Hochul And Mamdani Unite For Final Campaign Sprint

NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul is turning to the Democratic Party’s disparate wings to help push her campaign over the finish line.

Hochul campaigned Friday and Sunday with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the 35-year-old democratic socialist whose appearances with the moderate governor are meant to jolt interest in the race, especially among his fervent supporters. In the coming days, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, an establishment Democrat who has clashed with New York’s leftist insurgency, is expected to campaign with her.

The final campaign push by the governor highlights what has been a complicated task in her bid for a second full term: unite a Democratic Party riven by disputes over Israel, taxes and public safety.

“Our party always has differences internally, but the talent the governor has is her ability to bring people together. She builds personal relationships, she doesn’t compromise on principle,” said New York Democratic Chair Jay Jacobs, who broke with Hochul last year when he refused to endorse Mamdani. “I believe that engenders not just support, but a certain amount of affection that’s been to her benefit.”

Hochul must maintain the delicate balancing act she’s performed for much of the year — keep moderate New Yorkers alarmed by the polarizing but popular Mamdani’s rise in her camp while also winning over hard-left voters skeptical of her past opposition to taxing rich people and corporations. She will need to knit these factions together to produce a convincing win and mount a strong top-of-the-ticket effort in order to bolster down-ballot Democrats in crucial House races.

People crowded around Hochul and Mamdani to get autographs and take selfies — mostly with the mayor — as the governor handed out campaign literature Friday at a Brooklyn park. On Sunday at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, the duo addressed about 100 union leaders and members before a canvass launch.

Her Republican foe, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, is eager to capitalize on the governor’s alliance with Mamdani. He’s called the mayor an antisemite and anti-Christian while stoking fears among Jewish New Yorkers that the NYPD under Mamdani is less likely to come to their aid. Blakeman, an ally of President Donald Trump, has sought to appeal to disaffected Democrats concerned their party has lurched too far left — voters he will need to pull off what would be a massive political upset.

“The more Zohran Mamdani and Kathy Hochul campaign together, the more likely it is that I’ll have not only a victory, but a very, very astounding victory,” Blakeman said Thursday. “The more he attacks me, the more Democrats come over to support me, the more independent voters come over to support me.”

Polls show Hochul comfortably leading Blakeman in this deep-blue state, where Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 2-to-1. That includes a recent Quinnipiac University survey that found the GOP nominee trailing by 14 points. Hochul’s campaign is blasting Blakeman as a Trump acolyte, a bet that midterm backlash to the unpopular incumbent president will remain a unifying thread for Democrats.

Yet Republicans are counting on an expected national blue wave to stop short in New York. Blakeman is leading with independent voters, and the party is banking on a broader anti-incumbent mood to sweep Democrats out of power.

Enter Mamdani, who commands an ardent base of enthusiastic supporters, including left-leaning Democrats wary of a governor who hasn’t embraced broad-based income tax hikes — a key plank in the mayor’s platform. Hochul, the first Buffalo-born New York governor in a century, needs to harness at least some of Mamdani’s voters to run up the score in the vote-rich five boroughs. The unlikely duo are expected to hit the campaign trail together again before Election Day.

Hochul and Mamdani have forged a working relationship for the last 14 months. She endorsed his mayoral campaign after his upset Democratic primary victory against her predecessor, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The two have bonded over a shared push for expanding no-cost child care. And she has steered hundreds of millions of dollars in state aid to shore up New York City’s finances while also backing a tax on pricey second homes.

The mayor’s allies, meanwhile, do not want him to come away empty handed from supporting Hochul ahead of what’s expected to be a tough budget year for New York City.

“It would be really reasonable for him to expect clear commitments from the governor, including a new commitment on new taxes for the rich," said Brooklyn state Sen. Julia Salazar, a democratic socialist.

His appearance with Hochul Friday evening in Brooklyn’s McCarren Park created palpable excitement — at least for Mamdani.

Dozens of passersby, including teenagers, swarmed the mayor and the governor as they walked through the park, most of them to get selfies with him and snag his autograph. He had to keep reminding voters he was there to drive turnout for the governor, not for himself, including when one woman told him, “You got my vote.”

“They are excited about a new era of leadership, and the governor is instrumental in delivering that,” Mamdani told POLITICO when asked in between selfies what he thought of the relative lack of fervor for Hochul.

The governor acknowledged the wave of excitement for the mayor and pushed back against the idea that she might disillusion more moderate voters in other parts of the state by campaigning with him.

“Those who question why I'm campaigning with him — he's more popular than Bruce Blakeman across the damn state of New York. It's amazing,” she told reporters.

Child care was a central focus Sunday at the rally and canvass event with labor leaders and state Attorney General Letitia James.

Mamdani spent most of his address highlighting their shared priority to expand child care — and tearing into Blakeman.

“Sometimes, there are political events that we have to go to and it’s a little bit more difficult for me to be up on that stage,” Mamdani said in remarks before introducing Hochul. “This is not one of those. This is a simple choice for me.”

When a child cheered from the crowd, the mayor joked: “If this was a Bruce Blakeman rally, he’d be like, ‘Get that kid out of here. We don’t want child care for that kid.’”

Hochul’s bigger picture, though, is ensuring her party flips several competitive House districts — an effort that if successful would hand power back to Democrats in Washington and dictate the course of Trump’s final two years in office. The outcome of these races, taking place in the New York City suburbs and in northern New York, stand to make Brooklyn’s Jeffries the first Black House speaker.

Flipping the House with New York races playing a crucial role would be a sweet result for the governor, who former Speaker Nancy Pelosi complained helped drag down the ticket in 2022, costing the party control.

Campaigning in upstate New York on Saturday, Hochul made that goal explicit.

“People are counting on us to deliver enough congressional seats from New York state to make Hakeem Jeffries the next speaker,” she said. “People are so fed up with what is happening in Washington and that is going to motivate people all across the nation, but even here in New York, where we have congressional races that will determine the House of Representatives.”

Yet many New York Republicans are making Hochul the Democratic villain in their campaigns — a nod to Mamdani’s popularity and the governor’s own so-so polling in suburban and upstate regions.

Blakeman appeared Sunday alongside swing seat GOP Rep. Mike Lawler, a longtime Hochul antagonist, who is defending a Hudson Valley district. He also made stops in Brooklyn and Staten Island to rally voters.

On Friday in Brooklyn, Michelle Brugal, a local resident who was walking through the park with her two kids just as the mayor and the governor got into their SUVs to leave, jokingly lamented that she hadn't left home earlier so she could have caught Mamdani and gotten a picture with him.

“I don't know a lot about the governor, and I don't know a lot about what the governor is doing, so I'm not as excited to see the governor,” Brugal said, though she confirmed she will still vote for Hochul. “But she's not a local celebrity like Mandani is, and I think aside from like, ‘Oh, he's popular and the people like him,’ I think he's doing great things and accomplishing great things.”