The New York gubernatorial election ended with a clear win for Governor Kathy Hochul (D-Hamburg), who trounced Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman (R-Atlantic Beach) to win a second term.
Hochul defeated Blakeman with 59.7% of the vote to Blakeman’s 40.3% – a margin of victory of just under 20 points. It’s a significant upswing from her 6-point win over Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) four years ago. Hochul received 3.5 million votes to Blakeman’s 2.3 million.
“Thank you for once again putting your trust in me,” Hochul said in her victory speech. “Serving as your governor has been the privilege of a lifetime, and I will never, ever, ever take your faith in me for granted.”
Hochul’s victory cemented Adrienne Adams’ (D-Hollis) win as Lieutenant Governor. The executive branch of New York’s government will continue with Hochul hailing from Upstate, but with the Lieutenant hailing from New York City. It’s the first all-woman gubernatorial ticket in New York’s history.
“Tonight wasn’t the result that we all wanted,” Blakeman said in his concession speech. “But I just got off the phone with Governor Hochul. I told her that she ran a great race and now the race is over, the election’s over, so we all have to unify and work together and make for a better state of New York.”
Blakeman had vied to become New York’s first Republican governor since George Pataki (R-Elmira) won a third and final term in 2002.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D-Astoria), speaking at Hochul’s victory party, credited the governor with successfully navigating the gradual metamorphosis within the party in the Empire State.
“The conventional wisdom for so long was that as long as there was a governor in Albany and a mayor in New York City, they would be mired in ego struggles and petty feuds,” said Mamdani. “Governor Hochul and I are working together to rewrite what that convention looks like.”
Democrats Re-Elected in A.G., Comptroller Races
Hochul’s win carried two other statewide officials to re-election, Attorney General Letitia James (D-Clinton Hill) and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (D-Great Neck Plaza).
James, who won a third term on Tuesday, trounced first-time candidate Saritha Komatireddy (R-Upper East Side) with 60.1% of the vote to Komatireddy’s 39.9% – 3.4 million votes to 2.3 million for a 20-point margin.
“We’ve fought for every NewYorker without fear or favor and tonight NewYorkershave told us loud and clear they w
ant Tish James to finish the job,” said James at the Midtown Manhattan watch party.
Komatireddy conceded defeat.
“I am deeply grateful to the thousands of volunteers, supporters, and everyday New Yorkers who believed in our cam
paign and our visio
n for a safer and stronger New York. I’m proud of the campaign we ran. Ultimately, that’s what public office is ab
out – public serv
ice means serving people, not celebrity or personal gain. Whatever I do moving forward will be about exactly that – serving others and making New York safer.”
In the Comptroller’s race, DiNapoli, the second-longest served Comptroller in state history, won a fifth full term. His margin wa
s the largest of three statewide races. He defeated Joe Hernandez (R-Upper West Side) by 31 points – 64.5% to 35.4% or 3.7 million votes to 2 million.
Suffolk County surprisingly went for all three statewide Democrats. Hochul’s margin was the thinnest, 50.3% to 49.6% – a margin of 0.7. Hochul defeated Blakeman by about 4,000 votes out of over 500,000 ballots cast. James defeated Komatirredy by a 1-point margin – 5,000 votes – and DiNapoli defeated Hernandez by 9 points – a 49,000 vote margin.
In next-door Nassau, where Blakeman was expected to win and provide coattails, Hochul won by a razor-thin margin of 0.1 – a 216-vote margin of victory out of over 520,000 ballots cast. James prevailed over Komatirredy by a margin of 0.8 – a 4,000 vote difference – and DiNapoli won Nassau by 11 points – a difference of about 55,000.
Democrats Flip State Legislature Seats
In the State Senate, Democrats flipped the First District – Suffolk’s East End and Northern Brookhaven, making for the first time a Democrat has won that seat in over fifty years – and Senator Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick (R-Malverne) lost by 3 points in her southeast-Nassau district.
In southern Brooklyn-based District 17, freshman Senator Steve Chan (R-Bensonhurst) lost by a whopping 15-point margin. In the Rockland County-based District 39, Senator Bill Weber (R-Nyack) lost by about 10 points. In District 39, which has parts of Dutchess, Orange, and Putnam counties, Senator Rob Rolison (R-Poughkeepsie) lost by about 12 points. Finally, in District 44 – Saratoga County and parts of Schenectady County – Senator James Tedisco (R-Glenville) lost by a narrow 4-point margin.
The GOP did not flip any Senate seats, giving Democrats a net gain of six seats. They will have 47 seats to the GOP’s 16, restoring their supermajority in the chamber.
In the State Assembly, Republicans lost five seats. In southern Brookhaven, Assemblyman Joe DeStefano (R-Medford) lost to Josh Slaughter (D-Shirley) by 3 points. In southern Brooklyn, Assemblyman Michael Novakhov (R-Manhattan Beach) lost by a whopping 23-point margin, and fellow southern Brooklyn member, Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny (R-Coney Island) lost by 11 points. Also in southern Brooklyn, Assemblyman Lester Chang (R-Midwood) lost by 5 points.
Finally, in the 107th Assembly District – parts of Albany, Rensselaer, Columbia, and Washington counties, Assemblyman Scott Bendett (R-Averill Park) lost by 3 points.
Democrats also net two open seats. In the Huntington-based Twelfth Assembly District, Craig Herskowitz (D-Northport) defeated Village Trustee Dave Weber (R-Northport) by 3 points. This is the first time a Democrat has ever won this Assembly seat.
Assemblyman Daniel Norber (R-Great Neck) retired and Democrats flipped this northwestern Nassau seat by a narrow margin.
The only flip Republicans saw was in the Utica-Rome area. The 119th District was vacated by Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon (D-Marcy), and was flipped by Michael Gentile (R) by about 6 points.
Democrats expanded their already-large Assembly majority from 103 seats to 110 seats, well within supermajority territory.
