Congress

Hochul talks House races, Mamdani and Albany struggles

Published

4 weeks ago

August 25, 2026

ALBANY, New York — Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to prove she can be a strong top of the ticket this year to sweep down-ballot Democrats into office and help her party regain control of the House.

The stakes are high for the moderate Democrat, who took office five years ago Monday and has worked to build an anemic state party apparatus into something more formidable. Yet she must also contend with the success of candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America who have defeated institutional Democrats this year — victories that stand to upend the establishment’s plans to compete in purple areas of New York.

Unlike some moderate Democrats who are trying to halt the socialists’ advance, Hochul has taken a big-tent view of the party.

“I think the party is broad. It’s vast, but there are still a lot of people outside our urban areas who would view themselves as more traditional Democrats in the sense of FDR and Kennedy and Carter and Clinton and Obama and Biden,” she told Blue Light News in an interview Monday. “But if, in certain districts, the democratic socialist brand is more appealing, and they think it stands for something that they want to support, my job is to make it all work out. I work with everybody, whoever the voters want.”

Hochul sat down with Blue Light News Monday to discuss her five years in office, how she’s pushing for House Democrats and the role New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will play in her reelection bid.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What has been your biggest challenge in the last five years?

Overcoming inertia here in Albany. There have been so many times when I want to just be, you know, take bold action and do what’s right, and not have institutional opposition to so many of our grand plans. I’ve had to work through that. Overall, I’d say the biggest challenge is just having to navigate, and then also to have breakthroughs, and that sometimes leads to conflict.

I don’t mind conflict if the result is better for New Yorkers than the status quo. So I think it’s partially my impatience and my desire to shake up the status quo — felt sometimes it was running into a brick wall, and then I had to dismantle that brick wall.

Who’s to blame for that institutional inertia at this point? Is it part of the climate?

There’s all kinds of lobbyists and advocates and interest groups and legislators with specific agendas, and it’s the whole ecosystem of Albany. There have been dramatic improvements since it was labeled probably the most — what did they call it?

The most dysfunctional in the country.

The most dysfunctional in the country, and I think the two [legislative] leaders that we have now have worked hard to eliminate that reputation. But beyond just elected officials, there’s just a lot of institutional, strong interests out there that conspire against changing the status quo, and I am hardwired to drive for change. I’m not complaining. I did it, but if I thought about what was a challenge, that was a challenge. But we’re overcoming it. We have overcome it in many specific instances.

I know the car insurance changes were part of that frustration. Anything else kind of fell under that inertia?

Anything we wanted to do with the State Education Department. We wanted to change how we teach literacy, and it was 20 years of a debunked theory that other states had walked away from, but it was not walked away from here.

My cell phone ban — that was not embraced by institutional interests here, and there’s organizations that at first were very resistant. Teachers were on board, teachers came on board, and I was happy with that. But there’s just the administrative roles, and the parents were anxious. There’s all sorts of groups representing everybody, and I look at that as one of our greatest accomplishments. That has had the most immediate result, and of anything we could have done, that had the most immediate impact in a positive way.

That was kind of a signature policy, fair to say?

That and overall taking care of families, whether it’s making sure no child goes hungry, there’s not a single child in the state of New York who doesn’t get two out of three meals now provided by the state, breakfast and lunch. That is huge.

That and other tax credits for families have really helped drive down poverty rates among children. Proud of that. Our work in social media has been nation leading, putting in guardrails where there had been none to protect our children. So a lot of it centers around family, whether it’s what’s happening in schools, what’s happening for parents who have to pay the bills, grocery prices, the largest middle-class tax rate cut in 70 years, taking on taxes, taking on utility bills with our utility rebate, taking on costs of groceries with our inflation rebate.

We put $5,000 back in a family’s pocket with covering the school meals for your family of two kids. School meals, $1,000 tax break for children under the age of four, $500 for higher. All this combined to say, I hear you. So I think the number one issue I took on was affordability, but specifically focused on families that are struggling because that was my life story. That was my early, early years, and then, as even a young parent, it’s one income in the house. It was hard, and those experiences have really focused me on my priorities, have driven my priorities because I know that those priorities will help New Yorkers.

