Hochul, AOC and Mamdani walk into a bar, on the last day of early voting

On the final day of early voting before Election Day, Gov. Kathy Hochul opted for familiar territory: watching the Buffalo Bills game, and hitting diners in deep blue neighborhoods. But there was a brand new twist – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined her on the campaign trail for the very first time this cycle. Meanwhile, Hochul’s Republican opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, spent the day outside the five boroughs in a statewide blitz ending with a rally in the Capital Region.

Ocasio-Cortez took a break from crisscrossing the nation for other Democratic candidates to don some Bills gear and watch the first half of the game alongside Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani at Murphy’s Sports Bar in Astoria. Although the influential progressive politico appeared with the governor last month at an official event on data centers in the Hudson Valley, Sunday marked the first time she has campaigned in person with Hochul this year. 

“I think this is the example of how we must come together to win – period,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters of her campaigning with Hochul despite ideological differences. “The stakes are too high for us to be consumed by the narcissism of small differences.” She contrasted the Sunday campaign stop with the actions of former Michigan Senate candidate Haley Stevens, who endorsed Republican Mike Rogers just hours earlier  over fellow Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, her primary opponent

Ocasio-Cortez’s visit to one of a handful of “Bills Mafia” bars downstate, played into speculation about whether she would run for U.S. Senate in 2028. 

Hochul also appeared alongside Mamdani – who wore no Bills paraphernalia – for a second time this weekend, having attended the Queens Night Market together on Halloween. The pair hit the campaign trail together for the first time this year last weekend to kick off early voting as Hochul attempted to appeal to his young, progressive supporters to boost her numbers in New York City – many of the same people who support Ocasio-Cortez as well. 

The governor’s Sunday also included campaign stops in old reliable territory, including on Manhattan’s Upper East and Upper West sides – both areas she performed among her best in 2022, when she won by just 6 percentage points. Asked what the margin would be this year, while shaking hands with voters at City Diner on the Upper West Side, she said it didn’t matter.

“Plus 1 makes me happy enough. Don’t worry about it,” she said.

But it was all positive Sunday for Hochul, who called the final stretch of campaigning “an adrenaline rush.” She walked to Barney Greengrass in the morning, greeting voters on her way to the famous fishmonger alongside retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler and his handpicked successor, congressional candidate Micah Lasher. And later, after heading to Astoria to watch the Bills with Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez, she campaigned with New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, a moderate Democrat and frequent foil for the mayor.

“I’m campaigning with almost every elected official. They want to be with me. They want to support me,” Hochul said when asked by City & State about the back-to-back events with different wings of the party. “And I’m grateful to have such a broad base of individuals from different perspectives who are joining our coalition to make sure Democrats win big.”

Blakeman, on the other hand, spent the final day of early voting traversing the state, starting the afternoon in Suffolk County, followed by a stop in Oswego County – not too far from where he rallied with President Donald Trump last month. He ended Sunday in rural Rensselaer County, doing what he does best: making personal jabs at the governor.

“Everywhere I go, people are telling me how miserable they are under Kathy Hochul as our governor,” Blakeman told supporters at the Olde Post Road Golf Club, which is co-owned by Republican Assembly Member Scott Bendett. 

Blakeman’s campaign stop in the Capital Region comes as lawmakers Bendett and state Sen. Jake Ashby both face tough reelection bids to seats that are typically red. They stood alongside Blakeman with state attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy and state Sen. Pete Oberacker, who is running against Rep. Josh Riley in the 19th District.

Surrounded by “Fire Hochul” signs, Blakeman touched on the GOP’s biggest gripes with Hochul to rile up the crowd, including the state’s high taxes, Hochul’s decision to fire 2,000 correction officers last year after a wildcat strike and a new law limiting when local police can work with federal immigration agents. 

“I haven’t heard of one atrocity in New York state that ICE has committed, what I have heard is from the families of those who were murdered by illegal migrants,” Blakeman said. He did not mention the incident in the Bronx in which a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot a man  inside a vehicle with his 5-year-old son in the backseat.

Republicans are feeling the pressure to energize independent voters, who have grown more apathetic toward the MAGA movement and the GOP’s promises to lower the cost of living. 

Blakeman, who’s trailing Hochul by double digits per the latest polls, plans to campaign in half the state Monday, with events in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Binghamton, before ending the night at Madison Square Garden to cheer on the Knicks as they take on their crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Nets. Knicks owner James Dolan – a former supporter of Hochul’s – has spent big to boost Blakeman’s candidacy, giving heavily to pro-Blakeman super PACs.

“Maybe I’ll run into Nicki Minaj along the way,” Blakeman joked Sunday when discussing the game, referring to the singer calling Hochul “an evil woman” in a series of tweets last week. Hochul responded  at the time that Minaj should get offline and stop attending Trump rallies – which Blakeman pounced on Sunday. “Can you imagine that? Who wants to pick a fight with Nicki Minaj?” he said during the rally. “I mean, that is just insane on Kathy Hochul’s part.”