State GOP formally designates Blakeman as nominee for governor

After a rocky start to the week around filling out the ticket, the state Republican Party formally designated Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman as its nominee for governor and Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood for lieutenant governor on Wednesday. 

Attendees of the state GOP nominating convention on Long Island were in a celebratory mood as the committee unanimously voted for Blakeman and Todd, despite the long odds of them actually winning. “When I ran, everybody knew I had no chance,” said former Gov. George Pataki, the last Republican to win statewide in New York, who left office in 2006. But he said the Republican Parties of Nassau and Suffolk Counties stood behind him, and “against all the odds” helped him win. “I know Bruce Blakeman can win, even against the odds,” Pataki said. 

And the odds truly are not in his favor. Although Gov. Kathy Hochul stumbled slightly in her election four years ago, resulting in the closest gubernatorial race in two decades, she has shored up her position since then. The governor currently enjoys record-high favorability, according to a Siena poll released earlier this month, which also found Hochul continues to maintain a healthy 54%-28% lead over Blakeman.

In his acceptance speech, Blakeman wasted no time blasting Hochul, attacking the Democratic incumbent over green energy mandates, congestion pricing and her alignment with high-profile left-wing politicians like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “Make no mistake about it, if Kathy Hochul is reelected, she will expand the radical agenda of billion-dollar tax hikes, defend criminals and cede control of your communities to criminals,” he said. Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez have both endorsed Hochul, and the mayor has appeared alongside the governor for major shared priority announcements like universal child care. 

Absent from the convention was any hint of the turmoil immediately leading up to the event around Blakeman’s pick for lieutenant governor. On Sunday, a day before the convention would kick off, news began to leak that Blakeman had selected Fulton County Sheriff Robert Giardino as his running mate. By Monday morning, Giardino publicly declined the offer, even though he was meant to appear with Blakeman at a rally that afternoon. Hours later, Blakeman officially unveiled Hood – a different upstate sheriff – as his new running mate with nary a mention of Giardino. And he sought to downplay any turmoil when he spoke to reporters on Tuesday. Blakeman and Hood did not take questions after their designation on Wednesday.

Before Giardino declined Blakeman’s offer to join the ticket, right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer pointed out that Giardino had briefly filed to run against President Donald Trump in New Hampshire in 2024 and accused New York Republicans of anti-Trump bias. But the president himself endorsed Blakeman last year, and he heaped praise on him in a pre-recorded video played on Wednesday. “Be sure to get out and vote in November so we can save New York state,” Trump said in the video. “I’ll be working with Bruce very hard. We’ll do a great job … He is a winner.” Trump made no mention of Blakeman’s running mate Hood.

The Hochul campaign quickly issued its own rebuttal to Blakeman’s nomination, singling out Trump’s video endorsement. “Donald Trump said the quiet part out loud: If Blakeman wins in November, Trump will be running the state of New York right alongside him,” spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki said in a statement. And before the official business of the convention’s final day began, Hochul’s own running mate, former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, joined other Democrats to protest the GOP and Blakeman.

With Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado’s decision to drop his longshot primary challenge to Hochul, Blakeman is almost guaranteed to take on the governor in November – though he may first need to defeat libertarian Larry Sharpe, who plans to petition to get on the ballot in the GOP primary.