Is there anything that you would have done differently looking back on the last five years? Any mistakes, any regrets that you have?

I would say I wish that the rules hadn’t been changed in the process for nominating chief judges. You know, we were trying to really help make history and have the first Latino chief judge. This person had tremendous judicial temperament and passed with flying colors. I was surprised that then the rules were changed in committees here to make it more challenging. So I would say that was frustrating for me. But what would I have done differently? I wish I had won. I wish I had won on that, wish my candidate had been able to get the fair hearing and be successful. But again, a lot of interests conspired against him, and that was probably the one big loss.

Lieutenant governor selections have also been kind of tough.

The selection isn’t tough. You do what [you can] with all the information you have at that moment. You do what you think is right. So the process isn’t flawed. Obviously becoming governor unexpectedly five years ago today required me to have a very, very shortened process to identify an individual that could be supportive. I had a relationship with Brian Benjamin. I thought he was an ideal candidate. I had no idea that charges would be brought and then later dropped against him. How do you foresee that when you’re going through a process and selecting someone? So there’s nothing to change there.

Antonio Delgado. I didn’t know him well. I did not know that loyalty was such a problem for him, or understanding the role is not that of the governor, and he understood later. Probably too late. But I function very well now. Having been lieutenant governor, I would say I’ve been performing lieutenant governor and governor simultaneously, which is why I do what I need to do in the Capitol. I spend a lot of time going out around the state and touching people and listening directly — literally in Rochester the other day, sitting in a diner talking to young people very anxious about data centers. These are the best conversations I have. Just sitting down, randomly starting to have conversations with people, and I learn a lot. I perform both roles for now, and am looking forward to having a new lieutenant governor who understands the role and has tremendous experience in government. I’d say it’s been handicapped not having a number two the way my predecessor had a hardworking number two.

What would you say is the biggest difference between how you’re approaching the job today versus how you initially thought it would go this time five years ago?

I’ve learned that it’s important to build coalitions around that idea. I initially thought if an idea was meritorious, that it would prevail on the merits, and that’s not how it works here.

Building coalitions, outside support, doing a lot more legwork, even on the cell phones, for example. I took a year to go around and build support for it and overcome the opposition from anxious parents or school boards that didn’t want to have opposition from their community. They just wanted to be left alone. But me spending the time and then listening more to young people about how they were struggling, it made me feel even more emboldened in the cause, brought people along with me.

I wanted to be bold and ambitious on housing. I wanted to overcome years and years of resistance to building more housing because I knew it was a huge driver of expenses for families, young people being denied the opportunity to have that first home, if ever. Maybe they’ll afford a decent apartment sharing with five people from college. So that first [housing] plan was bold. It was rejected because we didn’t have a chance to explain ourselves, and it was weaponized politically. That became an issue in a place like Long Island — government-paid-for literature going to everybody’s house, showing giant skyscrapers in a nice little multi-million dollar neighborhood. So, those are things that we couldn’t have foreseen in our first months on the job when I put together this bold agenda. But round two, the next year, we were very successful. So that was a learning curve there, but definitely have overcome it. And everything I set out to do in this year’s budget, for example, many of which I was told were dead on arrival, they all happened. We know the path.

Has the Democratic Party in the last five years gone too far to the left for the comfort of many voters — the very same voters you’ll need this year?

I have a broad perspective of the Democratic Party in this state, having been in every corner many times and understanding that the politics really is local.

Someone who gets elected in a particular Congressional district in New York City would never get elected in the North Country, or the Southern Tier, or perhaps even Western New York. I understand that. My job as the leader of the party in New York is to allow the locals to decide who they want as their candidates, and be as supportive as I can.

