Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Tuesday afternoon, Governor Hochul will present her State of the State address. The speech, always an important one each year, may have some raised stakes as her 2026 re-election bid draws near.
GOP strategist Carl Calabrese says like most speeches like this, expect to hear a lot of lofty goals from Hochul. "There'll be a lot of goodies handed out different constituencies, different regions in the state. She'll probably continue to talk about some of her priorities, homelessness being one of them, this plan to give every family $500 for to try to cover the cost of inflation. I'm sure she'll tout that. She'll probably tout some initiatives regarding criminal law, or reform of the criminal law, maybe bail," says Calabrese.
Ken Kruly of Politics and Stuff expects to hear Hochul provide help for Buffalo, is facing serious financial problems in the range of tens of millions of dollars. "it depends on proposals to provide extra state aid from her end, whether she is able to do that," says Kruly. He ads the burden will mostly fall on the mayor and the Common Council as to what they can do to raise taxes and cut costs. "She could appoint vacancies on the control board, which might help help with the process, because the city is heading toward a cliff," adds Kruly.
Calabrese says her speech will also be important for her 2026 re-election bid. "She has been underwater with her polling numbers, meaning her negatives have exceeded her positives, her unfavorables have exceeded her favorables for it just about the entire year of 2024, and that's encouraging some Democrats start talking openly about challenging her in a primary next year. So I think it's very important speech for her to try to get her footing back," says Calabrese.
Kruly says Hochul's definitely going to be using the State of the State as a platform to launch her efforts. "Moving forward 2026 in a few days, we'll be getting reports on the campaign financials. Expect her to have somewhere in the range of 18 to $20 million already in the bank, which is certainly going to speak as loudly as anything she might say in the state of the state," adds Kruly.
Who could challenge Hochul next year? Both say Congressman Richie Torres and Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado. "That is interesting. It's not totally unprecedented to the state, but it would certainly be a an interesting challenge," says Kruly of Delgado. Calabrese says Torres checks off a lot of Democratic boxes, when it comes to identity politics. "He refers to himself as a Black, Latino, and he's also gay, and so he certainly appeals to those constituencies within the Democrat Party," says Calabrese. "He's been coming across thus far, as more moderate in his policies and his positions on economics, taxes, crime."
The State of the State address is this afternoon.
