Drawing on lessons from the last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul is looking ahead to her 2026 reelection campaign.
Although she’s tracking better in the polls and is miles ahead of her Democratic challenger, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, while leading her two Republican opponents — she’ll need to nigate a difficult triangle between the threats — and needs, posed by the Republican president of the United States and Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.
What You Need To Know Although she’s tracking better in the polls and is miles ahead of her Democratic challenger, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, while leading her two Republican opponents — Gov. Hochul will need to nigate a difficult triangle between the threats — and needs, posed by the Republican president of the United States and Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani As New York’s self-proclaimed “first mom governor,” she’s set up a pseudo-watchdog group ahead of Mamdani’s inauguration that is keeping tabs on the mayor-elect and left activists — and whether it will trigger a negative reaction from Trump Opposed to income tax hikes, but not additional fees on corporations, Hochul tested her popularity before a pro-Mamdani crowd in October, where she was nearly booed off stage to chants of “Tax the Rich!”Hochul started 2025 championing a minimum wage hike and restarting congestion pricing, after she stalled it. But in February, dueling complications stressed her command as the state’s top executive.
A 22-day wildcat strike engulfed the entire upstate prison system, leading to the firing of around 2,000 correctional officers.
She then threatened to remove Mayor Eric Adams, then-under federal indictment, from office if he didn’t rid City Hall of corrupt aides. He listened.
And when President Donald Trump threatened to kill the fledgling congestion pricing program, they cut a deal in the Oval Office to lee the cameras on and keep an off-shore wind energy project open in exchange for greenlighting a controversial gas pipeline project.
After Zohran Mamdani won the competitive mayoral primary in June, Hochul endorsed him. Now, she wants New Yorkers to recognize her efforts.
“This will be the most pressure she’s faced in any of her years to deliver on the affordability issue,” consultant Jon Paul Lupo, a former top aide to ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio, said.
Although a recent poll ge her good marks, when asked how the state’s overall affordability climate stacks up nationwide — respondents ranked New York among the worst.
“A lot of infrastructure is being improved. I don’t think that the people of the state of New York know it yet. I don’t think they’re connecting the dots between all of the good things that are happening, all of the improvements that are happening, and Kathy Hochul, that’s the job of the campaign,” New York State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs told NY1.
A moderate from Buffalo, she’s made the case that she and Mamdani get along on major topics: affordability, universal childcare and the federal government’s approach to immigration.
“You do he a mayor in the city who has a big, shiny promise that he will want to deliver on in the form of child care, and you’ve got four months to figure out whether or not that can be done,” Lupo said.
On the left, the Working Families Party is deciding whether to back Hochul or her wayward, albeit progressive, lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, while acknowledging she leads by a wide margin.
Although Republican opponents want to tie her to Mamdani’s identity as a Democratic socialist, their own candidacy may be hindered by the GOP White House.
“You’ve got challenges in the North Country, in upstate New York, because of the loss of Canadian tourism because of Trump. You’ve got tariffs increasing the cost to New York families by $4,200 a year. That’s not too helpful. Prices are going up. People see it, even though Trump tells them it’s the best economy,” Jacobs said.
Hochul, meanwhile, has a popularity issue in the suburbs.
“Maybe do some things outside of the city, create her own sense of identity without creating conflict with the mayor,” Lupo said. “In places upstate, in Long Island, he’s not going to be the most popular political figure, and she’s got to make a case to those voters why they should choose her as an independent entity, even though they share the same party and a lot of priorities.”
But still, as New York’s self-proclaimed “first mom governor” she’s set up a pseudo-watchdog group ahead of Mamdani’s inauguration that is keeping tabs on the mayor-elect and left activists — and whether it will trigger a negative reaction from Trump.
Opposed to income tax hikes, but not additional fees on corporations, Hochul tested her popularity before a pro-Mamdani crowd in October, where she was nearly booed off stage to chants of “Tax the Rich!”
Hochul’s upcoming multi-billion dollar budget will need to weigh whether she can deliver for Mamdani and cover her bases.
Facing federal healthcare funding cuts estimated to dislodge New York’s hospital system and low to middle income population.