[That] does not mean I embrace a particular philosophy, and it doesn’t mean the rest of the party, outside of certain districts, should be labeled with that either. But it doesn’t mean that there aren’t people in a district that want a certain brand of candidate and a label. And I’m not going to stand here as a leader of the party [and] say no. I need to win in November. Let’s stay focused on the prize. It is taking back our country, one Congressional seat at a time, and that’s why I’ve invested a lot of political capital, and fundraising time and effort, and calling candidates and helping them work through the challenges.

I was that candidate in 2011 who took a shot at a longshot run. People said I would never win, but I knew there was a path because people were fed up with what was happening in Washington. Medicare was under attack. I knew this could win in a Republican district. I didn’t have any help from the state party. My predecessor literally sent someone to Buffalo, my home in Hamburg, to tell me not to run, because the state party would not be there for me, and the national party [the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] was not there for a long time. So I said I’m not letting that happen to people. [The] state party should be a vehicle to help all of our candidates who get through a process selected by primary or designee, as I was in a special election. I feel really good about the efforts we’ve undertaken.

I think the party is broad. It’s vast, but there are still a lot of people outside our urban areas who would view themselves as more traditional Democrats in the sense of FDR and Kennedy and Carter and Clinton and Obama and Biden. But if, in certain districts, the democratic socialist brand is more appealing, and they think it stands for something that they want to support, my job is to make it all work out. I work with everybody, whoever the voters want. My job is to make it work out.

Why do you think so many younger voters are choosing a socialist candidate, or are open to socialism? We’ve seen polling show that they’re rejecting capitalism.

The world is changing so rapidly around them. It’s a frightening time. You don’t know whether AI is going to take a job that you were told you should go to school for and study STEM and study computer science and get a degree that’ll position you for the rest of your life. The rug has been pulled out from under a lot of young people for a variety of reasons. They didn’t ask for the pandemic. Everything got so expensive. Their lives were disrupted. If they had little kids, the little kids were learning from home, and they’re trying to keep it all together while they have their jobs. Mom stayed home.

This has been a wildly disruptive time for young people starting out, whether just getting out of school or a young family. And there’s a lot of anxiety. Will the jobs they thought were going to be there? Why can’t I afford to get an apartment? My parents were able to get an apartment. My parents could even buy a home in some cases. Why is that American dream on hold for me? I didn’t do anything wrong. I did everything I was asked to do by society.

I feel that deeply as a parent who sees young people struggling like that, and why even child care, which was an issue when I was having babies, why is it still a problem today? Why can’t we as a society, do more to help lift this burden off of families? Why can’t we do more to stand up for them against high utility bills? Why can’t we be supportive of them? I have incredible empathy for people who are just feeling very unsettled and anxious about the future, and I think that drives them to listen to voices that are offering more. But at the end of the day, I feel the same concern. I’m a moderate Democrat who is responding to their same anxieties, and maybe they don’t see that, but that is hardcore what I’m all about — fighting for families, reducing the burdens they have on childcare and school lunches and cost of living.

Our interests are more aligned than people believe. I don’t think it’s a socialism versus capitalism debate. Most people are not thinking that. The vast majority of New York Democrats are not caught up in that struggle, and they’re just not. They don’t have the luxury of even having those thoughts. They’re trying to pay the bills at the end of the month and see whether or not their job is going to be there, or are they going to be replaced by AI?

Do you expect the mayor to be campaigning with you? Have you talked to him about campaigning? Will he be helpful on the trail?

I think he’ll be helpful. Like I said, I really carved out a very different path in this role. People understand I get the job done. I’m here to get a job done, not to look for glory for myself, or get into fights with the mayor of New York and show I can win the battle because I’m bigger state government. It’s never been about battling egos here. So many people have told me they appreciate — whether or not they support the mayor — they appreciate the fact that I understand my role is to make New York City successful. That’s why I am making the relationship work. As is he — he is working with me to build a relationship where we’re both putting New York City first, and that is something that this state has not seen, perhaps ever. If you go back through history, there’s always conflict between the governor and the mayor, almost universally. I wanted to end that, and we did with Bill de Blasio, Eric Adams, Zohran Mamdani.

