Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado launches campaign for governor

After months of speculation, Lt. Gov Antonio Delgado officially entered the Democratic primary for governor on Monday, fresh off a public split with Gov. Kathy Hochul and a roundabout town hall tour of the state. Sources told City & State that Delgado’s nascent campaign has already reached out to important stakeholders and progressive groups like the New York Working Families Party, Citizen Action of New York and New York Communities for Change as he positions himself for a run to Hochul’s left.

“What we need right here in New York is bold, decisive, transformational leadership,” Delgado said in his campaign announcement video. In his campaign rhetoric, Delgado has attempted to separate himself from the Hochul administration, even though he is still, technically, a part of it. 

The campaign initially appeared to be off to a somewhat sloppy start. The New York Times published an exclusive interview with Delgado on Monday evening, minutes after the New York Post broke the news that he planned to run for governor. Dutchess County Democratic Committee Chair Michael Dupree told City & State that he was told Delgado had planned to announce on June 7.

“This was supposed to happen on the 7th because it was the worst kept secret up in Schenectady, in his hometown, for his hometown coming,” Dupree said. “So I don't know what caused him to, but I believe he's jumping the gun. I had no idea, but I was surprised about the timing as well.”

Peter Kauffmann, a spokesperson for Delgado’s campaign, denied that the campaign’s launch had been moved up. He said that the campaign had always planned to release its campaign launch video on Monday, followed by an interview with NY1 on Tuesday and a press conference in Brooklyn on Wednesday. Kauffmann also said that the June 7 campaign event in Schenectady was not meant to be the campaign’s launch.

In preparation for his campaign announcement, Delgado has been hosting town halls throughout the state, from Central New York to Rockland County, in an attempt to raise his profile outside the bounds of his old Hudson Valley congressional district. Ahead of his Syracuse event in April, he reached out to progressive groups in Central New York including Onondaga Indivisible. Some, like the environmental group Third Act Upstate, co-sponsored the town hall.

Delgado is the first major candidate to officially challenge Hochul, though several other elected officials in both parties are publicly eyeing the position. Rep. Ritchie Torres has publicly weighed a primary run against Hochul, while on the Republican side, Reps. Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman have all entertained the possibility of running for governor next year.

Delgado now has roughly a year to close the wide gap between himself and Hochul, both when it comes to money and name recognition. Hochul is a prolific fundraiser, breaking records in the past with her massive money hauls. As of January, she had $15.5 million in her war chest, even before beginning to raise money in earnest for next year. In comparison, Delgado had a little under $970,000 in an undeclared campaign account. But he could benefit from public matching funds if he signs up for the state’s new public campaign finance program in its first test in statewide campaigns. 

Recent polling shows Hochul trouncing her potential Democratic challengers.. Siena College’s most recent poll from last month shows the incumbent governor easily besting both Delgado and Torres in a hypothetical Democratic primary. Of the voters polled, 46% said they would back Hochul, while just 12% said they would support Delgado. Delgado’s biggest problem may be name recognition; according to the same poll, more than half of New Yorkers don’t know who he is.

One potential Hudson Valley ally quickly threw in for Hochul. “Governor Hochul has delivered over and over for the Hudson Valley – bringing down housing costs, bolstering public safety, cleaning up our drinking water, and more,” Rep. Pat Ryan wrote on X. “She’s hard-working. She’s a person of integrity. And she’s a fighter. I’m all in with @KathyHochul.” Ryan, who briefly represented Delgado’s old district after the latter was tapped to be lieutenant governor, had offered a populist message similar to Delgado’s following the results of the 2024 presidential election, and also similarly called for former President Joe Biden to step down as the Democratic nominee even as Hochul continued to strongly stump for Biden.

The launch also raised eyebrows from political observers, even though it didn’t come as much of a surprise. “Not sure of the rationale here,” former state Democratic Party Chair Basil Smikle told City & State in a text message. “He’s talented but this seems ill-timed and ill-conceived.” Smikle added that he believes Delgado could be using his political capital more effectively. “Instead of driving more people to vote democratic, particularly men, and particularly black men, you are going to tell the whole state why the sitting governor is, in his opinion, not qualified to be there?”

The Hochul campaign declined to comment on Delgado’s new announcement, but referred to a statement released by Democratic Governors Association Executive Director Meghan Meehan-Draper shortly after Delgado's launch. “The Democratic Governors Association is 100 percent behind Governor Hochul as she continues to deliver for New York, take on Donald Trump, and build the operation it will take to beat Republicans up and down the ballot in 2026,” Meehan-Draper said. “For years, Governor Hochul has been underestimated – and each time proved her critics wrong.”

Whether or not Torres ultimately runs, next year’s Democratic primary will likely see a public airing of closed-door disputes between Hochul and Delgado. The relationship between the governor and her lieutenant governor is in tatters, in part, because the Hochul administration felt it could no longer trust him to advance her agenda, while he felt that Hochul saw him as less of a partner and more of a cog in the machine. The primary will surely see prior disputes rehashed, except rather than getting the last word, they’ll both be fighting to stay employed. 

The 2026 gubernatorial election will be the first in which candidates for governor and lieutenant governor must run together on a joint ticket during the primary election. Previously, party nominees for governor and lieutenant governor were elected in separate primaries and only ran together on a single ticket in the general election. But following her falling-out with Delgado, Hochul successfully inserted a provision into this year’s state budget to change that law. This means that Hochul, Delgado and any other candidates running for governor will need to select their own running mates.

The gubernatorial primary will be held on June 23, 2026, giving Hochul and Delgado just under 13 months to sell voters on their vision for the empire state.

Already, the campaign is being met with a degree of skepticism. One-time gubernatorial hopeful Rep. Tom Suozzi, who attempted to unseat Hochul in 2022, offered Delgado some advice that he may not want to hear. “Antonio, you are a talented guy, with a great future,” Suozzi wrote on X. “Based upon my experience this may not be the most well-thought out idea!”