New York Governor Faces Primary Challenge From Second in Command

New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado released a campaign video stating that New York needs ‘bold, decisive, transformational leadership.’

New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado (L) holds a news conference with Gov. Kathy Hochul in New York on May 25, 2022. Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo

New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado is running to replace his boss, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, setting up a battle between the two in the 2026 Democratic primary.

“What we need right here in New York is bold, decisive, transformational leadership,” he said in a campaign video posted to social media on June 2.

Delgado, 48 years old and a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, has been serving with Hochul since 2022 but said in February that he wouldn’t join her reelection campaign.

At the time, Hochul’s communications director, Anthony Hogrebe, said, “Delgado finally said out loud what has been obvious for quite some time: he is simply not interested in doing the job of the Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York.”

“Governor Hochul had already begun taking steps to identify a new running mate for 2026,” Hogrebe said.

A public rift developed when Delgado called for New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s resignation and for former President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. Hochul, meanwhile, backed Biden’s reelection bid and refused to remove Adams amid allegations of corruption and bribery.

After the Department of Justice ordered dismissal in February of its case involving Adams’s alleged corruption, at one point citing unfairness in proceedings and questionable timing of the charges, Delgado and some Democrats alleged that Adams had engaged in a quid pro quo with the Trump administration, obtaining the dismissal in exchange for cooperation on immigration enforcement. The mayor and the administration denied the claims.

“New York City deserves a Mayor accountable to the people, not beholden to the President,” Delgado said in a post in February. “Mayor Adams should step down.”

President Donald Trump has alleged that Adams was being persecuted by his own party for his criticism of President Joe Biden’s policies on immigration.

Delgado’s campaign video featured a clip of him stating, “there’s a reason why we are at the center of the Trump administration’s attack. We represent everything they want to tear down.”

In the video, Delgado also said that his parents “worked us up into the middle class.” Delgado added that while kids then had a more likely chance of success than their parents, that’s “not so much the case now.”

On his website, his campaign promotes universal health care, universal child care, and pre-kindergarten for all. The current pre-K system in New York, his website says, provides “too few seats, too little funding, and no guarantee of full-day programs.”

His economic platform includes raising the minimum wage and the top corporate tax rate to pay for his other policies. Delgado criticized Hochul’s tax cut as not helping working families.

Hochul took office after serving as lieutenant governor for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 amid allegations of sexual misconduct. She narrowly won the election against former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), who now serves as Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

Recent polling has indicated that Hochul may face an uphill battle for reelection. A Siena College poll found in May that registered voters approved of the job Hochul was doing but 55 percent said they wanted “someone else” as governor.

Meanwhile, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) is considering a run for governor. Trump had picked her to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations but withdrew the nomination amid concerns about the GOP’s slim majority in Congress.

Stefanik said in a June 2 post that Hochul’s “own Lieutenant Governor that she hand picked is now primarying her which shows she has lost support not just from Republicans and Independents, but Democrat New Yorkers as well.”

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.