How eager are you to prove Nancy Pelosi wrong this year after her comments from four years ago saying that New York didn’t come through for House Democrats?

Forgot about it. Don’t even think about it. I didn’t have the luxury of time in ‘22 to build out a state party. I inherited a skeleton. I took two solid years to bulk it up. In 2024, I already proved that I’m a leader, and I know how to win races. We won five out of seven battleground races with money that I raised, opening up 42 field offices, hiring an additional 100 staffers, and that’s how we win. So I already established I know how to win. Give me two years. Now I’ve got four. We’re going to do it again.

Thanks for your time.

Congress

Gottheimer unveils 2 bipartisan AI safety bills

Published

2 days ago

September 18, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), one of three co-chairs of the House Democratic Commission on Artificial Intelligence, said Friday he intends to introduce two bipartisan bills that would address surging AI safety concerns.

The New Jersey Democrat — who along with his fellow co-chairs was tapped by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to chart his party’s path on AI — is likely to play a key role in setting the congressional agenda for the technology should Democrats retake control of the House in November’s midterm elections.

At an event held at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Gottheimer announced the American AI Security Act, legislation with Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) that would create a mandatory government review process for advanced AI models ahead of their release. The reviews would be led by the National Security Agency and would last for 30 days, with the possibility for a single 30-day extension.

“Right now, there are no mandatory requirements for pre-deployment testing of frontier AI models,” Gottheimer said. “That doesn’t work in banking, it doesn’t work in food safety, it doesn’t work in medicine and it sure as hell shouldn’t work with the technology that experts say could help build a bioweapon or take down our power grid.”

It’s an echo of Gottheimer’s statement earlier this week, where he poured cold water on OpenAI’s endorsement of a provision in the bipartisan FRONTIER Act that would require third-party safety assessors to be embedded within leading AI firms. He suggested the companies should be forced to go further and submit their models directly to the government for review.

Gottheimer’s plan broadly follows the Trump administration’s existing vetting regime for advanced AI models, which came together in chaotic fashion this summer in response to cybersecurity risks raised by new models from OpenAI and Anthropic. The White House has kept specifics of that process under wraps.

The New Jersey Democrat also pledged to soon introduce the China FIREWALL Act, legislation with Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) that would ban Chinese-developed AI models with open weights from government-issued devices. It would also block federal agencies from procuring software that is reliant on those models.

Congress

Capitol agenda: High costs hound GOP as House exits

Published

2 days ago

September 18, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A perfect storm of affordability issues is developing for Republicans, and they have all but given up on making law to address it before November.

GOP senators’ attempt to fast-track a measure aimed at curtailing high energy bills associated with data centers, which overwhelmingly passed in the House Wednesday, was blocked Thursday.

The bill’s failure — at least for now — joins several last-ditch attempts by lawmakers to tackle affordability concerns this week. And with senators now openly speculating if they’ll cut their work session short before the midterms, and House lawmakers’ early dismissal, some Republicans are showing nerves about the rising cost of living heading into Election Day.

“Enough is enough. Americans are paying more at the pump, and Washington shouldn’t be making it worse,” House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris said in a post on X, hours before his push to temporarily suspend the federal gasoline tax fell apart.

Speaker Mike Johnson threw cold water on that idea, saying his caucus couldn’t rally around any single proposal, despite prices averaging about $4.37 a gallon for regular and $6.31 a gallon for diesel — close to the record high — according to the American Automobile Association.

Meanwhile, seven House Republicans defected from their party this week to rebuke the Iran war launched by President Donald Trump. They included two new votes from Iowa Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn as Midwestern farmers wrestle with soaring fuel and fertilizer price increases due to the conflict.

Democrats are taking the opportunity to hit Republicans on pocketbook concerns.

“Everything is going to become more expensive because Donald ‘I-love-inflation’ Trump is doing everything he can to drive up costs,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said from the chamber floor Thursday.

