{"id":173,"date":"2026-06-08T20:44:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=173"},"modified":"2026-06-08T20:44:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:44:46","slug":"in-case-you-didnt-know-kathy-hochul-really-loves-the-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=173","title":{"rendered":"In case you didn\u2019t know, Kathy Hochul really loves the Bills"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

For any elected official, leaning into something that\u2019s authentic to them is smart politics. So for Gov. Kathy Hochul, resting on the Buffalo Bills came naturally.<\/p>\n

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Born and raised in Hamburg, Hochul first attended a Bills game in 1973 during the team\u2019s first season in the original Rich Stadium when she was a teenager. And growing up in a rowdy, football-loving family with four brothers and six uncles, knowing everything there was to know about the Bills was a must to participate in Sunday dinners, she told The Athletic in September.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s the first governor from Buffalo in over 100 years, making her the biggest Bills fan to ever grace Albany\u2019s Executive Mansion. She consistently injects her love for the team into official state business, and ended this year\u2019s State of the State address donning a Bills baseball cap and swaying to the team\u2019s fight song, or \u201cShout\u201d remix. And it helps that the Bills have soared into popularity as they\u2019ve become regular Super Bowl contenders since drafting quarterback Josh Allen in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Buffalo Bills are a religious calling,\u201d said Buffalo native John Maggiore, a former Cuomo administration official who also worked as then-Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy\u2019s chief of staff. \u201cPolitically, it\u2019s good to be true to your team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor has made her favorite team her identity \u2013 relying on them to make her relatable to New Yorkers when she sometimes struggles to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge W. Bush was famous for this \u2013 he was \u2018the guy you\u2019d like to get a beer with,\u2019\u201d said Jacob Neiheisel, an associate political science professor at the University at Buffalo. \u201cIt says nothing about policy, but there\u2019s a human quality that appeals to some people.\u201d<\/p>\n

And because the state\u2019s political power is heavily concentrated downstate, it has also made sense for Hochul to strategically use her love of the Bills as a nod to her Western New York roots while appealing to other people around the state. The governor is known to visit local Bills bars in New York City and in Albany several times each year, cheering with fans and taking selfies while sporting her favorite Bills letterman jacket and sneakers with the team\u2019s logo. And it\u2019s a strategy she\u2019s sticking to.<\/p>\n

At times, Hochul has leaned into the fandom a bit too hard. When caught off-guard with a pause during a press conference on Nov. 17, or speaking off-the-cuff under pressure from protesters, \u201cGo Bills\u201d is Hochul’s go-to buffer to buy a few seconds of thinking time. She invoked the team when asked about demonstrators who shouted \u201ctax the rich\u201d at her at a rally with Mayor Zohran Mamdani in October \u2013 joking, \u201cI thought they were saying, \u2018Let\u2019s go Bills!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trans New Yorkers largely left wanting after the state budget<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe play brings to mind the \u2018Let\u2019s Go Brandon\u2019 moment, and I don\u2019t think that those are images that people want to conjure up,\u201d Neiheisel said. \u201cI can\u2019t have been the only one to say that\u2019s not where you want to go with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Democratic strategist Trip Yang said it\u2019s a harmless political filler phrase. \u201cThe main thing here is authenticity,\u201d Yang told City and State. \u201cIt\u2019s less about the literal \u2018Go Bills\u2019 or \u2018Go Knicks.\u2019 It doesn\u2019t give you automatically a 5-point bump in the polls. It shows that you\u2019re a sports fanatic and that you can connect with people, and shows voters you are who you say you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s love for the team represents a unifying force at a divided time. And Yang said Hochul\u2019s been smart to lean into it. \u201cThe only way it\u2019s not smart is if you\u2019re fabricating your love for a particular team, and clearly that\u2019s not Kathy Hochul,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s lifelong admiration for the Bills gave her the foundation to be the driving force in cementing the Bills\u2019 legacy in the state for future generations \u2013 securing a controversial heavily state-subsidized new stadium deal in 2022 to keep the team in Western New York another 30 years. In 2013, Hochul was part of the Erie County delegation involved in negotiations that then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo\u2019s administration brokered, resulting in a $130 million lease and renovation deal to keep the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium for another 10 years. Hochul led talks when that deal expired a decade later. The Bills\u2019 new stadium, which broke ground in 2023, is projected to cost over $2 billion, including $850 million from state and Erie County taxpayers; it will host the Bills\u2019 season opener Sept. 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Bills left the state, whoever the governor would be would get the blame,\u201d Maggiore told City & State. \u201cThe fact that they\u2019re staying there is absolutely a plus.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Hochul also faced criticism for the new stadium deal, which many called a \u201cboondoggle\u201d because of the amount of public investment and lack of transparency around the talks. And the governor\u2019s husband, Bill Hochul, was a high-ranking executive with Delaware North, a Buffalo-based concessions company that held the vending contract for the old stadium at the time. Even so, the deal will forever be a fixture of Hochul\u2019s political career \u2013 and Hochul\u2019s proud to let New Yorkers know it.<\/p>\n

Asked for comment on the governor\u2019s Bills fandom, Hochul\u2019s office referred City & State to some of her previous comments \u2013\u00a0including from the topping-off ceremony for the new stadium. Not only does she want everyone to know she\u2019s<\/em> a Bills fan, but she wants everyone<\/em> to be a Bills fan. \u201cWhether I\u2019m at my sports bar in New York City, where I tell you I have converted more fans to this team than anybody in history,\u201d she said at the April 2025 ceremony. \u201cAnd I tell them, and I know I get in trouble for this. It\u2019s the only team that plays in New York, right? The only team that plays no \u2013 Jet and Giants fans, love you. But when your team is not playing the Bills, I know you are a Buffalo Bills convert because I can feel it throughout this state. And all I want to do is unify this state. And we did it around this amazing team and all the amazing people made this happen. I\u2019m so proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more What Mamdani got \u2013 and didn\u2019t get \u2013 from Albany this year<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Her hometown team is a core part of the governor\u2019s political identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state"],"yoast_head":"\nIn case you didn\u2019t know, Kathy Hochul really loves the Bills - Business Relocation Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=173\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In case you didn\u2019t know, Kathy Hochul really loves the Bills - Business Relocation Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Her hometown team is a core part of the governor\u2019s political identity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=173\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Business Relocation Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-08T20:44:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=173#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=173\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3174a35dc160ba2a2c93ee7892afb9e0\"},\"headline\":\"In case you didn\u2019t know, Kathy Hochul really loves the Bills\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-08T20:44:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=173\"},\"wordCount\":1102,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=173#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/147732b1a9948f6541bf7fc69255eb26.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"New York State\"],\"articleSection\":[\"New York State\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=173#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=173\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=173\",\"name\":\"In case you didn\u2019t know, Kathy Hochul really loves the Bills - 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