Delgado charts a leftwing guv campaign in first event since launch

Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado laid out a framework of the policy agenda he’ll run on in his first campaign event since officially announcing he would run for governor. Joined by representatives from prominent progressive groups, he was planting early stakes for a challenge to incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul’s left.

A sparse crowd gathered in Flatbush on Wednesday to listen to Delgado’s stump speech for the first time. He immediately distanced himself from Hochul, his one-time running mate and current boss. “I’m running for governor because the status quo is broken,” Delgado said. “People are hurting, and New Yorkers deserve better leadership – bold, decisive, transformational leadership.”

Delgado sought to characterize Albany leadership – which he is technically still a part of – as beholden to corporate interests, and himself as a more populist champion for the people. He said that loyalty to “political elites and special interest groups and big donors” had cost Democrats their relationship with working-class people. “So talk to me about loyalty, and ask yourself, where should that loyalty be going as public servants?” Delgado said. “Because if we spend all our time worrying about protecting the party, the question remains, well, who the hell is protecting the people?”

During his roughly 20-minute speech, Delgado expressed support for creating a permanent statewide rental assistance program, universal child care without means testing, expanding the state Essential Plan for health care, expanding universal pre-K around the state and a slew of other populist policy ideas. He used President Donald Trump as a foil throughout the remarks, asserting that Hochul has not heralded bold, transformational change that he said is need to meet the moment. “We will reform a broken political system, not just manage it together,” he said. “We will uproot entrenched systems of power… We will put the people at the center of government, not profits, not power and not party.”

Members of both New York Communities for Change and Citizen Action, two major progressive organizations in the state, helped populate Delgado’s inaugural Brooklyn event. Neither group has endorsed him yet, but they are expected to in the near future. “I have 100% confidence that the more folks get a chance to be connected to a vision and have a conversation, and as (Delgado) had mentioned earlier, get a chance to feel that you care, folks will continue to step up, if only because there's not really another option,” said David Alexis, Flatbush chapter chair of New York Communities for Change.

Although he laid out broad policy positions, Delgado declined to name any specific bills he would like to see the Legislature pass before the end of the legislative session in a matter of days. “I don't want to get too far ahead of the legislative process,” he told reporters, before alluding to the New York HEAT Act without actually naming it. Asked if he supports the New York for All Act, which would expand immigrant protections, Delgado first seemed to misunderstand the reach of the protections already in place before saying he wouldn’t support a blanket policy governing whether or how local officials should interact with federal immigration authorities.

But in terms of opposition and policies that “paper over” problems, Delgado specifically called out the governor’s “inflation rebate” checks that will provide millions of New Yorkers with a one-time payment of up to $400. “That is probably the best example (to) come up, with literally papering over it,” he said. “We have $2 billion the state could have leveraged to any meaningful program to invest in communities directly, and the answer to that is to hand out a one-time $200 check.” Delgado suggested he would have considered setting those surplus funds aside to help mitigate expected Medicaid cuts from the federal government.

Delgado also downplayed the somewhat unusual timing of his campaign launch. Announcing over a year out from the primary gives him plenty of time to introduce himself to voters, but the Brooklyn event happened on the morning of the first debate in the hotly contested Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. That election is just weeks away and has taken up most of the air in electoral spaces. “It felt like the right time to do it now,” Delgado said. After the event, a spokesperson for his campaign said that the Wednesday availability was not meant to be a rally or the main campaign launch, which is happening on Saturday in Delgado’s home in Schenectady and expected to be better attended. (City & State previously reported that Delgado had planned to launch his campaign in Schenectady on Saturday.)

A handful of supporters and people looking for a Hochul alternative still showed up in Flatbush on Wednesday. Tanesha Grant, a community organizer with the group Parents Supporting Parents New York, was one. She wasn’t necessarily all in for Delgado yet, but said she was excited for the campaign and looking for change. “I’m still stuck on (Hochul) saying Black kids in the Bronx don’t know what computers are,” Grant said. “As someone who has given over 1,000 of our students their own high quality laptops, she's very tone deaf.”

In addition to increasing his name recognition, Delgado also has a long way to go to compete with Hochul’s prodigious fundraising. He confirmed that he would participate in the state’s public campaign finance system to receive matching funds. The 2026 election cycle is the first time that the fledgling matching funds system will be used for a statewide race.