Some of the country’s economic ails are out of Republicans’ hands on Capitol Hill. The Federal Reserve, for example, just made Republicans’ lives harder, hiking interest rates for the first time in three years and signaling it might do so again this year as inflation continues to tick up.

But while Johnson and GOP leaders say their party is continuing to find solutions to cost-of-living issues, any action can’t happen until after the midterms.

“There’s a lot more work to do, but … it’s easy to forget the mess that we inherited,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a Thursday interview. “As much as I’d like gas prices to be lower, they’re lower today than where they were at the peak under [President Joe Biden], and they’re going to get lower when Iran gets resolved.”

What else we’re watching:

— PERMITTING TALKS CLOSE IN: Senators say they’re at the final stages of negotiating long-elusive legislation to ease permitting approvals for energy projects as they race to lock in a floor vote before the November elections. Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said Thursday as senators left town for the week that a deal is “very close,” while ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said negotiations are “in final wrap up, but some of the most difficult issues are the last ones resolved.” Capito conceded that a resolution “may drag” into the third and final week of their work session — which would be a delay from the timeline she and Majority Leader John Thune laid out this week.

— COLLEGE SPORTS BILL KEEPS SENATORS IN TOWN: Opposition to advancing a sweeping college sports bill seems unlikely to derail it, but does threaten to keep senators in Washington past next week for passage. The bill overcame a second procedural hurdle Thursday with a 77-22 vote. But senators are out Monday because of the Yom Kippur holiday and would need unanimous agreement to avoid vote timing bleeding into late Friday night, at the earliest, to finish up work on the bill.

Mia McCarthy and Josh Siegel contributed to this report.

Congress

Republicans wanted to run against Mamdani. They’re running against Hochul instead.

Published

2 days ago

September 18, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

NEW YORK — Not too long ago, Republicans were salivating at the thought of using New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a far-left boogeyman. Instead, moderate Gov. Kathy Hochul has emerged as the GOP’s go-to foil.

As Hochul runs for a second term, Republicans are hoping her middling popularity will be a drag on Democrats in competitive down-ballot races. Some Democratic candidates, meanwhile, are keeping her at arm’s length — a sign they recognize the downside of appearing with a governor often linked to Albany’s reputation for high taxes and lax criminal justice laws.

“There’s not a Democrat in the party in a swing district who wants to be near her,” said a state Democratic official, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “Her numbers aren’t as bad as four years ago, but they’re certainly not good.”

The current state of play is one neither party fully planned for. Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist who campaigned on freezing rents and taxing the rich, was supposed to be the Democrat who repelled suburban and upstate voters. Hochul has spent four years trying to be the Democrat who repels no one. Yet outside the city, the socialist is a curiosity and the governor a grievance.

After less than a year in office, Mamdani has amassed high favorability ratings in New York City and a positive perception nationally, while the suburbs ringing the city remain cooler on him. Hochul is being invoked far more broadly. Since casting Mamdani as a socialist neophyte carries less weight farther outside the city, Republicans have fixed their sights more squarely on her as the prime personification of the state’s leftward lurch.

New York, home to a handful of swing districts expected to determine control of the House, remains a high priority for both parties. And the top-of-ticket race between Hochul and Republican nominee Bruce Blakeman stands to impact voter turnout in races beyond their own.

“Outside of the New York City media market, Mamdani doesn’t have the same impact,” said Marc Molinaro, a former House lawmaker and ex-Trump administration official who’s now running for the state Assembly. “Most people further north just don’t have a relationship with the city. They may not love the city, they may not have an attachment to the city, but who do they see? They see the governor.”

On suburban Long Island, former state Assemblymember Mike LiPetri used his first television advertisement of the general election to decry “career politicians like Kathy Hochul and Tom Suozzi who sold us out and left us behind.” The opening screed in Rep. Nick LaLota’s TV spot is that “Kathy Hochul’s taxes are the worst in the nation.” And GOP candidate Anthony Constantino, running to succeed Rep. Elise Stefanik in a blood red upstate district, has accused his Democratic foe Blake Gendebien of being “beaten into submission” by the governor after he pulled a TV ad pledging to stand up to her.

