi and Nacha Cattan
