Antonio Delgado ends his campaign for governor

Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado announced he’s ending his quixotic campaign for governor.

“After much consideration, I’ve concluded that there simply is no viable path forward,” he wrote in a statement posted on X on Tuesday. “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.”

The decision came a mere week after Delgado announced his running mate, one-time Buffalo mayoral candidate and democratic socialist India Walton. Until just days ago, Delgado had said he intended to petition his way onto the ballot after he did not earn enough support to gain access automatically at the state Democratic nominating convention on Friday.

In her own brief statement, Walton suggested political observers should keep an eye out for future work from her and Delgado. “It was the most unexpected and huge honor to be considered and brought into the team so seamlessly and with such care,” she said. “I’m sure this is not the last folks will hear from team Delgado/Walton!” 

Gov. Kathy Hochul tapped Delgado to be her running mate in 2022 and he’s served as her deputy since. But he publicly broke with the governor last year and then announced in June 2025 that he would challenge Hochul’s reelection in the Democratic primary. He sought to outflank her from the left, promising to raise taxes on wealthy New Yorkers and support single-payer health care and expansive immigrant protections. Though he was not a socialist – “I’m a capitalist,” he said at one of his first campaign events – he hoped to build on the momentum from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s stunning victory.

A spokesperson for Hochul didn’t even mention Delgado in a statement responding to his decision to exit the primary. “Governor Hochul has spent all year uniting her big-tent party around a vision for affordability and safety for every New York family,” spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said. “Thanks to her leadership, our campaign and our party are strong and ready to defeat Donald Trump and his enablers up and down the ballot, take back the House, and hand Bruce Blakeman yet another loss this November.” 

Chitika added that Blakeman and Trump are “united” in their efforts that Democrats oppose. “Our party is now just as united to stop them,” she said.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins said Delgado’s decision to suspend his campaign was a “good idea.” 

“Clearly, the convention over the last week was very definitive in terms of the people who support the governor,” Stewart-Cousins told reporters in Albany minutes after Delgado dropped out. The leader noted Mamdani’s and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsements of Hochul, and Delgado’s lack of party support.

“It was just very clear that there was nothing that defined him, particularly, in a way that would make him catch on, apparently,” Stewart-Cousins said. “It’s better that we are united because we know that when you’re trying to defeat a Trump administration and folks who would deprive us of health care and environmental protections and food – I could go on and on.”

But the top Senate Democrat stopped short of calling for the lieutenant governor, who serves as the president of the upper house, to resign before his term is up at the end of the year. “That’s his job,” she added. Hochul stripped Delgado of his government office space and most of his staff after he launched his campaign against her last year.

A small number of progressive organizations and politicians – including New York Communities for Change, Citizen Action of New York, state Sen. Jabari Brisport and Assembly Member Emily Gallagher  – endorsed Delgado’s campaign. Last week, Brisport even suggested to City & State that Mamdani “(got) it wrong” when he decided to back Hochul over Delgado. But then the lieutenant governor did not earn the support of the progressive Working Families Party on Saturday, which may have served as the final nail on Delgado’s coffin.

Delgado faced a nearly insurmountable polling deficit, with the latest Siena University poll showing Democrats statewide supported Hochul over Delgado by more than 50 points, 64%-11%.