In a statement, Hochul spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki said: “No amount of GOP spin changes the fact that New York Republicans gutted Medicaid, ripped food assistance from families and kids, and enabled Donald Trump, a historically unpopular president, as he tried to defund the NYPD and raised costs on everything from gas to groceries – while Governor Hochul put money back in New Yorkers’ pockets, passed free school meals, and stood up to Trump at every turn. Voters across this state see all of that, and they’re going to send Republicans a message in less than 50 days.”

Republicans are facing a tough midterm election with an unpopular president in the White House. They are trying to weather a political dynamic featuring widespread voter angst over costs, with high interest rates and spiking gas prices emerging as resonant plotlines in the Empire State. Losses in purplish and even red areas of New York would go a long way to costing Republicans the House.

Making Hochul the face of a Democratic Party framed around taxes and crime is meant to counter an otherwise bleak Republican environment and President Donald Trump’s unpopularity here.

But Democrats are casting doubt on how effective such messaging will be — especially compared to the GOP candidates’ association with Trump.

“I don’t think it’s anywhere near as potent as the president of the United States,” said consultant David Carlucci. “It is just a lash out as really one of the few options they have in terms of just playing the blame game.”

Rep. Mike Lawler and President Donald Trump shake hands at Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York, on May 22.

Meanwhile, Democrats are trying to thread a delicate needle as the governor seeks a second full term. Some are attempting to separate themselves from Hochul — a dance made all the more awkward as she marshals the resources of the New York Democratic Committee to aid down-ballot candidates.

In the North Country, Gendebien told supporters recently that Hochul is “unpopular” and “underwater” in the district he’s seeking to represent. According to a recording of a Sept. 3 town hall that was obtained by POLITICO, he also acknowledged that he didn’t know why.

Even in races where a high-profile surrogate could be a welcome boost to a relative unknown, the desire for the governor to stump isn’t necessarily strong. When asked if Hochul would be helpful on the trail for him, Mike DeCillis, a long shot Democrat challenging Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, replied: “Probably not.”

The district, a red-leaning seat that covers all of Staten Island and part of Brooklyn, is a “fickle pickle,” he said. “It’s not because of any specific policy. It’s the person they have been kind of trained and told that this is the person they shouldn’t like at all costs.”

Hochul’s zealous push for House Democrats — a years-long project launched after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed her weak showing in 2022 for losing down-ballot races — has further raised the stakes in a race that she’s largely expected to win. In 2022, she won by only 6 points.

“We’re going to be the state that sends Hakeem Jeffries to the speaker’s office,” Hochul said in an interview on NY1, highlighting her investment into the state party. She expressed confidence in flipping districts held by Rep. Mike Lawler, Lalota and Stefanik, and holding those represented by Suozzi and Reps. Laura Gillen, Josh Riley, Pat Ryan and John Mannion.

It’s unclear where exactly Hochul will stump for down-ballot candidates in the closing stretch of the election, though an aide said she will be supporting candidates up and down the ballot.

Republicans viewed Mamdani, of all people, to be their primary weapon in the suburbs and upstate, where voters tend to be moderate and more willing to back a Republican. But the mayor, who was viewed favorably by 69% of New York City voters in an August Siena Research Institute poll, has not been the beat-up toy many GOP candidates expected.

New York City mayors, who often bring left-leaning agendas into office, are typically viewed as easy targets for Republicans, especially in rural and suburban House districts. That strategy hasn’t always been effective, in part, because few voters outside the five boroughs consider the city’s mayor to be especially relevant.

“I’ve been asked many times, like, where does upstate and downstate start?” Republican state Sen. Peter Oberacker, who’s challenging Democratic Rep. Josh Riley, said in an interview last month. “You could almost determine where that line is by the concern about Mamdani. … In the more northern reaches of our district, it’s definitely a topic of discussion and concern. But as you come farther downstate, it gets a bit more intense.”

