Elections

Hochul won her election, but at what cost?

Democrats may have kept hold of the governorship, but Gov. Kathy Hochul’s weak performance may have lost the party the House.

Gov. Kathy Hochul celebrates her victory in this year’s gubernatorial race against Lee Zeldin during an election night watch party at Capitale in Manhattan.

Gov. Kathy Hochul celebrates her victory in this year’s gubernatorial race against Lee Zeldin during an election night watch party at Capitale in Manhattan. Lev Radin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

On election night, Gov. Kathy Hochul basked in the applause of her supporters after declaring victory and becoming the first woman ever elected governor of New York. The glass-ceiling-breaking moment was certainly cause for celebration, but it didn’t take away from the fact Hochul ended the night with just a five percentage point lead, the closest race in nearly three decades. 

The celebratory atmosphere also belied the far more somber mood in other parts of the state as the returns showed a number of significant losses for Democrats down ballot. Although the party can weather the handful of lost seats in the state Senate – and surprisingly in the Assembly – a poor showing at the congressional level may become the reason Democrats lose the House. 

Hochul hardly had an easy path to victory – what had originally started as a double digit lead in early polling soon narrowed to a troubling degree for the incumbent. Her race attracted national attention as major Democrats stumped in New York, a rarity for the Democratic stronghold. But the state also found itself as a battleground for the House after redistricting and a handful of electoral reshuffling left a large number of seats up for grabs. With Democrats in control of the White House and Congress, most political observers expected Republicans to perform well during this year’s midterms, and New York was no exception. 

Only New York wound up as one of the only states to experience the Republican backlash. Across the country, GOP candidates underperformed expectations and Democrats won a number of key elections in swing states. But in New York, the Democratic governor won only by a narrow margin, and down ballot candidates suffered in parts of the state where she lost big. Long Island and parts of the Hudson Valley in particular suffered the worst, and every highly competitive congressional race went red. “The New York Democratic Party was selfish and reckless – and they paid for it by possibly costing Dems the House,” progressive Democratic consultant Camille Rivera told City & State. “Absolutely no reason why Dems win in swing seats in Michigan and OHIO and not New York. You can thank (state Democratic Party Chair) Jay Jacobs and FORMER Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney for this.”

Jacobs denied that Hochul had a detrimental effect on other candidates and also refused to accept blame for both her performance and losses in Congress. “New York did underperform, but so did California,” Jacobs told City & State. “What do those two states have in common? Well, governmentally, we’re among the two most progressive states in the country.” 

Instead, Jacobs placed blame on progressive politicians who have shifted the party too far to the left, costing them swing and moderate voters. “I'm not going to take responsibility for or blame, if you will, for losses that we had here,” Jacobs said, dismissing claims that he did nothing for vulnerable candidates by pointing to maxed-out donations and behind the scenes organizing he took charge of. He said that Hochul performed admirably given the circumstances and that her close race didn’t cost Democrats seats. “I think that it's more the Democratic brand in New York that had difficulty in some of these tough, tougher districts, more competitive districts,” Jacobs said.

But looking at the numbers, down ballot Democrats suffered where Hochul lost. Maloney, who also chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, won a healthy majority of votes in the Westchester portion of his district, a county that Hochul performed well in. Although down ballot Democratic candidates for state Senate and Assembly in Westchester also kept their seats even as some of their fellow Hudson Valley colleagues did not. But in Rockland County, which makes up a large portion of the district Maloney chose to run in, he lost significantly. State Sen. Elijah Reichlin-Melnick also found himself trailing on election night, even as he waited for all absentee ballots to get counted. Hochul lost in Rockland County by a 10 percentage point margin. 

The same thing happened on Long Island, where Republicans picked up three state Senate seats and won the three open seats for Congress as well. In Nassau County, Hochul lost to Zeldin by over 10 percentage points. The margin in Suffolk was even wider, with Zeldin winning 17 percentage points more of the vote than Hochul. While Suffolk tends to trend more red, Nassau has elected Democrats to Congress and the state Legislature consistently for the past several years. Biden won the county in 2020, as did former governor Andrew Cuomo in 2018 and Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. A red wave hit both counties at the local level in 2021, and though Democrats expressed confidence that it would not translate to results this year, candidates failed to perform from the top of the ticket on down. 

In the final days of the race, Hochul held major rallies in New York City and Westchester and an attempt to bring out her base. And it worked with a strong showing in the northern suburb and keeping Zeldin at just below 30% in New York City despite the significant inroads he had made with certain communities like Orthodox Jews and overall low turnout in the boroughs. But based on her campaign schedule, Long Island seemed like it was already a lost cause. 

Hochul’s lackluster election performance has some Democrats grumbling. One Assembly Member who spoke on background to be candid, called her a weak leader and criticized her campaign. “The campaign reminded me of the person who’s running in fifth place in a 25 person council race in Queens,” the Assembly Member told City & State. Others, especially progressives like Rivera, questioned Jacobs’ leadership of the party, which became a common refrain on social media. Soon-to-be former Rep. Mondaire Jones summed up the general mood among many Democrats dissatisfied with how Jacobs and Hochul handled this election cycle with a single word tweet: “Yikes.”

With reporting by Jeff Coltin

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.