The election of 2025 has come and gone, and now it’s on to the 2026 election, for which political parts are still moving.
New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul is seeking re-election but is facing a primary challenge from the state’s lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado.
Like Hochul, he is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. His campaign website says his “vision for New York” is one that provides for the state to “fight back against threats from the Trump administration.” He is critical of Hochul on energy and environmental issues.
Hochul says “it is a fascinating position to be in, to have a primary and a general [election] with the two extremes of the political spectrum,” referring to Delgado and Elise Stefanik, a member of the House.
Stefanik in announcing her run for governor called Hochul “America’s worst governor” and blasted Democrat Zohran Mamdani, the State Assembly member who describes himself as a Democratic socialist and was just elected New York City mayor. She called him an “antisemitic communist.”
Mamdani will no doubt in 2026 serve as a major target for many Republican candidates.
George Pataki, the last Republican elected governor of New York, in endorsing Stefanik, said: “The urgency of her candidacy could not be clearer after the election of an openly devout socialist to lead the world’s greatest city.”
The day before Stefanik’s announcement, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican from Merrick, following his strong re-election win, said he is considering a run for New York governor in 2026.
“We’re looking at it very seriously,” he said. “I’ve been on the phone all morning with political leaders and community leaders and, most importantly, business leaders who are very concerned about what’s going on in New York City.”
Stefanik received the immediate endorsement of most county chairs in the state, many members of the State Legislature, and New York GOP Chair Edward Cox, too.
Not only will there be a Mamdani factor in the 2006 election but also a Donald Trump factor. A CNN poll released in November found Trump’s approval rating had sunk to 37% of respondents, the lowest in his second term, and an unfavorable rating at 63%.
Still, not only Blakeman but most Republicans running in Nassau County did well in the 2015 election. In Suffolk, however, Democratic wins included those in the Town of Southampton where in a historic victory Democrats were elected to all five positions on the Southampton Trustees. Southampton Democratic Chair Gordon Herr described what happened as a bright spot in the “darkness” for Democrats in the months since Trump returned to The White House.
Karl Grossman is a professor of journalism and an investigative journalist.