When asked whether the governor or mayor comes up more in discussions with voters, he said the former — and pointed to Hochul allocating $4 billion to help the city’s budget gap. “They feel this way that they’re not getting represented,” he said.

Riley doesn’t view Hochul as much of an issue. He touted her work tackling a dearth of affordable child care. “I’m eager to continue working on that with her,” he said in a statement.

In a state where Democrats hold all levers of power, Hochul is an obvious focal point for Republicans — the embodiment of a deep blue state’s policies on taxes, crime and regulations that drive up utility bills.

She’s tried to reverse that perception. She’s backed measures to scale back a controversial cashless bail law and touted middle-income tax cuts and rebate checks. And she’s embraced popular policies like expanding no-cost child care, banning cellphones in schools and a moratorium on data center construction.

But those policies are more popular than the governor herself.

The Siena survey found 49% of voters hold an unfavorable view of Hochul, with only 46% reporting a favorable opinion. Yet most voters back her efforts to curb Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign and New York’s data center construction pause, which Hochul rolled out this summer. The same poll found Hochul leading Blakeman by 10 points, with the largest chunk of her support coming from the city. She trailed Blakeman in the suburbs by 8 points, and they were nearly tied upstate.

Trump speaks to the press next to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman upon arrival at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, New York, on Sept. 26, 2025.

Trump is even more unpopular with New York voters: Only 38% have a favorable view of him. He was slightly above water in the suburbs, but viewed unfavorably upstate and in NYC.

Despite those numbers, some Democratic candidates may not have much of a choice but to accept Hochul’s help.

The governor is using the state Democratic Committee this year to aid down-ballot candidates, opening field offices and providing political infrastructure to support those running in crucial races. This coordinated campaign is a stark departure from prior years when the state party functioned solely as an arm of the governor’s political operation.

The shift began in 2024 and is carrying over into this election year, as Democrats try to hold several seats on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley.

“She absolutely delivered in 2024 on this in a huge way,” said Rep. Pat Ryan, whose seat is not seen as competitive as it was two years ago. “She campaigned a bunch of times for me in that race and across the Hudson Valley and I dramatically outperformed in large part because of a lot of the things that she did. That’s only grown stronger now.”

New York Democrats must win without relying solely on Hochul’s coattails to carry them, though.

Distance themselves too far from the governor, and candidates run the risk of undermining the head of their party set on returning to Albany with a clear mandate for the next four years. Running too close with Hochul opens up swing seat candidates to Republican attacks that they’re the lackeys of a chief executive with so-so polling.

Ryan’s neighboring House member, Lawler, is viewed as one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country. Earlier this year, he rallied with Trump — not the most popular figure in the district — and said he’d welcome Hochul to campaign for his Democratic opponent Cait Conley “any day of the week.”

In 2024, then-Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly carried the district, as Lawler won reelection.

With that past as prologue in mind, it remains unclear if Conley will appear with Hochul on the trail. But she’s bringing in other reinforcements. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a potential 2028 presidential contender, campaigned with her in the district this week.

Conley has said outright that she does not want to campaign with Mamdani — a calculus that speaks to the independent-minded voters she needs to get on her side. Republicans have sought to tie them together in an attempt to portray her as too far to the left.

Lawler has repeatedly invoked both Mamdani and Hochul on the trail. At times, he’s trained more of his ire at the governor than his actual opponent.

“Their numbers are very similar in the district, and for different reasons and in different ways, they are equally as offensive to most voters in the district,” Lawler said of Hochul and Mamdani.

Still, Hochul’s allies believe it’s an error for Democratic candidates to disassociate themselves from the de facto head of the party. If she wins in November, she’ll continue to wield substantial power.

“I’ve never felt that running away from the head of your ticket is a winning strategy for any party in any year,” New York Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs said. “You make a mistake by distancing yourself from her where she can be helpful.”