After several reelection challengers have dropped their bids to personal best favorability ratings, things are looking way up for the once-not-so-popular Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY).
Hochul is clearing the field in her mission to win back Albany this fall, knocking another candidate out of her way this week, with Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado (D-NY) dropping his bid to challenge her. Delgado, Hochul’s only prominent Democratic challenger, became the second big hurdle to fall before election day — Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) being the first.
Delgado forfeited his bid on Tuesday, falling from his attempt at wrangling the more progressive wing of the New York party behind him, to having to serve out the rest of his term with his boss he decided to challenge. Hochul likely has one main person to thank for Delgado’s decision to drop: her new friend in the Big Apple.
When New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed Hochul’s bid for reelection on Feb. 5, he coalesced his loyal leftist supporters around her and drained Delgado’s likely base of progressive support.
“After much consideration, I’ve concluded that there simply is no viable path forward. And though my campaign has come to an end, I fully intend to do all I can in our effort to build a more humane, affordable, and equitable state that serves all New Yorkers,” Delgado said.
Jacob Neiheisel, political science professor and campaign expert at the University of Buffalo, told the Washington Examiner that despite Delgado tapping a Democratic Socialists of America running mate pick with India Walton this month, once Hochul and Mamdani embraced each other, there was not much he could do.
“I think with Hochul tacking left, embracing Mamdani, and that being reciprocated, I don’t think that there was a lane to really run in for Delgado,” Neiheisel said. “It was really just something that would potentially split the party without much in the way of benefits.”
Between appearing with Mamdani in multiple press conferences and working with him on several policy initiatives, Hochul — once seen as a Democratic moderate — is making a significant, pragmatic progressive swing. Hochul partnered with Mamdani to expand universal child care in the state and city, and partnered with his administration in making announcement to curb Immigration and Customs Enforcement influence in the state.
Hochul’s pragmatic bend toward working with the leftist mayor has not only cleared Delgado from the primary, but it’s also boosted her favorability ratings. They have switched dramatically from this time last year, turning around from completely underwater to the best it has been since she took office, according to Siena University.
Siena tagged Hochul with a 49% positive favorability rating, up ten points from her 39% in Feb. 2025. The poll found New Yorkers view her policies on no taxes on the first $25,000 in tipped wages, childcare, immigration, and farmer payments favorable. It marks a dramatic shift from the polls through much of her term and in the first months of 2025 when many New Yorkers did not like her and did not want her to seek reelection.
“I think when we started to see those polls from Siena where people didn’t like her all that much, that was really people from the left and the right disliking her. And now that she has shored up her left flank, people from the left are more in favor of her,” Neiheisel said.
Stefanik captured much of the anti-Hochul sentiments as she ran a shadow campaign for governor throughout much of 2025. She launched her official campaign in Nov. 2025, focusing on affordability, Hochul’s high taxes, and illegal immigration. But never securing a coveted endorsement from President Donald Trump for her gubernatorial bid, Stefanik dropped her campaign.
Trump endorsed the other Republican candidate, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, one day after Stefanik dropped her bid.
“Bruce Blakeman is a FANTASTIC guy, will win the big November Election and, without hesitation, has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Governor of the ONCE GREAT STATE OF NEW YORK (IT CAN BE GREAT AGAIN!),” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Blakeman selected Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, his second choice, as his running mate on Tuesday. The Nassau County executive, whom the state GOP just formally selected as its nominee, is projecting confidence and a unifying message heading into the general election, declaring he will be a governor “for all.”
“We can make New York affordable again, and we can make it safe again. But it won’t happen on it’s own. It will take leadership that puts New Yorkers first. And rest assured, I’m ready to fight for your children and your grandchildren,” Blakeman said this week.
Hochul currently leads Blakeman by 26 percentage points with a 54 to 28 percent margin, per the latest Siena poll. In mid December, when Stefanik was still in the race, Siena had Hochul leading Blakeman by 25 points and leading Stefanik by a closer 19 point margin. The closest Siena margin was a hypothetical Hochul versus Stefanik poll in August that had Hochul leading by 14 points.
In 2022, Hochul inched ahead of Republican Lee Zeldin by 5.8 points to win the blue state governorship 59.2% to Zeldin’s 47.1%.
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With over eight months until the likely Hochul versus Blakeman matchup, there is a lot of campaign left to go.
But Neiheisel suspects there is not much, “absent a catastrophic breakdown of the campaign and of her as a candidate that would change the dynamics of this race.”