How Child Care Gave Hochul And Mamdani Common Ground — And Political Cover

NEW YORK — The childcare plan unveiled this month by Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani elevated their budding alliance far beyond policy: With a single press conference, the unlikely duo tackled some of their biggest electoral challenges in 2026.

The planning for that initiative, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations who spoke with POLITICO, began months earlier.

In the aftermath of Mamdani’s primary win over the summer, Hochul’s team began discussions with advocates and the soon-to-be mayor’s inner circle on how to quickly deliver Mamdani’s signature campaign promise, a goal that would bring together two disparate factions of the Democratic Party: a democratic socialist mayor and a far more moderate governor.

What followed was a blueprint that, if ratified, will be both a salve to New York parents and an electoral antidote for its two chief proponents.

Mamdani gets to claim a major milestone on the way to delivering his signature campaign pledge while showing his haters the left can achieve results.

Hochul, who’s facing reelection challenges from both her left and her right, instantly created problems for her adversary in the Democratic primary. And by launching the childcare plan without tax increases, she blunted what would have become a central attack line from GOP forces mustering on Long Island.

“Yeah, it’s good politics,” said Rebecca Bailin, head of New Yorkers United for Childcare, one of the main proponents of the childcare plan. “But this is what Hochul’s constituents want. And she and the mayor are following our proposal, so the policy is very carefully thought out.”

Despite concerns about the massive cost of a statewide childcare program for children up to five years old — with some estimates running around $15 billion annually — Hochul’s team worked with advocates and Mamdani and found a feasible first step would be far less pricey. For around $1.7 billion in new spending this year, New York City would get free childcare for 2,000 two-year-olds and increased 3K options, while the rest of the state would get cash to beef up prekindergarten services and explore other childcare options. The governor also committed to funding the program next year, when 2-Care would be rolled out to 10,000 New York city tots in 2027.

Those advances, Hochul made sure to emphasize, could be covered with existing revenue, giving her partial cover against Republicans — and Mamdani’s base, which continues to push strenuously for a tax hike.

While Mamdani has not made an income tax increase a central demand of his Albany agenda, he has not given up on the slogan, either. Raising levies on the wealthy remains a popular prospect among Democrats in the state Legislature, through which the childcare deal must pass. And advocates like the Democratic Socialists of America plan to keep the pressure up through the coming budget season.

“We will not settle for impermanent, partial solutions that set up child care programs to fail and we won’t allow the gutting of federal funding to go unchecked,” the organization said in a statement last Friday. “We can fully fund all-day, year-round care from infancy and we must tax the rich to ensure sustained funding for these programs. These demands are the basic necessities for the working class.”

Mamdani likes to highlight how quickly he advanced a major step toward universal childcare — he and Hochul made their announcement on Jan. 8 — though his team had been working with the governor on the project since shortly after Hochul endorsed him in September.

At the time, Hochul and her advisers had a range of feelings about Mamdani’s proposals, some of which required siphoning copious outlays of tax revenue from the state’s coffers. Childcare, however, stuck out as a logical point of collaboration.

The governor had already funded expanded services for New York’s youngest residents and expressed a desire to achieve universal childcare in her January 2025 State of the State speech. In the subsequent months, the 34-year-old mayor elevated the issue to new prominence as he campaigned on a platform focused on affordability.

“He wins the primary. She is clear that he is going to win the general [election] despite all the hysteria. And she begins to engage in a very thoughtful way about what might be possible,” said one person close to the Mamdani administration, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy. “They really connected on the childcare issue, and it became clear early on that it would be a top priority for both of them.”

The two executives first spoke conceptually about how they might work together on a childcare plan during their first meeting in June, according to one person with knowledge of the sitdown. By early October, staffers with the governor and mayor began to game out what a rollout might look like in practice.

Those conversations accelerated in November and December after Mamdani appointed his first deputy mayor and his budget director, two hires that could negotiate details both programmatic and pecuniary. A key question became one of scale. The new mayor had won in part on soaring rhetoric that promised not only universal childcare but a transformation of city government into something unrecognizable: a paragon of efficiency and effectiveness.

There were, however, practical limitations to consider. Hiring and vetting childcare staff takes time. Ensuring the existing childcare network remains stable requires prudence. And finding suitable locations for new facilities can be laborious. What resulted was an initiative largely aligned with what City Hall thought it could reasonably accomplish and the bones of a plan rolled out by New Yorkers United for Healthcare.

“It’s always about striking a balance to make sure it’s fast enough so the political winds are at your back, but slow enough that it doesn’t destabilize the provider network,” Bailin, the head of the organization, said. “What they are proposing reflects pretty directly a blueprint that we released that outlines how they should roll out 2-Care.”

The announcement immediately became a boon for Hochul’s reelection slog, which will begin with a battle against her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, a progressive-gone-rogue who is challenging her in the Democratic primary.

Delgado has amassed endorsements from a slate of left-leaning lawmakers keen on seeing him topple the more moderate governor. But so far Mamdani — who owes his first major policy win to Hochul — has signaled he is unlikely to be one of them. On the day of the childcare announcement, as democratic socialist state Assemblymember Emily Gallgher released a glowing endorsement of Hochul’s challenger, Mamdani was busy heaping praise on the incumbent, suggesting a coming fissure on the left.

“I think he understands that he needs her as a partner to actually deliver on this agenda,” said an adviser to Hochul, who was granted anonymity to discuss relations with City Hall. “He has so far struck me as a collaborator and a coalition builder, which is what her natural bent is as well and is why they have started to chart this path together.”

So far, the fight over taxing the rich has remained compartmentalized from the childcare push, as The New York Times recently noted. And that bodes well for Hochul in the near term.

By accepting her offer to foot the bill with existing revenue, Mamdani has deemphasized tax hikes and avoided the fate of former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who in 2014 became embroiled in a protracted fight with Gov. Andrew Cuomo over how to fund his prekindergarten proposal. Leaving a tax hike off the table has also deprived Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is running for governor as a Republican, of a potentially potent attack line. And by proposing a rollout largely in line with the wishes of City Hall and advocates, Hochul has deadened criticism that additional revenue is needed to realize Mamdani’s vision.

Even with those defensive measures in place, the issue will remain a thorny one for both Hochul and Mamdani as they traverse their first budget cycle together.

Childcare advocates believe new revenue is needed to fully fund a universal program. And with Mamdani’s base clamoring to tax the rich, the mayor himself has recently ratcheted up the rhetoric, citing a $12 billion gap in the city's budget spanning the next two years.

“Our administration is preparing to make the case that it is the time for New York's most profitable corporations and wealthiest residents to pay their fair share,” he said during an unrelated press briefing this week. “And I also was speaking about the relationship between the city and the state.”