NEW YORK – Nine months after taking over as New York’s governor as a relative unknown, Democrat Kathy Hochul easily secured her party’s nomination Tuesday, putting her on track to win the job in November.
Hochul was serving as lieutenant governor under the radar in the shadow of former Governor Andrew Cuomo until last year, when she resigned amid sexual harassment allegations, catapulting her into the job.
Hochul overcame primary challenges Tuesday from New York City’s elected public defender Jumaane Williams and US Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Long Island moderate. She now sets her sights on becoming the first woman to win election to the New York Governor’s office this fall.
Siguand here the results of the elections live.
In a nod to the barrier-breaking campaign, Hochul delivered an election night speech on Tuesday on a stage under a glass ceiling in a Manhattan event space.
“I’m also here because I stand on the shoulders of generations of women, generations of women who constantly had to hit that glass ceiling. For the women of New York, this one is for you,” Hochul said.
Hochul enters the general election campaign with a big lead, running as a massive fundraising incumbent in a state that has more than twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans and hasn’t had a Republican governor in 16 years.
Kathy Hochul is projected as the winner of the Democratic nomination for governor of NY
He is facing US Rep. Lee Zeldin, who won the GOP nomination on Tuesday. Zeldin is a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump and was among the Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election results.
“Are we ready to fire Kathy Hochul?” Zeldin said to applause as she spoke at a Long Island victory party.
The Long Island congressman will attempt to become New York’s first elected Republican governor since Gov. George Pataki was re-elected in 2002.
Its prospects are expected to be even stronger this fall after the US Supreme Court last week overturned the Roe v. Wade establishing the right to abortion. He has made strengthening the right to abortion a key point of his campaign.
Hochul repeated that in her speech Tuesday night, proclaiming that the state “had taken offense to protect abortion rights” and “letting the world know that New York State is a safe harbor for American women.”
“We must answer a question,” he said. “Will we move New York forward or let far-right extremists drag our state backwards?”
Tuesday’s elections cover New York state offices and state assembly races, but primary contests for US House of Representatives and state Senate seats will take place on August 23. They were delayed due to a redistricting lawsuit that led a court to throw out new political maps.
Turnout was slim in New York City, with the city’s board of elections reporting that about 370,000 voters were registered to vote as of 6 p.m. The city has more than 4 million registered Democrats and Republicans combined who are eligible to vote. in the primaries. Light turnout was also reported in the Buffalo area and Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island.
Hochul, who served as Andrew Cuomo’s lieutenant governor for six years, vowed to restore New Yorkers’ faith in their government after taking office last summer, but hit a snag in April when her personally elected lieutenant governor, Brian Benjamin, was arrested. in a federal corruption investigation.
Benjamin pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. Hochul pointed to the short amount of time he had to pick a No. 2 and said he had been assured that all previously raised questions about Benjamin’s campaign fundraising had been resolved.
Hochul replaced Benjamin with Antonio Delgado, who resigned his seat in Congress to accept the position. Delgado, also chosen by Hochul as his running mate, won his primary on Tuesday.
Since taking office in August, Hochul has sought to step out of Cuomo’s shadow, promising a complete break with his administration. She has said that she was not close to the former governor, who has denied any wrongdoing, and that she was not present to witness any alleged misconduct.
Still, Cuomo’s presence hung over his campaign from the start when he began making public appearances last spring, criticizing Hochul and Democrats in Albany for their approach to crime and suggesting he might run for his old job. Despite suggesting that he might run as an independent, the former governor ultimately did not run to run.
Suozzi, a centrist who did not shy away from embracing Cuomo, was the only Democrat on the debate stage who said he would accept the former governor’s endorsement, saying he was still “very popular” despite his “baggage.” He, too, echoed Cuomo’s comments calling on Hochul to toughen the state’s bail laws.
Hochul focused her campaign on steps she took to bolster abortion rights and moves to toughen the state’s gun laws after a racist mass shooting in Buffalo.
Suozzi and Williams criticized her for her endorsement a decade ago of the National Rifle Association and for her plan to spend more than $1.1 billion in state and county funds to build and maintain a new stadium for her hometown Buffalo Bills.
Suozzi opted to run against Hochul rather than enter what was expected to be a tough re-election race for his House seat this year. He made an unsuccessful run for governor earlier in 2006, but lost the Democratic nomination to Eliot Spitzer.
NBC 4 New York/WNBC, Telemundo 47/WNJU and Times Union featured the televised debate featuring the leading Democratic Party candidates for Governor of New York.
Williams, the most progressive of the race, was often seen with a “Stay Woke” button on his lapel. He has been arrested multiple times for civil disobedience at anti-immigration demonstrations and police misconduct.
Zeldin is an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who has represented eastern Long Island in Congress since 2015. He defeated primary challenges from former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, businessman Harry Wilson and Andrew Giuliani, the son of the former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani, who frequently campaigned for his son.
“This November, in the state of New York, one-party government will end,” he said. “Kathy Hochul will be fired. We will once again restore balance and common sense to Albany.”
He has focused his campaign on rising crime and criticized Hochul for failing to toughen the state’s bail laws, imposing COVID-19 mitigation mandates and raising costs. And even as Hochul seeks to project a fresh start for Cuomo, Zeldin has repeatedly referred to the “Cuomo-Hochul Administration.”
“New Yorkers are reaching their breaking point. They are deciding whether or not to stay here or go to other places,” he said.
He will have to persuade the state’s independent voters, who outnumber Republicans, along with Democrats to win the general election. Democrats are expected to focus on Zeldin’s vocal defense of Trump during his impeachment trials and his objection to the election results. Hochul is also likely to focus on Zeldin’s remarks praising the US Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and his comment that as governor he would appoint an anti-abortion state health commissioner.
Zeldin’s running mate, Alison Esposito, is the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.
His most high-profile challenger is Andrew Giuliani, the 36-year-old son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who frequently campaigned for his son.
Although Rudy Giuliani was once hailed as a national hero for leading the city through 9/11, he has become a deeply divisive figure in New York for his work trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The young Giuliani often repeated his father’s unsubstantiated claims that Trump won the 2020 election. Giuliani has never run for public office, but worked as an aide in the Trump White House and later as a commentator on the conservative Newsmax network. .
He first gained public attention as a child when he stood alongside his father at the Giuliani mayoral inauguration in 1994, imitating his gestures and repeating some of his words. His antics when he was 7 years old were parodied on “Saturday Night Live” by Chris Farley.
“On day one, I’m going to sit down with (Andrea) Stewart-Cousins and (Carl) Heastie, and I’m going to tell them I need a full bail repeal on my desk or I’m not going to sign their top priorities,” Giuliani said Monday. .
The other Republican candidates include former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, a former conservative talk show host and radio executive, and businessman Harry Wilson, who served as an adviser to the US Treasury Department under former President Barack Obama. Wilson is the most moderate in the Republican field and was the only candidate of the four Republicans who said he supports abortion rights.
In addition to his time at the local office, Astorino is a former conservative talk show host and radio executive. Wilson served as an adviser to the US Treasury Department under former President Barack Obama and is the most moderate in the Republican camp. He was the only candidate of the four Republicans who said he supports abortion rights.
“It’s not enough to nominate a politician who says no to the other side, like any other Republican would,” Wilson said.